No data is being transmitted from the Tekla shield to the phone (Droid 2)

Mike, everything seems to be working the way it is supposed to, except for the fact that you mention the BlueSmirf blinks (probably in red?), instead of being solid green (which indicates a stable connection). Could you confirm that you are not experiencing the reconnect bug? See details here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/meadl/+bug/696562 If you are, Alan posted a workaround that may work for you here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/meadl/+bug/696562/comments/6

In terms of your measurements:
~ 5V on 5V pin is ok
~ The Tash CA 5 seems to be behaving correctly since D10 is doing what it is supposed to.
~ I am not sure about the level on Tx but you should be able to scope the outgoing character on Rx (on the bluesmirf module) or Tx (on the Arduino board). You can also check whether the character is being sent from the serial monitor on the Arduino IDE; although the character might not be printable, in which case you may just see the caret moving or printing something odd. I don't recall if there is a HEX or binary mode for the monitor but that would show you the values for sure. Table 2 here: http://wiki.scyp.atrc.utoronto.ca/w/Tekla_Shield has the values you should see being passed around.

Hope this helps!

Hi Jorge,

Thank you very much for the quick response.

I think I am having the reconnect bug, and will try Alan's workaround
tomorrow.

I wasn't too clear in my original post, and the pin I was scoping was the Tx
pin from the Arduino, which was giving me a steady 2V. I expected it to
either be high or low, and give a hex value when I gave it input from the
Tash. I'm wondering if these two problems could be related.

I was hoping to isolate the problem, could I connect the Tx pin from the
Arduino to the Rx pin of a UART/USB module (DLP-USB232M-G) and output the
hex characters to a program like PuTTY? If so, what is the baud rate of the
atmega?

I'm also looking at the testing instructions on the Tekla Shield wiki. I
can also run through, if I can output characters to the computer, the
problem might be the bluetooth connection between Shield and phone
application.

Thanks again, I hope I can get this working.

Mike

On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 9:33 PM, Jorge Silva <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #145677 on Tekla changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Jorge Silva proposed the following answer:
> Mike, everything seems to be working the way it is supposed to, except
> for the fact that you mention the BlueSmirf blinks (probably in red?),
> instead of being solid green (which indicates a stable connection).
> Could you confirm that you are not experiencing the reconnect bug? See
> details here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/meadl/+bug/696562 If you are,
> Alan posted a workaround that may work for you here:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/meadl/+bug/696562/comments/6
>
> In terms of your measurements:
> ~ 5V on 5V pin is ok
> ~ The Tash CA 5 seems to be behaving correctly since D10 is doing what it
> is supposed to.
> ~ I am not sure about the level on Tx but you should be able to scope the
> outgoing character on Rx (on the bluesmirf module) or Tx (on the Arduino
> board). You can also check whether the character is being sent from the
> serial monitor on the Arduino IDE; although the character might not be
> printable, in which case you may just see the caret moving or printing
> something odd. I don't recall if there is a HEX or binary mode for the
> monitor but that would show you the values for sure. Table 2 here:
> http://wiki.scyp.atrc.utoronto.ca/w/Tekla_Shield has the values you should
> see being passed around.
>
> Hope this helps!
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>
>

--

Michael Choi

I scoped the Tx pin from Arduino and it gives a steady 5V. I can also see an echo byte going out every couple seconds (the App has a routine to monitor connection with the Shield). I don't think the odd voltage is related to the reconnect issue but I would have to make more tests to make sure.

I think you should be able to monitor what is going on with the UART/USB module, but you should even be able to connect the Arduino directly to PuTTY since the USB port is supposed to mirror the serial port. The baud rate is set at 115200

I am starting to suspect that maybe you have not loaded the TeklaServer sketch to the Arduino board... have you? It is available here: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~jorge-silva/meadl/shield-trunk/files/head:/sketch/

Hello,

Scoping the Tx pin from the Arduino gives a steady 5V, when I place the
Shield on top of it, and scope the Tx pin from the Arduino to the Rx pin of
the Shield, I get 2 V. I also see no bytes in either configuration.

I tried to monitor the Arduino board in PuTTY at 115200, and got no input,
just the cursor in the top corner.

I tried to re-load the TeklaServer sketch and got the error:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

I had the "Arduino Deumilanove or Nano w/ ATmega328 selected as the board.

And the correct serial port connected.

