Week 13 - Networking and Communications

Design and build a wired or wireless network connecting at least two processors.

 

Design the networking circuits

For the last weeks assignmets I designed the input Hello Light and the output Hello Servo introducing a modification in the circuit with four pins bus in order to communicate between the two boards in this Networking assignment.

Trying to communicate Hello Light and Hello Servo redesigned boards with each four pin buses.

 

But as my Photoresistor board worked properly, the Servo did not...Although I modified the design of the circuit an d I repeat the board, the servo does not work either this week.

Milling redesigned Servo board.	Servo board components.	Soldering Servo board.

 

So I buid an identical Hello Bridge board as Neil´s design, and I successfully programmed it.

Milled Hello Bridge board.	Bridge board components.	Soldered Bridge board.

 

So I decided to borrow two Hello Node boards from Nuria´s Fab Lab León in order to program and understand this week assignment. And later I will try to fix my Servo board to complete this assignment correctly.

Networking between one Hello Bridge and two Hello Node boards.

 

I used the Arduino IDE to introduce changes and tried to understand how does the communication work:

// ==================== Incluya las librerías necesarias ====================
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
// Configurar puerto serie.
// PB2 -> pin Tx
// -> Sin pines Rx. Asignado a PB0
#define TxPin 3
#define RxPin 4
SoftwareSerial serie (RxPin, TxPin); // RX, TX

// ======================= Definición de Identificación del nodo ===================== ===
#define NodeID 'a'

// ================== Definición de pines y variables ==================
//#define echoPin 9 // Echo Pin conencted al pin D9 (PB1)
//#define trigPin 10 // Gatillo Pin conectado al pin D10 (PB0)
#define ledPin 0 // LED conectado al pin D7 (PA7)

//#define maximumRange 200 // Alcance máximo necesario
//#define minimumRange 0 // rango mínimo necesario

//int distancia; // Duración utiliza para calcular la distancia

// ================================ Configuración =============== ================
// La rutina de instalación se ejecuta una vez al encender la pizarra:
void setup ()
{
// Configurar puerto serie @ 9600bps
Serial.begin (9600);
// pinMode (trigPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode (ledPin, OUTPUT);
//pinMode (echoPin, INPUT);
pinMode (TxPin, INPUT);
}

// ============================= Bucle principal ================= ============
// La rutina bucle se ejecuta una y otra vez para siempre:
void loop ()
{
Char c = Serial.read ();
digitalWrite (ledPin, LOW);

si (c == NodeID)
{
digitalWrite (ledPin, HIGH);
// distancia = measureDistance ();
pinMode (TxPin, OUTPUT);
Serial.print ("Hola soy el nodo:");
Serial.print (NodeID);
// Serial.print ("Dist:");
//Serial.println (distancia);
pinMode (TxPin, INPUT); // Establecer pin Tx como ipunt. Suelte el canal
}
}

/*
// Funcion a distancia medida con el sensor HC-SR04
// Devuelve la distancia en cm
int measureDistance ()
{
digitalWrite (trigPin, LOW);
delayMicroseconds (2);

digitalWrite (trigPin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds (10);

digitalWrite (trigPin, LOW);

// Calcular la distancia (en cm) sobre la base de la velocidad del sonido.
distancia = pulseIn (echoPin, ALTA) / 58;

/ * Si (distancia> = maximumRange)
distancia = maximumRange;
si (distancia <= minimumRange)
distancia = minimumRange; * /

regresar a distancia;
}

*/

To sum up these were my conclusions:

- if we load to two nodes the same program it will fail: bridge + node 1 + node 1 = error

- we use the RS-232 Serial Data Standards for communication protocol

- we used Arduino IDE to visualize the shipping information and its response.

- on Neil´s Node board we conected input Tx in PB3 / output LED in PB0 and Rx in PB4 (PCINT4)

 

Design the wired networking between a photoresistor and a servo board

I continued looking for fix the problems on my Servo board and I solved it (see week 11: output devices).

