Reading a long text from GPRS Shield with Arduino - arduino

I am having hell with this and I know it is probably really simple. I am trying to read a text message from my Seeed GPRS shield. I have the shield setup as a software serial and I am displaying the information received from the GPRS to the serial monitor. I am currently sending all AT commands over serial while I work on my code. To display the data from the software serial to the serial monitor, I am using the following code.
while(GPRS.available()!=0) {
Serial.write(GPRS.read());
}
GPRS is my software serial obviously. The problem is, the text is long and I only get a few characters from it. Something like this.
+CMGR: "REC READ","1511","","13/12/09,14:34:54-24" Welcome to TM eos8
This text is a "Welcome to T-Mobile" text that is much longer. The last few characters shown are scrambled. I have done some research and have seen that I can mod the serial buffer size to 256 instead of the default 64. I want to avoid this because I am sure there is an easier way. Any ideas?

Have you tried reading into a character array, one byte at a time? See if this helps:
if (GPRS.available()) { // GPRS talking ..
while(GPRS.available()) { // As long as it is talking ..
buffer[count++]=GPRS.read();     
// read char into array
if(count == 64) break; // Enough said!
}
Serial.write(buffer,count); // Display in Terminal
clearBufferArray();
count = 0;
}
You need to declare the variables 'buffer' and 'count' appropriately and define the function 'clearBufferArray()'
Let me know if this helps.

Looks like this is simply the result of the lack of flow control in all Arduino serial connections. If you cannot pace your GPRS() input byte sequence to a rate that guarantees the input FIFO can't overflow, then your Serial.write() will block when the output FIFO fills. At that point you will be dropping new GPRS input bytes on the floor until Serial output frees up more space.
Since the captured output is apparently clean up to about 64 bytes, this suggests
a) a 64 byte buffer,
b) a GPRS data rate much higher than the Serial one, and
c) that the garbage data is actually the occasional valid byte from later in the sequence.
You might confirm this by testing the return code from Serial.write. If you get back zero, that byte is getting lost.
If you were using 9600 for Serial and 57600 for GPRS, I would expect somewhat more than 64 bytes to come through before the output gets mangled, but if the GPRS rate is more than 64x the Serial rate, the entire output FIFO could fill up within a single output byte transmission time.
Capturing to an intermediate buffer should resolve your issue, as long as it is large enough for the whole message. Similarly, extending the size of either the source (in conjunction with testing the Serial.write) or destination (without any additional code) FIFOs to the maximum datagram size should work.

I've had the same problem trying to read messages and get 64 characters. I overcame it by adding a "delay(10)" in the loop calling the function that does the read from the GPRS. Seems to be enough to overcome the race scenario. - Using Arduino Mega.
void loop() {
ReadmyGPRS();
delay(10); //A race condition exists to get the data.
}
void ReadmyGPRS(){
if (Serial1.available()){ // if data is comming from GPRS serial port
count = 0; // reset counter
while(Serial1.available()) // reading data into char array
{
buffer[count++]=Serial1.read(); // writing data into array
if(count == 160)break;
}
Serial.write(buffer,count);
}
}

