I have a serial over RF module (3.6-5V operating voltage) that can be set into programming mode by pulling low one of the input pins.
This is the description from the datasheet for PIN 5:
PIN 5: Pull up to high or NC for normal operation mode. Pull low to enter AT Command mode.
I am pretty sure that i just need to connect PIN 5 to ground with a 1K pull down resistor, right?
But could i achieve the same by connecting it to an Arduino i/o pin and doing this:
pinMode(pin, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(pin, LOW);
Based on your description, you can connect the pin to ground. Using the 1K resistor is risky without knowing more. Since you can leave the pin open, it must have an internal pull up resistor, if so, pulling it down with a 1K could create a voltage divider, resulting in an invalid input voltage.
The code you show should set that pin low just fine. If you intend to always use AT command mode, I would tie the signal directly low.
I would like clarification if it wrong to post/answer electronics related question here. For Ardunio related post, I would expect most questions to overlap software/hardware boundaries.
Related
I have an (Adafruit Feather Huzzah) ESP2866 WiFi module which has an (EN) pin to disable the 3v3 output on the chip. This pin is pulled up by default and normally you would just connect it to GND in order to switch off the 3v3 regulator (and disable the peripherals).
What I am trying to achieve is that when the ESP2866 is in "Deep Sleep" mode that the 3v3 output is disabled. Ideally if there was a pin that was pulled down by default when the device is asleep then I could just hook that into (EN) pin but I don't think this exists. However, there are pins that are pulled high by default when the device is fully awake.
What I was considering doing was using a high value resistor to create a weak pull down on this pin by using this to join GND to (EN). Then I would also directly join another pin that is pulled up when the module is on to "cancel out" the pull down. I have a feeling that I might need to end up using a transistor (or a few components) to toggle this low.
Reading the Adafruit forums I have since discovered that pulling the EN pin also switches off the ESP2866 internal circuitry so it will never come back out of deep sleep. On this basis there is no solution to this specific question as there will never be a high pin (without some form of external circuitry).
Thanks to those who bothered to read.
I'm trying to get data from a mercury analyzer (Seefelder-Messtechnik Hg Analyzer 3000) that gives output to a 9-pin R232 serial port to my OSX 10.10 laptop.
I've followed the steps described here to install the PL-2303 driver:
http://pbxbook.com/other/mac-tty.html
The device manual (http://www.seefelder-messtechnik.com/V71-3-02-21e.pdf) lists the communication protocol as "9600 Baud, 8 data bit, 1 stop bit, no log,
no parities".
I attempt to read from the device by using the 'screen' command:
screen /dev/tty.usbserial 9600
The result is a string of seemingly non-sensical characters that print to the screen in a regular interval:
�8b4����b��8b48bs��8G�8b�8���8������8����< 8�8��b��KW��\b����8b����b� �b�b����KW�K �8b��\G�� �<���8�8b�"���[��؉���bG�3�ˁ�G��\K��[W�pb�8��8ʱ�\pa���ʁ�c t��8�h¡�38b�8�q�����\�8���bS�8b8�8�q���X��8��<��£8���2�8�����ؖ�ؖ�ؖ�8bS��\�܉�ؖ����[S�8��s���fq�8�����������8fq����������S�܊��b���b�؉����\���S��K���ݎ����S��b��b��S����S�\������KS��S�؊��\S�1S�\b�S�؉�\�ذ����KS�\����S����bS�؉�����1S�؊��[����ز������؉\���ز��\����i���$\�$���\��8���$��\�\����܂�زXk�B��7��\k�\X�<��8Xkz��Yj��L�������H�\���]j�،k:��Yj�؈��
I've also tried using 'minicom' rather than screen, and get a different ("?]???ܰ??Yk??2"), but also non-sensical result. I saw that there was another SO query similar to mine that remains unsolved: weird characters displayed during serial communication OSX
Any tips? It looks to me that I'm not interpreting the output correctly, but I don't know what to try next.
The solution was to read from the machine at a higher baud rate (~57600), despite what the manual and online reference said. Reading at 57600 baud made the result plain-text and usable. Thanks for your ideas!
I've followed the steps described here to install the PL-2303 driver
I've also had occasional electrical ground problems with Prolific USB-RS232 adapters. Problem would manifest as garbled data that looked similar to a baud rate issue or what you posted.
You can check if it's a ground issue by measuring for continuity between the ground pin (pin #5) on the DE-9 (aka DB-9) side of the Prolific adapter and the ground pin of the USB side (pin #4, "far left", of the A connector). You'll probably measure infinite resistance with a multimeter. Try the same with a FTDI USB-RS232 adapter, and instead I get a dead short between the ground pins as expected.
