Hi, I’m having communication issues between my Starnote Startup kit (with WIFI) & uC (micro-controller) (Atmel SAML21 Dev board). I can successfully talk to the Starnote/WIFI module via Notecard embedded browser (without uC).
The RX/TX lines between the devices are connected OK (“RX/TX” lines on the Notecard carrier) I also verified the UART lines on the uC.
Upon power (of both boards), I received an “unsolicited” string from the Starnote/WIFI Kit – “{“cmd”:“ntn.hello”,“id”:1,“time”:1735244065}" thus verifying the Starnote/WIFI to uC link is OK. I then attempt to repetitively send {“req”:“card.location”} … with no response. It’s acting as if the Starnote/WIFI isn’t listening? Any thoughts”
Do you literally get no response from the Notecard after issuing a card.location request? What Notecard firmware version are you on? Can you send a picture of your wiring so we can triple check?
Hi Rob,
Thx for the response – here’s the dump from the ‘embedded’ browser – I issued the ‘location’ command in the browser.
Welcome to the Notecard In-Browser Terminal. Start making requests below. (For advanced info, use the ‘help’ command.)
~ Connected to serial ~ DeviceUID dev:94deb82a998c (NOTE-WIFI) running firmware 7.5.2.17004 > {“req”: “card.location”} {“status”:“GPS inactive {gps-inactive}”,“mode”:“periodic”,“lat”:42.52926000000001,“lon”:-71.3495,“time”:1734705425}
– below is the wiring – On the bottom header of the microController board, the YELLOW and GREEN wires correspond to the Notecard’s TX (pin 12) and RX (pin 13) respectively. Baud rate is set to 9600. When I run my test, the Notecard’s USB connector is removed and I then feed the Notecard board 5V from a 5V/2A power supply - both boards power up together.
I believe the wiring is OK since I do get feedback (once) upon power-up – The “*****” in the product masks the real name. I count incoming interrupts (sioRxCount:XX) from the Notecard. {“cmd”:“ntn.hello”,“id”:1} is the only returning string from the Notecard. From then on, incoming response from the Notecard stops - {“req”:“card.location”} does not generate any more responses. Each request is issued every few seconds. The below dump captures both requests and responses.
Hi,
Yesterday, as an experiment, I removed the Starnote module prior to issuing commands. Voila – command/response activity was “normal” and as expected. I’ll be doing more testing today.
There appears to possibly be a hardware ‘conflict’ on the RX/TX lines (Notecard XS 1.2) with the Starnote module in place. There are two other sets of serial pins on the notecard – (AUX RX/TX and ALTDFU RX/TX) which may work for basic communication?.
The ‘posted’ on-line Starnote examples I located utilize I2C - possibly, this is the recommended choice.
My apologies - I should’ve realized right away that you can’t connect to Notecard over TX/RX while also using a connected Starnote device (since it also connects to Notecard over TX/RX). We need to update our docs, but yes you should use I2C to connect to Notecard.
Also, are there plans to merge the Starnote ‘module’ into a single Notecard such as a Cellular/Wifi etc … which would allow serial communication via the RX/TX lines?