Related

Sim800L lag/delay before incoming calls are visible to arduino

I use SIM800L GSM module to detect incoming calls and generally it works fine. The only problem is that sometimes it takes up to 8 RINGS before the GSM module tells arduino that someone is calling (before RING appears on the serial connection). It looks like a GSM Network congestion but I do not have such issues with normal calls (I mean calls between people). It happens to often - so it cannot be network/Provider overload. Does anybody else had such a problem?
ISP/Provider: Plus GSM in Poland
I don't put any code, because the problem is in different layer I think
sorry that I didn't answer earlier. I've tested it and it turned out that in bare minimum code it worked OK! I mean, I can see 'RING' on the serial monitor immediately after dialing the number. So it's not a hardware issue!
//bare minimum code:
void loop() {
if(serialSIM800.available()){
Serial.write(serialSIM800.read());
}
if(Serial.available()){
serialSIM800.write(Serial.read());
}
}
In my real code I need to compare calling number with the trusted list. To do that I saved all trusted numbers in the contact list on the sim card (with the common prefix name 'mytrusted'). So, in the main loop there's if statement:
while(mySerial.available()){
incomingByte = mySerial.read();
inputString += incomingByte;
}
if (inputString.indexOf("mytrusted") > 0){
isTrusted = 1;
Serial.println("A TRUSTED NUMBER IS CALLING");
}
After adding this "if condition" Arduino sometimes recognize trusted number after 1'st call, and sometimes after 4'th or 5'th. I'm not suspecting the if statement itself , but the preceding while loop, where incoming bytes are combined into one string.
Any ideas, what can be improved in this simply code?
It seems, I found workaround for my problem. I just send a simple 'AT' command every 20 seconds to SIM800L (it replies with 'OK' ). I use timer to count this 20 seconds interval (instead of simply delay function)
TimerObject *timer2 = new TimerObject(20000); //AT command interval
....
timer2->setOnTimer(&SendATCMD);
....
void SendATCMD () {
mySerial.println("AT");
timer2->Stop();
timer2->Start();
}
With this simple modification Arduino always sees incoming call immediately (after 1 ring)

Arduino as slave with multiple i2c addresses

I would like to use an Arduino as an i2c slave. But I require that the Arduino acts as multiple devices by registering itself with multiple i2c addresses.
This is probably not something one would normally do, but here is my reason for doing it:
I want to use an Arduino to act as Telemetry sensors for Spektrum Telemetry. The Telemetry receiver has a few i2c plugs which connects to multiple sensors (current 0x02, voltage 0x03, airspeed 0x11, etc) each that have a fixed i2c address which the Telemetry receiver expects.
I would like to use one Arduino to act as all these devices by registering itself with all of the above addresses, and responding appropriately with the readings.
I could use one Arduino per sensor, which seems silly as I can perform all these readings with one Arduino pro-mini.
I know you can register the Arduino using
Wire.begin(0x02);
But I require something similar to this (pseudo code)
Wire.begin(0x02, 0x03, 0x11);
And when a request is received, I need to know with what address the Arduino was queried.
For example (pseudo code)
void receiveEvent(byte address, int bytesReceived){
if(address == 0x02){
// Current reading
}
else if(address == 0x03){
// Voltage reading
}
else if(address == 0x11){
// Airspeed reading
}
}
Any advice would be appreciated.
It is not possible to make the Arduino listen to to multiple slave addresses by using the Wire library since Wire.begin() only allows to pass a single slave address.
Even the Atmel ATmega microcontroller on which most Arduinos are based only allows its hardware 2-wire serial interface (TWI) to be set to a single 7-bit address via its 2-wire address register TWAR. However, it is possible to work around this limitation by masking one or more address bits using the TWI address mask register TWAMR as documented (somewhat briefly) in e.g. this ATmega datasheet section 22.9.6:
The TWAMR can be loaded with a 7-bit Salve (sic!) Address mask. Each of the bits in TWAMR can mask (disable) the corresponding address bits in the TWI address Register (TWAR). If the mask bit is set to one then the address match logic ignores the compare between the incoming address bit and the corresponding bit in TWAR.
So we would first have to set up the mask bits based on all I2C addresses we want to respond to by OR'ing them and shifting right to match the TWAMR register layout (TWAMR holds mask in bit7:1, bit0 is unused):
TWAMR = (sensor1_addr | sensor2_addr | sensor3_addr) << 1;
The main problem from here on will be to find out which particular I2C address was queried (we only know it was one that matches the address mask).
If I interpret section 22.5.3 correctly, stating
The TWDR contains the address or data bytes to be transmitted, or the address or data bytes received.
we should be able to retrieve the unmasked I2C address from the TWDR register.
ATmega TWI operation is interrupt-based, more specifically, it utilizes a single interrupt vector for a plethora of different TWI events indicated by status codes in the TWSR status register.
In the TWI interrupt service routine, we'll have to
make sure the reason why we've entered the ISR is because we've been queried. This can be done by checking TWSR for status code 0xA8 (own SLA+R has been received)
decide which sensor data to send back to the master based on what I2C address was actually queried by checking the last byte on the bus in TWDR.
This part of the ISR could look something like this (untested):
if (TWSR == 0xA8) { // read request has been received
byte i2c_addr = TWDR >> 1; // retrieve address from last byte on the bus
switch (i2c_addr) {
case sensor1_addr:
// send sensor 1 reading
break;
case sensor2_addr:
// send sensor 2 reading
break;
case sensor3_addr:
// send sensor 3 reading
break;
default:
// I2C address does not match any of our sensors', ignore.
break;
}
}
Thanks for asking this interesting question!
I really do like vega8's answer, but I'd also like to mention that if your I2C master isn't going to clock things incredibly fast, using a software-based implementation of I2C would also be feasible and give you the freedom you want.
You might want to consider that approach if rough calculation shows that the time spent in the TWI ISR is too high and interrupts might start to overlap.
void setup()
{
Wire.begin(0x11 | 0x12); // Adr 11 and 12 are used for Alt and Speed by Spectrum DX
Wire.onRequest(requestEvent); // register callback function
TWAMR = (0x11 | 0x12) << 1; // set filter for given adr
}
void requestEvent() {
int adr = TWDR >> 1; // move 1 bit to align I2C adr
if (adr == 0x12) // check for altitude request at adr 12
Wire.write(tmpSpektrumDataAlt, 16); // send buffer
if (adr == 0x11) // check for speed request at adr 11
Wire.write(tmpSpektrumDataSpd, 16); // send buffer
}
This works with a Spectrum DX8 with telemetry module.
The Spectrum interface was made public on Sectrums home page. Technical documents.
There could be other devices on the I2C bus, the TWAMR should be set with as less bits as possible. So I think the better way to calculate the mask is:
AddrOr = Addr1 | Addr2 | Addr3 | Addr4 ...
AddrAnd = Addr1 & Addr2 & Addr3 & Addr4 ...
TWAMR = (AddrOr ^ AddrAnd) << 1
while TWAR can be set as either AddrOr or AddrAnd
In this way we can limit the possibility of address conflict to the minimum

