This assigment is one of the more difficult ones and even more for me because I experienced already a lot of trouble on the electronic assigments.

 

So my choice for this moment will be that I want to use Neil's existing designs for serial connection, c-code and make file(s) and hope to get this working.

 

Links to hello.45.bridge and hello.45.node boards.

 

To be able to make one bridge board and two node boards, I made use of the downloadle .png file (traces and interior)

 

1. hello.45.bridge.traces

2. hello.45.bridge.interior

3. hello.45.node.traces

4. hello.45.node.interior

 

First step is to produce the three boards, starting with the bridge board

 

For this we  will make use ot the Roland Modela and Fab modules software

 

This is already the third that I made use of this so it already felt familiar.

 

To recall the right procedure I wrote it down for myself:

 

Preparation in Fab Modules

Open terminal in Ubuntu

command fab <enter>

This will open up fab modules

 

select image png

select Roland Modela rml

click make png rml button

 

click button load.png

select width millbit: milltraces 1/64 inch

 

Prepation on the Modela

Screw 1/64 inch bit in the spindle (not tight)

Take the Modela out of view mode: button view

Now machine is in run mode to accept commands

 

On Fab modules:

change values for x en y to a proper position, this will move the spindle

 

On Modela

Loosen the spindle, allow bit to rest on the pcb

Tighten set screw (now z-axis is set)

 

On Fab modules

Check all values

 

make,path (this makes the toolpath)

make .rml (this file will be send to the modela)

 

 

Place cover

 

Begin milling

 

After milling, click on view button,remove dust

 

Cut the outline of the pcb

 

Turn off modela, replace 1/64 inch with 1/32 milling bit

 

Turn machine back on

 

Take it out of view mode (view button)

 

close window, run fab modules again: fab

Same procedure, now load png cutout traces

select 1/32 inch milling bit

 

On modela:

set same settings for x and y offset

move spindle to the right position

Move z axis around 2 mm above pcb

loosen screw, allow bit to rest on pcb

Tighten screw

move spindle to x en y position

 

click make path button

click make .rml button

 

Place cover, begin milling

 

After milling. remove dust

Cutout outlines of the pcb, both sides

file rough edges, clean surface, use steel rule, rub it across the traces

wash pcb with water and soap

 

After making some wiring to connect the bridge and two node board this was the result:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flashing the bridge board

 

After checking that all connections on the three boards were ok, I connected my bridgeboard to my fabisp

via the programming header.

The FDTI cable I connected to my laptop and my bridgeboard

 

Following this tutorial I didn't have to change the node numbering because that was already set right to zero (of course I checked if this was the case)

 

On my Ubuntu laptop I got errors flashing, didn't understand why and than moved to my Windows 7 laptop to see if that would work.

 

Opening my cmd screen I typed: make -f hello.bus.45.make program-usbtiny

 

I was very pleasanlty surprised that this worked right away and I was able to flash the bridgeboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After flashing the led on the bridge board lit up, I guess that everything is working now.

 

 

Flashing node board 1

 

After a succesful bridge board flash I replaced the bridge board for the first node board

 

In the c code I changed #define node_id '0' to node_id '1' as said in the instructions manual and saved the file.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After entering the command make -f hello.bus.45.make program-usbtiny this was succesful too and the red led on the node board lit up too.

 

Flashing node board 2

 

Now following the same procedure I got an error, so I gues I have to check the soldering on my board again.

 

 

 

Connecting a bridgeboard and one node board to my laptop (via the fdti cable)

 

Because up till now I got one flashed bridgeboard and one one flashed node board I could already try to make something work.

 

I connecting bridgeboard, nodeboard to each other and the bridgeboard via the ftdi cable to my laptop

 

I opened up the Arduino IDE and opened serial monitor from the tools menu

 

I chose com5 for communication, than I selected from the tools menu: serial monitor.

 

This opened up a new screen and I type node 0

 

leds on both boards should flash: they did!

 

On the sreen I got a response from node 0!

 

Now I entered node 1, both boards leds flashed again as expected

 

And the node boards returned an answer with: node 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, now everything seems to be working fine in serial communications, much to my relief..:-)

 

I will repair my second node board and I expect this to be working fine too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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