[OpenTRV-interest] Tinkering kits

[Alasdair Macdonald]

Mark -

My tinkering kit arrived a few hours ago.

FTDI cable has been ordered.

I have 3 questions right now. (I have some more that I'll either figure out
in the next few days, or I'll ask at a suitable time).

1. Please confirm the connections that should be soldered. Damon wrote
"solder to it's normally-open contacts which are the near-centre lug and
the one further from it, marked 'C'." I THINK that means that I solder red
& black to the left & centre pins in the attached image (the white cable is
marked "ANT", and is I suppose the antenna?)

2. How should I power the two boards? Hopefully the image can help here;
the green terminals are marked 5 / B / GND / 3.3, but I don't believe
you've passed on any information about this issue.

3. Do I *need* an Arduino now, or *might* I need one in the future (to
reprogram the board?) If possible, I hope to use my Debian desktop PC to
connect to the board(s). I've read the Ubuntu section at
http://sourceforge.net/p/opentrv/wiki/Arduino/ and already installed
arduino and arduino-core, but I'm still not clear if this is going to talk
to the Arduino or to the OpenTRV controller board.


Alasdair



On 24 March 2014 12:39, Damon Hart-Davis <EMAIL ADDRESS HIDDEN> wrote:

> I suggest that we use this list to discuss how to use the tinkering kits
> in the first instance!
>
> You shouldn't need to get any electricians or plumbers etc in in the first
> case to play with this...
>
> Next thing to do is get hold of an appropriate FTDI cable such as this one
> from RS:
>
> 429-307 1       £13.72  £13.72  USB-serial TTL cable,FT232RQ,TTL-232R
>
> (note that it's the 3V3 / 3.3V logic-level version), set up your computers
> USB serial to talk at 4800 board to the board, possibly using the Arduino
> IDE "Serial Monitor", eg see here:
>
> http://sourceforge.net/p/opentrv/wiki/Arduino/
>
> "Ubuntu, Arduino IDE and installing the latest release of the controller
> software"
>
> and you can interact with the CLI (command-line interface).
>
> You can set one board up as a hub and the other as an normal valve
> controller and have them talk to one another.
>
> You can go wild and order a Conrad FTH8V wireless value to be controlled
> by one of the boards and I can tell you how to wire the other to control
> your boiler in another instalment!
>
> Rgds
>
> Damon
>
>
>
> On 23 Mar 2014, at 18:12, Damon Hart-Davis <EMAIL ADDRESS HIDDEN> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm just getting the tinkering kits ready to send out tomorrow.
> >
> >
> > I have loaded up the latest code, beta_17, which will also be going to
> another trial participant's home tomorrow.  You can see that code, eg to
> check out from SourceForge and load into the Arduino IDE:
> >
> > svn+ssh://
> EMAIL ADDRESS HIDDEN/p/opentrv/code-0/trunk/Arduino/snapshots/20140323-r2736-V0p2-Arduino-REV2-beta17-boiler-bypass-timing
> >
> > Loading the code verifies for me that the FTDI serial/USB connection is
> working.
> >
> > For fiddling with the code, eg adjusting and it or just looking at its
> output on the Arduino serial monitor you may want to look here:
> >
> > http://sourceforge.net/p/opentrv/wiki/Arduino/
> >
> > in particular at the section "Ubuntu, Arduino IDE and installing the
> latest release of the controller software".
> >
> > Even if you're not using Ubuntu the main points that matter are editing
> the boards.txt file (wherever it is in your install) and getting the
> bootloader .hex file in place, and setting the serial monitor to 4800 baud.
> >
> > Even if you don't want to fiddle with the code, the last of those lets
> you interact with the just-human-compatible CLI to change settings via an
> FTDI USB cable, dump stats and so on.
> >
> > You may also want to look at the latest code under:
> >
> > svn+ssh://
> EMAIL ADDRESS HIDDEN/p/opentrv/code-0/trunk/Arduino/V0p2_Main
> >
> >
> > I have not soldered on the Big Red Button (that cycles between FROST,
> WARM and BAKE modes); solder to it's normally-open contacts which are the
> near-centre lug and the one furtehr from it, marked 'C'.
> >
> >
> > Have fun!
> >
> > Rgds
> >
> > Damon
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenTRV-interest mailing list
> EMAIL ADDRESS HIDDEN
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>
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