Newbie radio link issue

[George]

I pulled the radio modules off and did a direct connect - and it didn't work! All it was was making sure the internal oscillators were calibrated. Then it worked so my hopes were high for connecting the radio modules again - but alas, it was not to be. just doesn't work for some reason - I think it has something to do with the internal setup of the radio chips - for some reason (maybe their brand name) I thought it would be easy! And would just transmit data as it came into it's pin - but apparently u have to set baud into the receiver and there r a few other options which make it a bit complicated for a beginner.

[Ioannis]

If direct connection works and RF link does not (considering that the radios are communicating) then I would suggest to try sending only the bytes AAh repeatedly and see if the receiver gets the data.

If you have success then consider to use bi-phase or manchester encoding of the bytes to be transmited (forum has solution for this).

Ioannis

[George]

What's the command line to make it just send the AAh bytes repeatedly? As I said before I'm totally new to serial comms - are you meaning simply as:
SEROUT PortA.0,0,["AAh"]?

Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good radio set to use - like one where you hook it up and it works? No internal settings that are adjustable etc - just goes

[mister_e]

AAh : AA is the value, h represent Hexadecimal.

SEROUT pin, baud, [$AA,$AA,$AA,$AA,$AA, YouDataVariable]
OR
SEROUT2 pin,baud,[REP $AA\5,YourDataVariable]

Anything from Linx, Laipac, RFSolution, Maxstream will work without too much adjustment, but the manchester protocol have to be use in most case.

Sometimes just by sending some $AA, a header, your variables may work good. If you don't have many data to sent, i don't think Manchester is really needed.

Transmitter
SEROUT2 ...[REP $AA\5,"READY", YourVariable]

Receiver
SERIN2 ...[WAIT("READY),YourVariable]

[Ioannis]

Just for testing try to send repeatedly:

loop:
SEROUT pin, baud, [$AA]
goto loop

This will send endless AA to the receiver.

If you read them then you need to encode your data.

If you don't then you need to check the design back from zero.

For modules contact me private if you need many. We build our own.

Ioannis

[George]

Have found the problem, wrote to the manufacturer and they replied with this:

The ER modules are pre-set to 19200 baud. If you cannot talk to them at this speed then you cannot use them. One of the best ways to get around this is to purchase the eval kit for 55 pounds. This has two pcb boards, leads, antennas etc. which enable you to connect the module to a PC that can communicate at 19200 baud. Then you can send the ER command to change the board rate to PIC baud rate you need for example 2400 etc.

So I was thinking about building another board with a 20MHz crystal and try send it the commands to change down to 2400. If I do this - am not really sure of the syntax - it says in the datasheet the comm settings is ER_CMD#U1 so do I send it like this SEROUT pin,baud,["ER_CMD#U1"] ???

Thanks again for all your guys input so far

[mister_e]

any link to the datasheet?

[George]

Have found the problem, wrote to the manufacturer and they replied with this:

The ER modules are pre-set to 19200 baud. If you cannot talk to them at this speed then you cannot use them. One of the best ways to get around this is to purchase the eval kit for 55 pounds. This has two pcb boards, leads, antennas etc. which enable you to connect the module to a PC that can communicate at 19200 baud. Then you can send the ER command to change the board rate to PIC baud rate you need for example 2400 etc.

So I was thinking about building another board with a 20MHz crystal and try send it the commands to change down to 2400. If I do this - am not really sure of the syntax - it says in the datasheet the comm settings is ER_CMD#U1 so do I send it like this SEROUT pin,baud,["ER_CMD#U1"] ???

Thanks again for all your guys input so far

[mister_e]

O.K. i heard you but any link to the datasheet?