Jee Labs Talk

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1. lordmundi
   

   so, we are trying to hook up the polar HRMI circuit from sparkfun using I2C and having lots of issues... I'll post those in another thread, but this lead to asking if we could use the serial interface on the HRMI interface board rather than I2C. I hesitate to do this since it would take up the serial interface we normally use to hook to the PC for debugging.

   But then I noticed this "Power Serial I2C" port... can we use this? Will it work as another serial port for the Jeenode? If so, anyone have some example code showing how to use it as a serial port or an I2C port?

   Thanks!

   FG

   Posted 24/07/2010 21:58:35

2. stef007
   

   Yes I used the connector/port. Although that's not entirely true;-) I only used one of the select lines SEL0/PB0 because I needed an extra DIO. All the others, even the sda/scl on the I2C connector, were all in use.

   Perhaps this article can give you some more info:

   Posted 25/07/2010 11:55:38

3. lordmundi
   

   are we sure we are talking about the same port? I noticed there is a port near the radio labeled "SPI/ISP", and then there is one near the top labeled "PSI" that JC talks about here:

   http://news.jeelabs.org/2009/10/25/

   that is the port i'm talking about.. this Power Serial I2C header... just wondering what this header can be used for and see if anyone has any examples for Serial comm on it or I2C.

   FG

   Posted 25/07/2010 15:12:25

4. stef007
   

   Ah ok my mistake, I was talking about the SPI/ISP

   As of a serial comms example using TX/RX on PSI: everytime you use Serial.println() for debug out. But instead of using it for debug out you use it to communicate whatever you want to another serial device. Ofcourse you cannot use both features at the same time.

   Posted 25/07/2010 15:24:07

5. lordmundi
   

   ahh, i see, so basically the serial pins are the same exact ones that are used to hook up to the USB BUB, except that you can hookup your LCD to the PSI (for example) so that you don't have to connect to your BUB pins?

   I understand that it isn't a seperate serial port, but could you have a serial LCD hooked up to the PSI breakout and when hooked to the computer, see printouts from the Serial.println() on both the LCD and debug terminal?

   thanks!

   FG

   Posted 25/07/2010 17:54:27

6. stef007
   

   Yes you can clearly see this on the schematic of the jeenode v4. I'm assuming you mean the FTDI pins/connector when you talk about the BUB pins;-)

   On your second question: I assume your serial LCD would then just accept strings and display them (unlike the LCD from the jeelabs shop which works the HD44780 way)? If the baud rates and stop and start bits match I think that might work. Better to try it out.

   Posted 25/07/2010 19:12:09

7. lordmundi
   

   hmm... well, i have this one:

   http://www.moderndevice.com/products/16x2lcd-lcd117kit

   i've only hooked it up to verify I can print to it using Serial.print commands, but I think the LCD i'm using is, in fact, using a HD44780... so, not sure which way you're talking about. To print out before we using the FTDI pins after we unplugged it from the computer. I was hoping this port might let me keep both hooked up.

   FG

   Posted 26/07/2010 01:47:00

8. stef007
   

   Well that seems ok: your LCD uses HD44780 but the controller board attached to it accepts serial RX and converts it to the appropriate HD44780 signals. It also recognizes a lot of specific ascii sequences/commands to do special things.

   Posted 26/07/2010 06:20:13

9. tankslappa
   

   I have one of the moderndevice 16x4 panels, with the moderndevice serial controller, I have used it on a Jeenode without issue, but to be honest I preferred to use the I2C controller module JC sells. It controlled the 16x4 panel without issue.

   Posted 26/07/2010 14:15:15