Build a wired or wireless network with at least two nodes.
/Download the Fab Academy board diagrams
/Bridge
/node
/Mill and solder the boards
Details about milling and solder the board you can find here
The bridge that I built at first had some soldering issues and it didn't work so I had to built it again.
The bridge board has a FTDI header for the serial communication with the computer and a 4 pin header to communicate with the nodes
/For each node, I had to to modify the "hello.bus.45.c" code that is provided on the class website.
/Modify the line: #define node_id '0' and save the file.
Each board needs to have a different node id.
/For the bridge board I used as node id the number 0 .I connected the bridge board to the FabISP and typed "sudo make -f hello.bus.45.make program-usbtiny". The LED should flash
/You have to repeat the same thing for the rest of the nodes
NODE 1: #define node_id '1' and save the file. Connect the board to the FabISP and type "sudo make -f hello.bus.45.make program-usbtiny". The LED should flash.
NODE 2: #define node_id '2' and save the file. Connect the board to the FabISP and type "sudo make -f hello.bus.45.make program-usbtiny". The LED should flash.
/Now connect the boards and plug the bridge board to the computer with a FTDI cable. Connect them to Tx and Rx and flash the first node board as node 1.(type in terminal: sudo make -f hello.bus.45.make program-usbtiny). You have to repeat the same thing for the second node board as node 2
/Open the Arduino IDE and go to Tools>Serial Monitor to open the serial monitor. Into the serial port enter the mumber of a node and "send" it. After all the LEDs light up once, the board that corresponds to the number that is entered into the serial port, should light up again.
/tutorial
TIPS:
|Check the connections with the multimeter to make sure that power and ground are not connected and there is not a short cirquit on the power line.
|Each board needs to have a different node id.
|Make sure the baud rate is set to 9600.
Initially, difficutlies were encountered with soldering and programming of the boards. I had to built the bridge board again. Also I couldn't program the boards on my laptop because I am using virtualized ubuntu running on windows. The boards were finally programmed using the mac computer that I borrowed from one of my classmates.
