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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Help, I'm too stupid to connect two Picomite via RX/TX

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Gerad
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Joined: 10/01/2024
Location: Germany
Posts: 37
Posted: 11:31am 25 Apr 2024
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Help, I'm too stupid to connect two Picomite (Webmite) via RX/TX.

Pico No.1 should provide a few bytes,
which picks up Pico No. 2 once a day

Who can send me a few lines of programming to learn?
Please provide a few simple explanations.
My basic knowledge comes from the ZX-81 era.
Unfortunately there isn't much left.
I am an absolute beginner.

Gerad
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5740
Posted: 12:24pm 25 Apr 2024
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Your first step is to read Appendix A (Serial Communications) of the Webmite manual. Sorry, you can't avoid this. :)

You will have two Webmites, so let's call them A and B. A will be the "master", responsible for asking for data. B will be the "slave", which returns the data when asked for it.


WARNING - I haven't tested the following. I think you might have to send carriage return and line feed characters. No doubt someone will correct me. :)

Lets say you are using pins GP0 (Com 1 TX) and GP1 (Com 1 RX) on device A and
GP4 (Com 2 TX) and GP5 (Com 2 RX) on device B.
Link device A GP0 to device B GP5
Link device A GP1 to device B GP4
As I said previously, I prefer to use 220R resistors rather than direct connections, but that's me. :)

Code for device A - "master"

SETPIN GP1, GP0, COM1
OPEN "COM1:4800" AS #1
'the program loop
'every second it sends "X" then waits for a second.
'then it reads the received 6 characters into a$ and prints them.
do
 print#1,"X"
 pause 1000
 a$=input$(6, #1)
 print a$
 pause 1000
loop


Code for deice B - "slave"

SETPIN GP5, GP4, COM2
OPEN "COM2:4800" AS #2
'the program loop
'this keeps looking for a character in the receive buffer
'if there is a character there then it sends "Gotcha" as a reply
do
 a$ = input$(#1)
 if a$ > "" then
   print#1,"Gotcha"
 endif
loop
loop

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
PhenixRising
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Joined: 07/11/2023
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 309
Posted: 12:47pm 25 Apr 2024
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Extra loop there, Mick

do
a$ = input$(#1)
if a$ > "" then
  print#1,"Gotcha"
endif
loop
loop


Also gonna get some phantom "Gotcha"s due to CR & LF
 
Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 3558
Posted: 01:42pm 25 Apr 2024
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A very simple terminal program, uses above techniques.
Run on both mites, connect RX to TX between mites.


'terminal program for PicoMite

'open port
SetPin gp1,gp0,com1
Open "COM1:9600,,rec_int" As #1

'transmit loop
Do
 Do
   a$=Inkey$
 Loop While a$=""
 Print #1,a$;
Loop

'receive
Sub rec_int
 b$=Input$(10,#1) 'max 10 characters at once
 Print b$;
End Sub


Volhout
PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5740
Posted: 02:39pm 25 Apr 2024
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Oops - well, I am a bit loopy. :)
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
PeteCotton

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Joined: 13/08/2020
Location: Canada
Posts: 316
Posted: 03:35pm 25 Apr 2024
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  Mixtel90 said  Lets say you are using pins GP0 (Com 1 TX) and GP1 (Com 1 RX) on device A and
GP4 (Com 2 TX) and GP5 (Com 2 RX) on device B.
Link device A GP0 to device B GP5
Link device A GP1 to device B GP4
As I said previously, I prefer to use 220R resistors rather than direct connections, but that's me. :)


I'm not a hardware guy at all, so feel free to point and laugh at my ignorance   but if he's running off separate power sources, should he also connect the Ground pins together?
Edited 2024-04-26 01:36 by PeteCotton
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5740
Posted: 03:58pm 25 Apr 2024
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I must admit that I'd assumed that....  :)
Sometimes it's easy to miss the obvious.
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Gerad
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Joined: 10/01/2024
Location: Germany
Posts: 37
Posted: 05:32pm 25 Apr 2024
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Hi Mick

The slave code generates the following error message

[4] a$ = Input$(#1)
Error : Syntax

Gerad
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5740
Posted: 05:41pm 25 Apr 2024
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Sorry. I think it should be a$=input$(1,#1) because you are expecting a single character.

Manual page 137: INPUT$(nbr, [#]fnbr)
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Gerad
Newbie

Joined: 10/01/2024
Location: Germany
Posts: 37
Posted: 05:49pm 25 Apr 2024
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Mick, I thought so too. But now comes this message

[4] a$ = Input$(1,#1)
Error : File number is not open
gerad
 
lizby
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Joined: 17/05/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3018
Posted: 05:59pm 25 Apr 2024
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  Gerad said  Error : File number is not open


Is it open? We probably need more of your code.

What exactly is it you're trying to send?

~
Edited 2024-04-26 04:00 by lizby
PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5740
Posted: 06:00pm 25 Apr 2024
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Spot the mistake. :)
We OPENed the file as #2.
Now we need input$(1,#2) to read from that port.
We will also need PRINT#2 to transmit through it.
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Gerad
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Joined: 10/01/2024
Location: Germany
Posts: 37
Posted: 06:14pm 25 Apr 2024
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Mick, Great, it works.
However, only every 7 transmission is complete


Gotcha

Gotc
ha
Goa
tchaI

Gotcha

Gotc
ha
Go
tcha

Gerad
 
lizby
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Joined: 17/05/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3018
Posted: 08:22pm 25 Apr 2024
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If you really want to send (and receive) more than one character at a time, you would probably do best to send a message terminated with carriage return and line feed (CHR$13 and CHR$10) and read the entire message with LINE INPUT #2,a$--and break out the fields (if any) with FIELD$.
PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed
 
PeteCotton

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Joined: 13/08/2020
Location: Canada
Posts: 316
Posted: 11:12pm 25 Apr 2024
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  Gerad said  Mick, Great, it works.
However, only every 7 transmission is complete


Can you post the code you are using please? Then we can have a proper look at what's happening.

