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Posted
27 minutes ago, Toastie said:

I am just too busy right now with work stuff - it is the second round of exams (you take when the first try, well, somehow "failed". Or you want to improve. Generally, people becoming increasingly nervous :pir-hmpf: as they have only three tries ... which I hate, exams are good for almost nothing, but that is my very personal view.

Best wishes,
Thorsten  

I failed all my exams except for science.
I resat my English and passed it 10 years after leaving school.

Posted
23 hours ago, Gunners TekZone said:

I also replaced ALL the ribbon cable (the remaining wires were just power and GND) to make it even more flexible to assemble.

Cabling done. Serial null modem communication still one way only from computer to device.

TTL still doesn't work.

No more 9vLED flickering while moving the board.

Posted
2 minutes ago, AJB2K3 said:

I failed all my exams except for science.

Well, if you were still enrolled, had visited my office, there were good chances I'd offered you a student job.

Spoiler

Then let you do some research, then pulled your hair to get the rest of the stuff assembled to pass the required exams, and then let you go nuts in the lab. I have never seen any transcript or scoresheet or GPA sheet or whatever "The System" produces, when students inquired about chances to joining my group: We made an appointment and talked to each other. As long as it takes. In the end, I had to decide of course, but this was not a "No" or "Yes", it was the result of a respectful and at eye level conversation. It always worked, for more than 30 years now. Oh, and it still works. Crazy, isn't it: Talking at eye level, having AI or stiff score levels (with 50% you pass ^^), still vastly outperforms any other means for assessing whether joining a research group makes some sense for all involved.  

All the best
Thorsten

4 minutes ago, Wapata said:

TTL still doesn't work.

Dam-ned.

OK, I broke out my notebooks, the type with pages, I scribbled on.

So what I did (apparently 2025-2-18, and man, I should improve my writing) is:

Took a Ser2TTL adapter (w/o USB power supply port), wired the four lines VCC, RxD, TxD, and GND to an HC-05 BT2TTL adapter (1:1 = null modem). The RxD line, as the HC-05 is 3.3V, the Ser2TTL is 5V, using a 1kOhm resistor for safety reasons. 

Then used a 78L05 regulator to tap into the regulated 9V rail of the Interface B and provided the HC-05/Ser2TTL adapter with 5V. GND of the 9V Interface B supply = GND of the adapters.

Best wishes
Thorsten

 

 

Posted (edited)

Thank you for taking a look.

For what is see from dangerous testing here is that the grounding is an issue : if i swap my Rx/Tx wires WITHOUT ground, both Rx/Tx led activate on the arduino. If I put arduino ground to big ground of Interface-B then I can have the red light go off now. If i take back ground to SUB9 ground it doesn't work at all anymore. So the IS something about groundS.

... and it seem it's not wire lenght

55152580262_988b07ee7b_c.jpg

EDIT

By the power of NO fun !

If I disconnect the usb cable and put it back I can make everything work first try with the big Ground and if i do the same with sub9 ground it doesn't work

Hurray ?

EDIT

So it's not cable length. So i cannot use my plan to use the DB9 connector without compromissions now.

Edited by Wapata
Posted

It's a strap :alien:

55153522761_9e937890d3_c.jpg

So it work with grounds merged (i hope it's okay) ONCE with LEGOInterfaceB. I can click on the Stop button on the device and resume, but i can't click on the Stop button on the computer and resume. We will see what it does with a real TTL-USB thing.

Thanks for your support ! :grin_wub:

Posted
4 hours ago, Wapata said:

I'm taking out the ribbon cable right now. I've seen the green 9v led flickering. I don't need doubt so the big replacement is coming.

That would be my recommendation as well... I had noted poor signal via those wires in my tests, even though they looked fine.  Even the cheap dupont wires are better than those oldy moldy ribbon cables.

Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Wapata said:

So it work with grounds merged (i hope it's okay)

BTW, I can't recall if I did it on purpose, but I tapped the Serial GND from somewhere in the upper left corner of the board... See my picture showing that location, in a prior post.

Also... It appears you still have the original serial circuit connected?  I believe I cut mine out or the loop completely, to avoid and possible feedback/crosstalk/insert tecnobable here.

Edited by Gunners TekZone
Posted

The upper GND as pictured before is the big Ground. I've noted too that someone put a component to make 5v but i thing there is already 5v on the board... in this upper left corner. I have to take a second look to put the Interface-B on Bluetooth :imperialguard_commander1: One day... After playing with the device...

I still have the SUB9 serial port yes. I case i found my mini oscilloscope and can rework on the "where does the signal get lost" part. But I can't "see" if the signal is clean or not. More important : I will use the SUB9 port to "clamp" the final TTL-USB device.

Posted

I've found back my oscilloscope ! Look at "dso shell" on google image.

It was on the "measurement tools drawer"... how am i supposed to find it here... :wall:

So for serial communication, if you tell me what to look for, i can trace where the signal get lost (if it is fun for you too ! in the end i already have a working device).

Posted (edited)
34 minutes ago, Wapata said:

So for serial communication, if you tell me what to look for, i can trace where the signal get lost

The Interface will automatically start listening for the "###Do you byte..." transmission, and if that connection is successful it spits out the "Just a bit..." and a stream of port data.  However this will stop after about two seconds if it doesn't get back a regular "keep awake" signal.  Thus I used a TTL-USB and terminal program, set on repeat, to send out the "###Do you byte..." and then started probing to see if this date got to the CPU, and if it did, start probing to see how far did the response make it out.

Now, if your scope can translate Serial signal to text, as some have the option to do, then you can easily see if the probed data is clear or corrupted along the way as you go. 

For myself, my scope doesn't support that, so I just used the same TTL-USB "receiving" line to do my probing analysis.

LEGO-Dacta-Interface-B-communications-li

Edited by Gunners TekZone
Posted

Mine doesn't either. But I am able to put the interface-B in a normal running mode by using the TTL.

Soooo I may use an other Arduino mega, a serial monitor and... How do I translate to text ? I guess it should be TTL at the left of the two white square component and serial at the right of them so... Not the same voltages ?

Posted
Just now, Wapata said:

Soooo I may use an other Arduino mega, a serial monitor and... How do I translate to text ? I guess it should be TTL at the left of the two white square component and serial at the right of them so... Not the same voltages ?

Honestly, I have no idea if the Interface-B used anything more than 5V TTL level serial??  

Posted

Oh... :pir-oh3: I was thinking that serial and null modem use 12v for the 1 and 0v for the 0 but the TTL 5v for the 1... Crap, I didn't take a second look on that and I may be wrong :pir-look:

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