Using ElectricImp server.show() and Arduino

I'm following the sparkfun tutorial for connecting an arduino to electric imp. I only have one arduino and imp, so I'm trying to get whatever I type in the arduino serial monitor to display in the imp node using server.show().
I've modified one of the functions in the sparkfun code to look like this:
function pollUart()
{
imp.wakeup(0.00001, pollUart.bindenv(this)); // schedule the next poll in 10us
local byte = hardware.uart57.read(); // read the UART buffer
// This will return -1 if there is no data to be read.
while (byte != -1) // otherwise, we keep reading until there is no data to be read.
{
// server.log(format("%c", byte)); // send the character out to the server log. Optional, great for debugging
// impeeOutput.set(byte); // send the valid character out the impee's outputPort
server.show(byte)
byte = hardware.uart57.read(); // read from the UART buffer again (not sure if it's a valid character yet)
toggleTxLED(); // Toggle the TX LED
}
}
server.show(byte) is only displaying seemingly random numbers. I have an idea of why this is, I just don't know how to fix it because I'm not that familiar with UARTs and squirrel.
local byte = hardware.uart57.read(); reads in the ascii characters from the arduino in byte form (I think), and they're not being 'translated' into their ascii characters before I use server.show(byte).
How do I do this in squirrel?
Also, I think polling every 10us is the wrong way to go here. I'd like to only poll when there's new information, but I also don't know how to do that in squirrel. Can someone point me to an example where this happens?
Thanks!
I think you are passing the wrong data type to the show method of the server object. The electric imp docs state that it takes a string, server.show(string). I think that local is the correct type to receive the value from hardware.uart57.read(). You can tell from the docs as well. So, you need to find a way to cast your byte to a string. I bet you could find the answer here. From what I read Squirrel use's Unicode so there is a probably a function that takes Unicode bytes and loads them into a string object.