Cheers,

Pete
 
Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9066
Posted: 12:41am 26 Apr 2024
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  lizby said  If you really want to send (and receive) more than one character at a time, you would probably do best to send a message terminated with carriage return and line feed (CHR$13 and CHR$10) and read the entire message with LINE INPUT #2,a$--and break out the fields (if any) with FIELD$.


Agreed.  You then let the internal COM port buffers take care of holding on to the data, till you are ready to read it out into a string or whatever.

You can transmit your data from "A" at any point, and module "B" will buffer the messages and you can simply read them inside a loop:


Open "COM2:9600" as #2 'Open the COM port
DIM MSG$ 'String to hold any one message
DO 'MAIN LOOP HERE
 MSG$="" 'Clear the global message string
 ...
 If LOC(#2) then RXD 'Something has arrived in the serial port buffer
 If MSG$<>"" then Print MSG$ 'Show the message on the terminal screen if there is one to show
 ...
LOOP

SUB RXD
 Pause 100 'Allow all of message to arrive in buffer
 Local T$ 'String for use ONLY inside this sub
 Do 'Suck message from COM port buffer:
   T$=INPUT$(1,#2) 'Suck a byte from the buffer
   If T$=Chr$(13) Then Exit Do 'If it is a CR byte, hop out of this loop
   MSG$=MSG$+T$ 'Otherwise, add the byte to the MSG$ string
 Loop 'Do it all again, till a CR byte IS found...
END SUB


This is a very cut-down simple serial processor.  Each message that "A" sends to "B" must have an end-of-message marker(EOMM).  I've used CR in my example, but I have also used CHR$(27) - Escape.  Your EOMM can be any byte you like, so long as it is NEVER used as part of the message itself.  You have around 127 non-printable characters you could potentially choose from.  

The beauty of building the message from the buffer a byte at a time like this, is that the main loop will process messages one at a time, meaning you can have several different messages waiting in the buffer, and the main loop will process them out one at a time, turning the COM port buffer into a lovely automatic message queuing system so you never lose a message, if the main loop is doing something else, when module "A" happens to send data to module "B" - the serial port buffer will save the data in the background for you if the main loop is busy, in other words.

The example code above, does not allow for checksum or corrupted messages - you need to deal with that in your main code, by analyzing MSG$ to make sure it is a valid message - my example does not do that, cos we're just trying to get you up and running with a simple example first.
Edited 2024-04-26 10:56 by Grogster
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
Gerad
Newbie

Joined: 10/01/2024
Location: Germany
Posts: 37
Posted: 08:42am 26 Apr 2024
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Hello Pete
I'm using the code that Mick (Mixtel90) kindly sent me to understand how the serial transfer works. It took me a little further. But I don't understand why only every 7th transfer is correct. After that I try to install and understand the Volhaut, Lizby and Grogster examples.
Lizby said "If you really want to send (and receive) more than one character at a time, you would probably do best to send a message terminated with carriage return and line feed (CHR$13 and CHR$10) and read the entire message with LINE INPUT #2,a$--and break out the fields (if any) with FIELD$." How do I do that ? I have much to learn.

The Code from Mick:
Code for device A - "master"
SETPIN GP1, GP0, COM1
OPEN "COM1:4800" AS #1
'the program loop
'every second it sends "X" then waits for a second.
'then it reads the received 6 characters into a$ and prints them.
do
print#1,"X"
pause 1000
a$=input$(6, #1)
print a$
pause 1000
loop

Code for device B - "slave"
SETPIN GP5, GP4, COM2
OPEN "COM2:4800" AS #2
'the program loop
'this keeps looking for a character in the receive buffer
'if there is a character there then it sends "Gotcha" as a reply
do
a$ = input$(1,#2)
if a$ > "" then
  print#2,"Gotcha"
endif
loop

Regards
Gerad
 
JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3663
Posted: 09:37am 26 Apr 2024
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You have something that works enough to show some ideas.

Unless you really want to use FIELD$ - don't. It's a complication which from your original post you don't need.

Let's go back to what you want to send - give us details.

You're in danger of writing code (and e.g. using FIELD$) without enough of a spec.

John
 
Gerad
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Joined: 10/01/2024
Location: Germany
Posts: 37
Posted: 09:55am 26 Apr 2024
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Hi John
My system consists of 3 Webmite. Since I only have 4 CIN pins available but need 12, the remaining two webmite should have their CIN values (waterflow) transferred to the master via serial transmission.
I thought serial transfer was the easiest way for a few bytes.

Gerad
 
JohnS
Guru

Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3663
Posted: 12:49pm 26 Apr 2024
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It does sound easy and it can be - you have it mostly working now.

If you have n different things to send you might want to send each with (say) a starting letter, then the value, then either a CR or LF (whichever MMBasic likes to treat as line terminator when doing LINE INPUT).  For n <= 26 you could put a letter of the alphabet.  Let's imagine you've read CIN 1 into a variable called value1, you might use
PRINT #1, "A";value1;EOL;
where EOL is the CR or LF and with the COM port open on #1 - and note all the semi-colons as you don't really want anything more sent.

On the other mite you'd used
LINE INPUT #1, A$
and LEFT$(A$,1) will be "A"
MID$(A$,2) will be value1 - as a string, its value would be VAL(MID$(A$, 2))

John
Edited 2024-04-26 22:50 by JohnS
 
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