Help! Can't send to TinyG

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  • March 31, 2013 at 8:01 pm #3970
    benjamind
    Member

    Hey all,

    Need some help as I’m not sure whats going on here.

    I have my board powered up on a 24V psu (actually outputting 22.5V), and the blue indicator light is on and steady.

    When I connect with CoolTerm as described in the instructions and then hit the reset switch I get the following output:

     

    <code>

    {“r”:{“fb”:370.080,”fv”:0.950,”hv”:7.000,”id”:”9H3906-XUH”,”msg”:”Loading configs from EEPROM”,”f”:[1,15,0,2107]}}

    {“r”:{“fb”:370.080,”fv”:0.950,”hv”:7.000,”id”:”9H3906-XUH”,”msg”:”SYSTEM READY”,”f”:[1,0,0,8604]}}

    tinyg [mm] ok>

    </code>

    All looks good right? Wrong…when I try and send any command to the TinyG I get no response at all, the little TX light in CoolTerm flickers for a moment and then nothing. I’ve tried a whole variety of commands, and all the help ones (‘h’, ‘?’ ‘$h’) to no avail.

    I configured CoolTerm as described with Line Mode, Enter Key Emulation = CR and 115200 baud, 8 data bits no parity and 1 stop bit. Everything else as defaults.

    Any help would be good, spent all weekend putting my Shapeoko together only to run into this!

    Thanks

    March 31, 2013 at 8:43 pm #3971
    benjamind
    Member

    Additional info…

    The board appears to be running 370.08.

    If i type CTRL-X at the terminal the Spindle CW/CCW light toggles on/off.

    At startup the Spindle CW/CCW light blinks…it was blinking 10 times then outputting the above JSON response, since further fiddling at the console I’ve evidently changed something since now it just blinks perpetually till I type something into the console and I no longer get the nice startup JSON message.

    I have noticed that the LED next to the mark ‘tx’ flickers when I type at the console, while the ‘rx’ led flickers (or at least did when it worked) when the startup message is sent. Shouldn’t these be the other way around?

    I’m running Windows 7 64bit.

    I have tried connecting with PUTTY to the same effect. I have tried every other USB port on my PC to no effect, and on a mac book pro.

    Have I got a dodgy board?

    March 31, 2013 at 10:16 pm #3972
    alden
    Member

    Sorry you are having problems. What happens when you hit the reset button?

    March 31, 2013 at 10:18 pm #3973
    cmagagna
    Member

    I think things are working normally. It sounds like you’re talking to the board but it’s not echoing what you type back. The fastest fix is to tell your terminal app to echo your characters. I’m not sure how it’s done in Coolterm but in Putty it’s in configuration, Terminal, Local Echo – Force On. I also turn on Local Line Editing, so I can use backspace to fix typos.

    The other thing you can do is make your TinyG board itself echo the characters back to you — do this by typing “$ee=1”. You won’t see these characters as you type, but once you hit ‘return’ you should start seeing everything as you type.

    (by the way — ctrl-X is a special command to tell the TinyG to start the bootloader. The LED flashing is the board telling you this is happening).

    March 31, 2013 at 11:06 pm #3974
    benjamind
    Member

    Here’s the steps I’ve taken and results seen:

    1. Power board
    Result: Blue LED lights, Fan starts, Spindle CW/CCW LED lights continuously.
    2. Hit reset
    Result: Spindle CW/CCW LED starts flashing and does not stop.
    3.Connect via CoolTerm with baud 115200
    Result: Connects, no output.
    4. Hit return a few times
    Result: Only see ? as response
    5. Send ‘h’ or ‘?’ or ‘$’
    Result: See single ? for ‘h’, for ? or $ we see a ?? response.

    Hitting reset again returns to flashing Spindle CW/CCW LED.

    If the constant flashing CW/CCW LED is an indicator of bootloader mode then I guess thats where I’m stuck at, perhaps the firmware is missing?

    March 31, 2013 at 11:21 pm #3975
    benjamind
    Member

    Aha!

    Looks like the firmware was wiped or something, your hint about the flashing CW/CCW LED did the trick.

    I figured it must be in ‘waiting for firmware’ bootloader mode, so I ran the AVRDude command from the wiki and installed the latest firmware and all appears to be good now!

    Thanks for the help guys, not sure what happened but I guess the firmware got corrupted somehow.

    April 2, 2013 at 1:02 am #3978
    Riley
    Keymaster

    Yah that is weird. I think we have tracked it down to sending data when the board is in bootloader mode.  When the light is flashing at boot.. wait until it stops before connecting / sending data.  We are tracking on this.  However this should help avoid this issue in the future for now.

    ril3y

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