Be sure to plug the instrument's and PC's power supplies into the same power strip.
As a last resort try grounding the instrument's chassis/case with the PC using copper wire
I'm working on a project with Android and Arduino and am trying to figure out how on the Arduino side to tell if the Bluetooth is connected or not.
I'm using one of these Bluetooth Modules to connect. I know I can send a command through Android, but I'm trying to have an action happen automatically when they connect and not have to run a background application on the Android if possible.
Using the module supplied and nothing else you cannot: notice the module has four connectors:
Power (Vcc)
Ground
Tx (send)
Rx (receive)
Given this interface the only way to determine whether the bluetooth module is paired is to send something to the paired device and have it respond in such as way that your Arduino knows that it is connected. For instance, if your Android program always responds with "Hi there!" when it receives a string "Hello?", then by seingin "Hello?" your Arduino will know that it is paired with your Android phone/tablet. Your Arduino could poll (send the interrogation string) every minute (or every five seconds) to see if it is paired with your device.
There is a better way, but it will require some soldering on your part. If your module is HC-03/HC-05-based, then the PIO9 pin is the "paired indicator LED" (see datasheet here). You could connect that pin to an Arduino input pin and read the level: reading digital 1 will indicate that the device is paired, while reading digital 0 will indicate that it is not. It is possible, though not certain, that the pin on your module labeled STATE is exactly this kind of a pin, i.e. it indicates the paired status. Unfortunately. this pin it isn't connected to the header, so you'll have to solder a wire to the correctponding pad to connect it to your Arduino. You should test it first by connecting a multimeter in voltage mode to that pad and measure the potential between that pad and ground in paired and non-paired state. If this is the pin that responds to the paired state then you are golden. It might be that it indicates power (like the HC-03/05 PIO8 whilc blinks when on). If it turns out that the STATE pin is not the pairing status, then you should request a datasheet from your supplier, and use that to find the status LED connection: one is likely to exist. Once you found the correct pad, verify its function using the voltmeter again. Then solder a wire to that connection and read it from your Arduino.
IMPORTANT: Make sure that your Arduino never puts out a digital 1 on the Arduino pin connected to the bluetooth module status pin: these bluetooth modules run on 3.3V, and connecting any unprotected pins to 5V will be damaging. The Vcc and Txd pins are voltage shifted in the module you bought, but the LED/Status lines are likely not to be. So if the Arduino pin connected to "status" on your Bluetooth module is configured as output and you digitalWrite(HIGH) to it, you will likely damage the Bluetooth module.
Unfortuntaely, the HC-05 will switch states when paired, but won't output a 1 until it's actually connected to something.
For instance, I can unpair my phone from the HC-05, pair again, and then the LED will change state, but the output of the STATE pin is still 0. If I open up an app, and connect to the device manually then the LED, and STATE pin will change state. The LED will periodically blink twice, and the STATE pin outputs a 1 to the Arduino.
If you would like to read the the value of the STATE pin, connect a wire to any of the inputs to the arduino, and code Serial.println(digitalRead(inputPin)); inputPin being the wire to the input of the Arduino.
I've been fighting this thing for months, and have yet to find a way to make this thing automatically connect to my phone. It won't even allow for me to connect to it from my phone to the HC-05 unless I download an app onto my Android. It's possible to bind the HC-05 to a certain address, but even this did not work for me. I want to mess with the "AT+CLASS" command, but the documentation behind the instruction has hindered me thus far.
From the HC-05 datasheet we see that the connection status depends on the output from PI09. Apparently sending "AT+BIND?" to the module will return the status of PI08 & PI09 in the form,
"+ POLAR=PI08,PI09" however this makes no sense to me because in order to get this you must enter AT mode and entering AT mode will disrupt the paired connection, hence it will always send PI09 marked as "not connected".
THUS in order to see if the connection is still live from the arduinos POV I can only see 2 feasible ways:
Program arduino to, every so often, send a "hello?" and if it doesn't receive the expected "Hi back" response, then it is to assume that it isn't connected.
Connect PI09 to an arduino input pin and read it's value whenever you want to check if the connection is live or not
AT+STATE? will return the current state of the connection. Yes you will need to enter at mode, that is done by bringing up pin 11 HIGH on the HC05 module. It does require soldering but it's kinda worth it. It then allows full AT control of the device, then set it LOW to return it to normal working mode.
Another option, which I don't fully understand, is the AT+MPIO? command, which returns the state of all the pins in some strange masked format I don't understand yet.
I use the first option above so that I can terminal (Bluetooth) from my phone to the HC05 and switch on a led/relay etc (ie bring up pin 2 to HIGH) on the HC05. This required entering AT mode (pin 11 HIGH), sending the command AT+PIO=2,1 and then setting pin 11 to LOW to return to normal working mode.