Arduino: serial.read within ISR

I am writing a small test program that attempts to perform a serial.write() followed by a serial.read() within an ISR. The code will eventually be used to prompt an external GSM shield to send an SMS on a regular basis.
ISR(TIMER2_OVF_vect) {
Serial.println("AT+CMGS=\"0123456789\""); // Tell Sim900 To prepare sms to number 01...
while(Serial.read()!='>'); // Wait for Sim900 to respond
Serial.print("A text message"); // the SMS body
Serial.write(0x1A); //Confirm send instruction
Serial.write(0x0D);
Serial.write(0x0A);
}
}
What I have found after a lot of testing is that Serial.read() within an ISR is not capable of reading a live serial prompt, instead it will only read any input that was buffered before the ISR was triggered.
Is there any way around this?
The only solution I have found is to place this code instead within the main loop(). But I want to send the SMS using a timer interrupt.
Thank you
You need to place the code in the loop() but using an IF:
float toBeSent = interval;
loop() {
if (millis() > toBeSent) {
Send();
toBeSent = milli() + interval;
}
}
interval is your sending interval in milliseconds.
I had a similar problem a while ago which I managed to resolve by using the Arduino SoftwareSerial library instead of the hardware based Serial.read.
There are some overheads associated with using SoftwareSerial, and you can only read one port at a time, so I leave it up to those with a better understanding of the Arduino platform to tell you if this is a good idea, but one of the benefits of this library is that you can use it within an ISR.
To use the SoftwareSerial library, add the following two lines of code at the top of your sketch remembering to replqce the rx_pin and tx_pin with the corresponding pin values you want to use:
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial mySerial(rx_pin, tx_pin);
Then replace the key word Serial throughout your sketch with mySerial (or whatever name you have chosen to give your SoftwareSerial instance).
An important thing to keep in mind when using SoftwareSerial is that you can only use certain pins on the Arduino so read the documentation first.
If you wanted to live dangerously you could enable interrupts inside the ISR and use a flag to prevent reentry.
int flag=0;
ISR(TIMER2_OVF_vect) {
flag = 1
if (flag){return;}
sei();
Serial.println("AT+CMGS=\"0123456789\""); // Tell Sim900 To prepare sms to number 01...
while(Serial.read()!='>'); // Wait for Sim900 to respond
Serial.print("A text message"); // the SMS body
Serial.write(0x1A); //Confirm send instruction
Serial.write(0x0D);
Serial.write(0x0A);
}
flag = 0;
}

Arduino Serial Communication not receiving entire message

I have a problem with the Arduino communication. It's quite hard to describe so I cant fit it in the title. Anyway here are the following:
So I have this code for my receiving end:
if(Serial1.available())
{
while(Serial1.available())
{
uint8_t inByte = Serial1.read();
inByte = inByte ^ k;
Serial.write(inByte);
}
Serial.println(" done");
}
It's supposed to print in one line and print done when it's done. The Serial1.available() seems to skip the next Serial1.available(), I don't know what's going on. Anyway here's my current, bad, output:
h done
e done
l done
l done
o done
done
when it should be:
hello done
I'm sorry if this could've been phrased better but that's all I can type now, my brain is kinda in pain. I've never experienced this behavior in a Windows c++ console application.
If you are calling that routine in loop() then yes, it will read from the serial buffer and immediately return since you are probably not sending the data fast enough.
A better way to handle this sort of thing is to use a control char which indicates the end of a message OR if you have a specific data format you expect to receive, then keep a count of the chars which have come in until the data format limit is reached.
There is discussion here which you may find useful: Serial Duplex using Arduino Also there are example sketches that ship with the Arduino IDE: Menu: Examples: Communication:
Also, read all the entries under the Serial listing for Arduino. Good stuff there.
So the routine you develop for working with Serial input really depends on your project and the kind of data you are receiving. In your example above, if you were to use a control char, it might look like this:
while(Serial1.available()){
char c = Serial1.read();
if (c == '*'){
Serial.println(" done");
} else {
Serial.write(c);
}
}

Resources