So now I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the Atmega. I also
tried to upload the .hex file to the microcontroller directly through
AVRStudio, but again got errors uploading to the microcontroller.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks,

Mike

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 12:46 PM, Jorge Silva <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #145677 on Tekla changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Jorge Silva proposed the following answer:
> I scoped the Tx pin from Arduino and it gives a steady 5V. I can also
> see an echo byte going out every couple seconds (the App has a routine
> to monitor connection with the Shield). I don't think the odd voltage is
> related to the reconnect issue but I would have to make more tests to
> make sure.
>
> I think you should be able to monitor what is going on with the UART/USB
> module, but you should even be able to connect the Arduino directly to
> PuTTY since the USB port is supposed to mirror the serial port. The baud
> rate is set at 115200
>
> I am starting to suspect that maybe you have not loaded the TeklaServer
> sketch to the Arduino board... have you? It is available here:
> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~jorge-silva/meadl/shield-
> trunk/files/head:/sketch/
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677/+confirm?answer_id=2
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>
>

--

Michael Choi

You should get 5V on Arduino(Tx) regardless of whether the Shield is on top or not. I see two other possible explanations for your issue:
1. The Shield has a bad connection somewhere causing a short or impedance change that pulls the voltage down, or
2. The Atmel chip is not configuring the pin as an output, causing an impedance change that pulls the voltage down when the Shield is connected

I think (2) is more likely and i still think it may be caused by the sketch not being properly loaded. Are you working with a board from Komodo OpenLab or did you make your own? If you made your own, it is possible you may have checked out an unfinished version since we haven't made any official releases yet.

Something you do need to know is that you cannot program the Arduino while the Shield is on, so you either have to switch the modem off or remove the Shield completely from the Arduino. Maybe this is the cause?

BTW, I monitored the serial port from the Arduino IDE and, although it wasn't pretty, I could see the data flying by when switches were pressed (I had to switch the Bluetooth modem off though). Also, I try not to mess with the .hex files directly, I always assumed the Arduino boards run some firmware that you risk erasing if you program from AVRStudio (not sure though)

Hope it helps

Hi Jorge,

It seems like the problem was the microcontroller. I reprogrammed another
microcontroller and even though it still connects and disconnects the
bluetooth it seems to work.

I was wondering how the tekla system communicates a "select" command. I
understand that to send left, right, up and down you send different hex
characters to the phone, but I was wondering about "select", I couldn't find
anything in the code that does that functionality.

Thanks,

Michael

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 10:55 AM, Jorge Silva <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #145677 on Tekla changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Jorge Silva proposed the following answer:
> You should get 5V on Arduino(Tx) regardless of whether the Shield is on top
> or not. I see two other possible explanations for your issue:
> 1. The Shield has a bad connection somewhere causing a short or impedance
> change that pulls the voltage down, or
> 2. The Atmel chip is not configuring the pin as an output, causing an
> impedance change that pulls the voltage down when the Shield is connected
>
> I think (2) is more likely and i still think it may be caused by the
> sketch not being properly loaded. Are you working with a board from
> Komodo OpenLab or did you make your own? If you made your own, it is
> possible you may have checked out an unfinished version since we haven't
> made any official releases yet.
>
> Something you do need to know is that you cannot program the Arduino
> while the Shield is on, so you either have to switch the modem off or
> remove the Shield completely from the Arduino. Maybe this is the cause?
>
> BTW, I monitored the serial port from the Arduino IDE and, although it
> wasn't pretty, I could see the data flying by when switches were pressed
> (I had to switch the Bluetooth modem off though). Also, I try not to
> mess with the .hex files directly, I always assumed the Arduino boards
> run some firmware that you risk erasing if you program from AVRStudio
> (not sure though)
>
> Hope it helps
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677/+confirm?answer_id=4
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/meadl/+question/145677
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>
>

--

Michael Choi

that is good to hear you figured out part of the problem. If that is the case, you should be able to get the board working properly by loading the right sketch onto it. I have uploaded a version of the sketch that should make the DE9 connector on your board work. It is available from the following URL: https://bugs.launchpad.net/meadl/+bug/696562/comments/10

In terms of the reconnect issue, once you update the sketch, you should also be in a position to try Alan's work-around: https://bugs.launchpad.net/meadl/+bug/696562/comments/6

As you correctly point out, the hex characters sent for up/down/left/right events are arbitrary, so in fact, they don't actually have that particular meaning once they get into the phone. Instead, the characters are used to navigate the on-screen keyboard. So roughly, up means accept/select, down means cancel, and right/left can be used to focus on the next/previous item. You can see it more clearly on one of the design sketches available here:
http://wiki.scyp.idrc.ocad.ca/w/File:Menu.png

cheers!