I was looking to use some TXv4 that I have to connect to my existing emonPi2s to use as expansion ports using USB instead of 433Mhz (the environment is too noisy for reliable RF signals).
Connecting the TXv4 USBC to the emonPi2 USB A worked great upon initialization, in that I could see the TXv4 inputs on the emonPi2, but then nothing after the initial readings. It seems that the TXv4 expects to transmit data via RF only.
So, I then embarked on a journey of reprogramming the TXv4 to bypass the Radio (as the radio module is soldered onto the board, removing it wasnāt an option). The issue I ran into when trying to connect an Arduino unit is that the Reset Pin is not exposed on the TXv4, whereas MOSI, MISO, and SCK are available. Iām not comfortable with soldering a very fine wire to ATmega328P pin 29 (RESET / PC6). So, I have abandoned this approach.
So, all this to say, will the TX5 have the ability to connect to an emonPi2/3 via USB as well as RF? Or will the emonPi3 with Raspberry Pi Zero have the microUSB port on the board that I can use with an Ethernet adapter or use a USB cable from the Pi Zero to emonPi2/3? It seems like overkill to have to go with a full Pi to gain additional ports when RF is not an option.
The way I work with an emonTx4 (and this is how I wrote, tested and proved the emonLibDB library) is connect a laptop with the Arduino IDE (is that your āArduino unitā) with a USB-C cable (the right way up - see the Docs) and compile and upload the sketch with that.
So in fact, I think all you need is the ability to communicate via a standard USB-C connection with your emonTx4 and send a few serial commands. If this is what you define as āreprogrammingā, then fair enough. You should not need to (but you can if you wish) strip out all the RFM code and permanently enable the JSON output.
You are correct that I was using my laptop running Arduino IDE, and this was connected to an Arduino Nano, which I was going to attempt to connect to the emonTX4.
The USBC serial cable approach seems a better solution and far more elegant.
I will give this a whirl, and I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.
Hi Gordon - I think Rob + Brian have addressed the initial question for the Tx4. The Pi3/Tx6 supports the same thing - data are sent over the USB-C port, which will appear on your computer as a normal serial device. No need to alter the source code, in fact I would strongly recommend against that, given that might have unforeseen consequences Let us know if you have any issues or queries.
of course substituting the correct values for vendor ID & product, and what you want to call it. In this example for the FTDI programmer, those are ā10c4ā, āea60ā & āFTDIā respectively.
Iāve no idea whether a similar function is available on a Windows system.
There are various ways of doing it. I was simply saying the reason the data appears and then goes, may well be because the device name has changed, not because of the firmware.
Let us know if you have any issues or queries.