XJT module and 9x

[cae]

Sorry Rick, I should have been more specific. ( I'am an "old fart" too, so I have an excuse.)

Colin.

[rharms]

Colin,no problem. I will bet there are lurkers on this thread who have also learned a lot, but were afraid to ask.

Also, maybe we should not admit to being old farts, the youngsters here may rebel against us.
You may remember, "never trust anyone over 30".
Rick

[rharms]

OK, after much gnashing of teeth I was able to communicate with the radio. I had t relearn Sam-ba configuration.
Now, my question. Is the Optrex display not supported? I "checked" the Optrex option, but it does not seem to work nor is the selection saved upon subsequent openings of the configuration page.
Rick Harms

[MikeB]

OK, that's a bug in eepskye. It correctly reports the value read from the radio, but doesn't save any change. Should be fixed in the next revision.

Mike.

[rharms]

MikeB
You might be interested in the above. The default is AVRDude, but it seems to want SAM-BA. If you use as above, a message appears that says SAM-BA ran successfully, but actually, nothing happens. This may not be worth your time in fixing, as how many of us are there that will be using your eepsky program? I know I can live with it as is.
Rick Harms

[SkyNorth]

The 9XR Pro users will need eepskye , to program the new radio.
-Brent

[MikeB]

I think I have a fix for that, thanks. I'm still finding out things about QTCreator, I needed to make it work at all to start with.

Mike.

[rharms]

Skynorth,
I was unaware of the 9R9 connection. Sorry if I seemed inconsiderate, just ignorant.
Rick Harms

[kaos]

I am using eepskye. Only I don't have a XJT yet. Last time I checked the C9X was still not able to back up the voice switches in sky9x. Only eepskye or Sam-Ba (manually) can backup the Sky9x eeprom completely.

[Nopileus]

I just wired everything up as i described in my last post, things seem to be working.

I am just not sure about the RSSI values being shown, RX is pretty high around 60-90, but TX shows 0 unless i touch the transmitter antenna. (it then reaches 15-20)
This might just me being stupid, but data is certainly being shown on screen.
Of course i don't have any experience in setting up the telemetry display yet.

Does anyone know if the X8R has an internal voltage sensor?

[MikeB]

The XJT doesn't provide a Tx RSSI, instead it sends a valur transmitter reflected power (SWR) whch indicates if the antenna is not connected. I need to change the text of Tx to Swr if the XJT is being used.
Yes, the X8R does have an internal voltage sensor, on the 9X I map this onto A1 (needs a 4:1 ratio setting so 13.2V).

Mike.

[Nopileus]

Excellent, everything seems to be working perfectly now.
(running on standard M64 if anyone wants to know)

Thank you very much.

[bob195558]

when you download eepe now, it automatically install both eepe and eepskye. you need to run either eepe for er9x or eeskye for sky8x FW. create two short cuts, one for eepe, one for eepskye.

I have the two Short Cuts (one for eepe and one for eepskye) on my Win7 64 bit computer desk top.
But when I open the eepskye short cut the eepe program opens in its place.
I do not understand why this is happening?
Can you help?

[kaos]

that is kind of strange. I wonder if the new eepe downloads has some glitches. I am uisng Win7 64 bit too.
Here is a r.381 eepskye. copy this to your eepe directory and make a short cut and try if this works. change the '.txt' to '.exe'
if it works, use eepskye to down load the latest version of eepskye and Sky9x FW.

[jhsa]

are you sure you didn't create a short cut of the eepe file instead of the eepskye??

João

[bob195558]

It's working correctly now.
Thank you!!!

Your eepskye.txt did work, but as it was opening it asked to update, ..... so I did, and it did the same thing as to open the eepe.
But when I selected NO to update, ..... it opened in eepskye.exe like it should.

Some how I have multiple versions of eepe here and there in my computer.
I made a new file in Program Files (x86) / eepe and created a shortcut Icon for the eepskye.exe and placed it on my desktop.
Now it works correctly.

Even though when I updated eepe (wherever that one is) and I found the eepskye.exe, it always was opening the eepe.
Not sure why it was doing that?

But it is working correctly now!
Thank you for you help !!!

[kaos]

I think when you have multiple copies of eepe installations that confuses Windows. Windows is not very smart you know that.

[Kilrah]

When you create a shortcut to a file, it's just that. If you then delete the file and try to open the shortcut, Windows will look for the file elsewhere. If you had another copy, it will then use that one.

So if you delete stuff, better delete the shortcut too.