Note: I noticed I had to put a 200ms delay in between high and AT and LOW commands. Angela's solution is nice - I use a cheap XBEE Bluetooth module (HC-05 Bluetooth Bee Master & Slave Module with Bluetooth XBee for Arduino uk2015) 2 units(HC05/6) for 5Stg which are laid out in XBEE format - handy for the 3.3v.
I'm using a Virtex 5 FPGA and want to have a few +5/0 I/O pins to communicate with a microcontroller. The only peripherials I've used on the board so far are pushbuttons and switches and no one I've asked seems to know the simplest way to do this I/O. I've looked around the board specification but haven't found any simple way of doing it. I would appreciate any advice you might have.
This is not an easy thing to do. If you don't have the schematic of the board, then you need to get volt meter with some fine pitch probes and reverse engineer the board.
It is pretty easy if you have 2 boards, with one board it can be really hard since the BGA signals may not be connected to a via and therefore not available on the bottom of the board, and even if they are, then you don't know exactly which pin they are connected to. But with some luck, you can find them since the VIA can only be connected to 4 possible pins surrounding it!
The first thing you need to do is to identify your chip, find the BGA print of the IC from Xilin'x web site.
If your board has some buttons already, then if you are lucky, those signals may be routed to the pins of the FPGA that are available on the bottom of your board. Here are the things you need to do:
Make sure you have good ESD protection to perform these test
Put your voltmeter into 'buzzer' mode
Check the pins of your connector and find out how it is connected, see if there is a pull-up and/or pull-down resistors on the board
when you find the 'active' pin of your connector, start connecting the other probe to the VIAs one by one
When you hear a buzz, make a note of the position (guess or measure the distance between the side of t he IC and the location of the via)
Identify the 4 possible pins that the signal can be connected to
Write a code to get all those 4 signals and connect them to ChipScope
In Chip Scope, capture all 4 signals and see which one is the one with the right connection!
alternative, you can create a design with inputs only, capture all the inputs and put them into a memory block and create a trigger logic to capture all the signals whenever any of the inputs changes, after lots of work and analysis, you will find the correct pins.
Anyway, these are just crazy ideas since this is a really difficult thing to do without having the PCB info of the board.
Good luck with your hacking.
Hello there I am a newbie trying to prove the working of RS 232 Full modem and also one RS 422( RX,TX,RTS,CTS)
These 2 ports are on a custom designed board and I need to prove they are working.
I am able to confirm the working at register level but I need to prove the working using softwares like Minicom or any other custom program.
How can I prove the working of these ports from one PC to a different PC using DB 9 connections and LOOP BACK too
Can someone help me with this? Do I need to use any extra hardware to prove the working of this in Linux?
The most common type of serial port test is probably a loopback test. Create a test fixture that connects output pins of the port to the input pins (TX->RX, RTS->CTS, etc). If you do not have matching input pins for every output pin, you will need to do a three-way connection.
After you create the loopback, you will need to write software that exercises the pins. If TX and RX are connected, you can send a byte and verify that it was echoed back. For the control pins, toggle them and make sure the other side of the connection saw the transition. Make sure you exercise every pin of the serial port.
Note that you should run a TX->RX data loopback at multiple baud rates. It is possible for there to be a signal integrity issue in the design that only shows up at higher bauds rates. It is also possible for there to be a bad signal connection on the board that is masked by inductance and capacitance at higher baud rates. Therefore, it is a good idea to run a data loopback at the slowest baud rate, the fastest baud rate, and 1-2 in the middle.
Another thing you should do is a baud rate accuracy test. This will prove the clock driving the UART is running at the right frequency, and being divided properly. Transmit X amount of bytes at a certain baud rate and verify they arrived in the expected amount of time. To get an accurate number, you will need to bypass any buffering in the OS serial port driver (e.g. use direct register I/O), and make sure to accommodate for any start/stop bit overhead (see comments below).
However, a loopback test is not exhaustive. It only proves the device can talk to itself. The device may still have some flaw (e.g. voltage levels) that cannot be detected locally. So, you should also run some tests with external hardware. Cable your board to another system and run a test (e.g. with minicom). Make sure they can talk to each other.
Even an external communication test can miss something. You can still have poor signal quality from your board, but it happens to be good enough for the other device. To accurately verify the signal quality/timing, you need an oscilloscope.
While you are running communication tests, connect the scope probes to the various signals and verify the signal integrity. Make sure that voltage levels are valid, that you see clean low/high bit transitions, and that the timing of the data pin appears correct for the specified baud rate. (A scope can be a more accurate way to measure baud rate than the software-based method described earlier.)