As I said for the last weeks assignmets I designed the input Hello Light and the output Hello Servo introducing a modification in the circuit with four pins bus in order to communicate between the two boards in this Networking assignment.

Taking into account that I changed the order of the Tx and Rx pins when I redesigned the Hello Light board I connected them between the two boards.

Networking between one Hello Light and two Hello Servo modified boards.

 

As the boards properly work separately, when I try to communicate between them the problems start.

I will try to fix it because it would be the essence of my final project in order to accionate the déployé dome.

This is the Arduino Example AnalogInOutSerial code I used to communicate them:

/*
Analog input, analog output, serial output

Reads an analog input pin, maps the result to a range from 0 to 255
and uses the result to set the pulsewidth modulation (PWM) of an output pin.
Also prints the results to the serial monitor.

The circuit:
* potentiometer connected to analog pin 0.
Center pin of the potentiometer goes to the analog pin.
side pins of the potentiometer go to +5V and ground
* LED connected from digital pin 9 to ground

created 29 Dec. 2008
modified 9 Apr 2012
by Tom Igoe

This example code is in the public domain.

*/

// These constants won't change. They're used to give names
// to the pins used:
const int analogInPin = A0; // Analog input pin that the potentiometer is attached to
const int analogOutPin = 9; // Analog output pin that the LED is attached to

int sensorValue = 0; // value read from the pot
int outputValue = 0; // value output to the PWM (analog out)

void setup() {
// initialize serial communications at 9600 bps:
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
// read the analog in value:
sensorValue = analogRead(analogInPin);
// map it to the range of the analog out:
outputValue = map(sensorValue, 0, 1023, 0, 255);
// change the analog out value:
analogWrite(analogOutPin, outputValue);

// print the results to the serial monitor:
Serial.print("sensor = " );
Serial.print(sensorValue);
Serial.print("\t output = ");
Serial.println(outputValue);

// wait 2 milliseconds before the next loop
// for the analog-to-digital converter to settle
// after the last reading:
delay(2);
}

 

 

Debugging process to communicate Hello Light and Hello Servo boards

Helped by a computer engineer from my university and ussing an oscilloscopeI I measured the signal emitted by the Hello Light board. And I realized two problems with my Hello Light and Hello Servo boards:

1 On the Hello Light board the pins were changed when I designed it...

So when I tried to connect them between the Tx of the Light and the Rx of the Servo, I were connecting two Rx actually...

This is the real pin connection of my Hello Light board.

 

2 I load the Blink example program with the Arduino IDE and I meassure the pulse emitted by the servo that in theory was supposed to be 1 second but watching the oscilloscope it last 10 seconds...Wich means that there is a problem with the resonator I soldered on the Servo board, it was not a 20MHz resonator as I thought, it was a 1MHz one.

Reading the analog signal from the phototransistor.	An analog signal of the photoresistor on the oscilloscope.
Reading the digital signal from the servo.	An analog signal of the servo on the oscilloscope.

 

So I loaded the Sweep Example program with the Arduino IDE and I read the signal from three diferent boards with diferent resonators in order to check their speeds: my Hello Servo (1MHz), an Arduino Leonardo (16MHz) and my FabKit i/o 0.2 (16MHz).

Reading the signal from my Hello Servo.	Reading the signal from an Arduino Leonardo.	Reading the signal from my FabKit i/o 0.2.

 

The Sweep program properly worked in Leonardo and FabKit but did not in my Servo board. In conclusion the servo component was not able to work with a so lower signal, it needs more than 1 MHz resonator.

This is my successful electronic production: FabISP, Hello World, Hello Light, Hello Servo x2, Hello Bridge and FabKit i/o 0.2.

 

But at least I managed to communicate my Hello Light board with a servo connected on my FabKit board (visit my Final Project assignment).

 

Communication between Light and Servo from Fabricio Santos on Vimeo.