[bob195558]

Thank you Kilrah!
Now I understand what was happening.
I think when I have updated eepe I was not paying attention to where the updated version was being placed
and therefore created several eepe active versions here and there.
This also gives a reason to why I would update eepe and then when opening it up the next day, it was asking to be updated again.
Thank you again for your help.

[andrewju]

Hi All,

FrSky site says S.PORT is a full duplex interface. But if I get this thread right, Mike suggests to connect it to the 9x board so that the 9x only receives data from S.PORT. Is this correct?

Does it make sense to make a "full duplex" interface between 9x and S.PORT on XJT - perhaps, for some future capabilities?

[Kilrah]

The unidirectional connection is simpler, and there is currently no functionality to be gained by implementing a bidirectional one... so I think it can always be done later if it ever proves useful

[MikeB]

Actually, the SPort interface is HALF duplex. It is a single wire, so data can only flow in one direction at a time.

Mike.

[andrewju]

The unidirectional connection is simpler, and there is currently no functionality to be gained by implementing a bidirectional one...

Well, if there's no foreseeable use - then of course it makes no sense to add a level of complexity.

Actually, the SPort interface is HALF duplex. It is a single wire, so data can only flow in one direction at a time.

I had that thought... Then I thought maybe there's some kind of frequency split, etc, allowing a full duplex communication... But then I guess it wouldn't work with just a simple level adapter / inversion circuit.

Ok, Mike, so you also don't see the use of that bi-directional communication on S.PORT of XJT?

What about inversion circuit then? Would something like this be sufficient?


I was looking for an XJT-specific guide, but I found none. Perhaps, one needs to be made. I just ordered my XJT module, so I will make some notes when I get my hands on it (and of course time to get it done).

Ah, one more question!
Does it make sense to upgrade atmega on a native 9x board to something like 2561, or is the stock atmega64 still good to go? I don't have many models, so model memory is not a big issue at present. But I plan to implement voice and telemetry (the XJT). So if there are features that will not fit the 64 but will be available on newer chips - I would consider upgrading.

[MikeB]

I'm slowly adding some extra features for the '128/'2561, they already have more custom switches and voice switches available.
To keep the code fitting, the FrSky version of er9x for the '64 doesn't have the templates available.

In time, using the SPort to send data from the Tx to the Rx may become useful, and will be implemented. FrSky should be bringing out a UART sensor implementation.

Mike.

[andrewju]

Thanks a lot, Mike! Then I will consider moving to 2561 (need to improve my soldering skills for that - will practice on the voice board).

BTW, do we need an inversion circuit between S.PORT and MISO at all, or can the inversion be done in SW (just a thought...)?

[MikeB]

Yes you need a hardware inversion, we cannot do it in software, we need the hardware UART.

Mike.

[andrewju]

Understood. Thanks a lot!

[andrewju]

Mike,
Is there a specific ER9X configuration needed in order to receive S.PORT telemetry data? I just got my XJT module hooked up via an inverting circuit (as on the picture above).

I have set the protocol to PXX. I have also bound the XJT to an X8R receiver in '16D' mode. In 'telemetry protocol' section of the model settings (sorry, I have no radio nearby atm, so I may be not very precise with exact field names), I have chosen "FrSky Hub" (as the other option didn't look to be FrSky-related). That's mostly it...

While browsing the telemetry screens, I see all values are 0. Even the RSSI (which I believe is SWR in XJT) is 0 all the time, no matter what I do to the antenna.

Inverting circuit works, as far as I could test it. The output of inverting circuit is connected to MISO line of SmartieParts programmer. The programmer also works (I can read from and write to the chip)...

Oh, I use er9x-2561. May that need some special settings?

[MikeB]

I assume you have done the "telemetry mod" that moves the AIL and THR switches to different pins. On the '2561 (and '128) firmware versions instead of having a different firmware build when this is done (FrSky version), you need to set "Frksy Mod Done" in the RADIO SETUP menu. Have you done this?
The SPort protocol runs at 57600 baud. What value pull up resistor do you have on the collector of the inverting transistor. If it is too high a value, it may be too slow to pull the signal high.
The signal should be on pin 2 (PE0) of the processor. For the '2561 this is MOSI, I'm not sure which pin on the SmartieParts board this is.

Mike.

[andrewju]

Hugh, I think I soldered it to the pin going to PE1 (marked as MISO) instead of PE0. I searched the forum, checked, and rechecked it again a number of times yesterday. After all, somehow I decided it must go to PE1 (don't ask me why, I have no idea!)... Looks like I was wrong...
I will resolder the wire from PE1 to PE0 tonight.

Other than this, the telemetry mod is done (physically), and corresponding item in radio setup is also set.
And the pullup resistor I used in inversion circuit is 1K.