DC Voltmeter Test Gadget UPDATE 7/14/2018

Now that I have the basic display and menu routines working on the ESP32 Test Gadget main frame, it is time to build an actual 'Test Gadget'.  The  cwtd.org version started with a simple DC voltmeter, so that sounds like a good place for me to start.  I could use a simple Analog input pin on the ESP32 to use for the voltmeter, but I wanted more than one channel and also a higher input impedance .  This would require a input buffer amplifier on each channel along with some switching to provide several full scale ranges. 
I have several ADS1115 16 bit four channel ADC modules that I got to use to add additional analog inputs to a uBITX.  They are a very small module that uses I2C to communicate with the processor. This module is also available in a 12 bit version called the ADS1015, and there is a library from Adafruit.  They have the capability of being used as four single ended or two differential channels,and also have a programmable gain amplifier that can be used to set the input range.  Although they are listed as 16 bit input, one of the bits is used to indicate the sign if used in the differential mode.  Therefor the actual resolution is actually 15 bit.   
The programmable  amplifier has ranges that give +- .25 to +-6.25 volt full scale.  The multiplexer has built in protection diodes from each input to VCC, which limits the maximum signal to about .3 volt over  the VCC voltage.  Powering the module from 3.3 volts, this means I will need to use a voltage divider to raise the maximum voltage that can be measured.  Unlike the 10 K ohm input on the ESP32 or a Nano analog pins, the ADS1115 has an input impedance of several Meg ohms.  This means I can use a voltage divider that will give me an impedance in the Meg ohm range.   I have some 100K and 1 Meg. 1% resistors, so I will use them to give a 1.1 Meg. input divide by 11 voltage divider.  If I just wanted a digital readout, the resolution is good enough for better than 1mV. , but since I also wanted simulated analog meters I will use the programmable amplifier to get several ranges. With this divider and the programmable amplifier I can get full scale ranges of  a little over 5.5 , 11, and 22 volt ranges, with a maximum safe input voltage around 33 volts.

The first thing I did was to connect the module  to one set of the 'Test Gadget' connectors using a wireless breadboard.  I loaded a version of the Arduino 'I2C Scanner' and checked to see that the module was found and its base address.  After I verified that the I2C communications was working, I loaded one of the example programs that came with the Adafruit ADS1015 library. This just read each channel and output its value to the serial monitor.  The only issue I found so far was that there was a little DC off set from zero with the voltage divider, but it is only about 1 mV.  I will do a little more testing to see how consistant it is, but I can probably just add an offset in the software to correct for that.  If I can just do a simple fixed value, or have to add a 'Zero' option to the manu is still to be determained.

I already had the analog meter code written, so the next thing I started working on was a menu to allow me to change display type, number of channels,and range.  The use of a Joystick makes selecting and changing settings very easy.  A vertical  movement selects a different menu item, while a horizontal movement makes changes to the selected menu item.  Here is part of the menu code to show what I mean.

   if (jstickV ) {    // vertical movement selects menu item
        mnuDCVMSel += jstickV ;
        if ( mnuDCVMSel < 0)  mnuDCVMSel = 0;
        if (mnuDCVMSel >= mnuDCVMNum )  mnuDCVMSel = mnuDCVMNum;
        showDCVMMenuItems();
      }
     
   // horizontal movement makes changes to selected menu item    if (jstickH ) {
      // for values that toggle simple if statements are used   
      // change between analog and digital display of voltage
         if (mnuDCVMSel == 0) {  // select analog or digital 
          if (mnuDCVMItems[0] == " Analog     ")
            mnuDCVMItems[0] = " Digital    ";
          else mnuDCVMItems[0] = " Analog     ";
         showDCVMMenuItems();
         jstick = false;
        }
        // for multiple options I use a switch(value)- case to
        // make the selection
        if (mnuDCVMSel == 1) { // select number channels to read
          numChan += jstickH;
          if ( numChan > 4) numChan = 4;  // set limits on value
          if ( numChan < 1) numChan = 1;
          switch (numChan) {   // update menu item display
            case 1:
              mnuDCVMItems[1] = " Chan. = 1  ";
              break;
            case 2:
              mnuDCVMItems[1] = " Chan. = 2  ";
              break;
            case 3:
              mnuDCVMItems[1] = " Chan. = 3  ";
              break;
            case 4:
              mnuDCVMItems[1] = " Chan. = 4  ";
              break;
          }
          showDCVMMenuItems();
          jstick = false;
        }

 Similar code is used to select and modify any additional menu options.

In operation a 'ShortPress' on the Joystick switch brings up the menu, and after selections are completed another 'ShortPress' exits the menu and redraws the screen.  This looks similar  to a 'pop up' menu on a Windows or Linux system with out much of the overhead associated with a full menu system.   

After doing some playing around, I have decided I will not use the programmable gain amplifier for range selection.  A fixed gain will give me more resolution than I need for a 1 mV. display resolution. I will instead work on creating a auto range system for the 'Analog' style meter.  Hope to update soon.
UPDATE 7/14/2018

I wired up the small adc module on a 4x6 cm proto boar and made a quick 4 channel cable with test clips for normal use.  Everything works as expected, except for a little |DC offset from ground.  Since it was consistent across all channels, I decided to just take care of it in software.  If it would have been  significantly different for each channel I would have added a DC zero function to the pop-up menu.  I decided to have a digital display of the voltage along with the simulated analog meter.  Because of this I kept the manual scaling I had originally tried, maybe some  day I will write something to do auto scaling for each individual channel.

The picture shows the completed DCVM test gadget in 4 channel mode measuring the 3 voltages present on the headers used to connect the individual test gadgets.  I was running this off of the PC without the 12 volts connected for external power, so I kept the range down to 5 volts.