Im trying to communicate between two 16F628A's, in what should be very simple. I tried with Manchester, but that failed, and USART isn't going much better! :x

Simply my program is to read PORTA, when any bit goes high it transmits an appropriate number, eventually via RF, but now just with a wire.

On the receiving end, each number will have a corresponding binary number output on PORTA.

I have the PORTA receiver always high(0xFF), when the appropriate number is received, a particular bit is turned low.

I dont have much skill in C or any programming, can anyone help?

Receiver



Transmitter

I did not test your code but it looks like it could/should work.
I don't think I read exactly what the problem is? No transmitted signal, no received signal, garbage data?
Did you turn off MCLR in your config?
Pull down's on your input pins?
Debounce your inputs?
Test your transmitter with a PC terminal to verify (rs232 level converter)?
Test your receiver with a PC terminal to verify(rs232 level converter)?

You may also want to check out this topic and some others on this forum http://www.mikroe.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... c&start=30

Provide some more info and I'll try to help.

Thanks drdoug,

The entire thing doesnt work, I have the receiver on my EP5. When turned on PORTA is 11110011 which is strange because I declare it 0xFF.

I have MCLR turned off in the transmitter as well as the receiver.

All the inputs on the transmitter have 8.2k pull downs.

Im not sure about debouncing, Im going to look into that.

I havent tested with the PC, im not sure how to do that either.

By looking at that other post I guess if I pull up all my inputs and transmit the state of PORTA It might be a better idea? That way the receiving program is relatively easy.

Thanks again.

I forgot to mention that RA 5 is input only ( I think - this is also the MCLR pin). Do you see the transmit side light flicker when you press a button? Have you tried a simple flashing LED routine to make sure your initialization is correct?

I have an EP4 but it should be easy to test the PIC-PC communication with the EP5 (You may have to jumper the pins to get it to work porperly with the EP5 Uart pins??). There is an example in the manual, help, and examples section.

I think getting the transmitter working is easiest. Connect the EP5 to the computer and use the mE terminal program for testing. Try this code


Once connected, you should see the 'A' on the terminal screen every second. If this works, you can move to the next challenge. If not, verify the hardware and software settings.

For your main code, you may try something like this on the transmitter

and the receiver as below. NOTE: RA5 is still only an input but you get the idea I think.

Thanks drdoug!

Im going to try this out, and il report back with my findings! Thanks!

Hmmm, im definitely transmitting something, but not the right thing!

On the receiving end im getting €, which looks like the Euro sign!

Im guessing that this may all have to do with my clock speed? Currently its set to 8Mhz, internal.

Other Hardware parameters are:

WDT_OFF

LVP_OFF

MCLR_OFF

INTOSC_OSC_NOCLKOUT


In the mETerminal my settings are:

Baud:9600
Stop Bits: One Stop Bit
Parity:None
Data bits: Eight

RTS: OFF
DTR: OFF

This is all with the top piece of code:





Thanks alot!

Actually I got the Transmitter and receiver to work, now my problem is getting what would be output on RA4 and RA5 to RB4 and RB5. And also, the outputs are latching at the moment, is there a way to set it up so PORTA will revert back to its original state?

Thanks alot!!

RA4 is an open drain so you will need to put in a pull up resistor on it and it should be able to work. I added in the PORTB.F5 reference (you can also add PORTB.F4 if you can not get that open drain thing to work.
I also accounted for reverting back to its original (0 not 1) state but you get the idea. You can make the delay longer if you want. This is not the best solution but it will get you started. Ultimately for a wireless setup you will want the receiver on an interrupt and perhaps the delay before reset if it is more than a few milliseconds.

Also, for the transmitter, you will want to send some type of preamble and header info to verify you are communicating with the correct unit ( and to account for noise).

Thanks!

Ive got everything working pretty well, im going to start on the preamble next.

Only thing different with the program below is that im using inverted binary numbers 1111 1110 1111 1101 etc.

Now my only problem is getting RB4 and RB5 to work with the delay if I send 239 or 223 they work, but each respective bit stays off until the next number is asserted.

You need to reset your i variable when you change the Port value otherwise it will reassert each time through your loop. Or put it inside the uart data ready loop.

Thanks!

I have one more question, is it possible to invert the logic of the USART? It seems as if normal state is high, is there a way for normal state to be low (0)?

Thanks!

I inverted the signal using a simple transistor circuit and got it to work with a cheap 433 rf system (don't forget to invert the receive end also). Also, you may try the soft uart which can be inverted in the software.
Some have had success with the manchester encoding which is designed for rf system but I did not get it to work although I was an even bigger newb at the time.

you can also use a simple TTL inverter buffer driver IC.

Thanks guys,

I know I could use the inverter external circuits, but I was wondering if there was anyway other that software usart to invert it internally. I mean not that one inverter would be a huge deal externally, but any less real estate is better!

Not possible in the usart module I think.
Give soft usart a try