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Permalink Reply by Steve Steele on June 4, 2012 at 3:13pm

OK, here's screenshots of Putty.  Com6 on the left is the USB end and Com8 is the air side.  Please let me know what the next steps or commands are. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Steve Steele on June 3, 2012 at 2:57pm

I currently get COM port 6 for USB side and COM port 8 for air side.  I've previously tried Putty and some of the commands and will continue to do some more debugging, for the most part I recall things were the same when I reviewed each board (never connected to each other) I was experiencing an odd reply on one board when I typed in ATZ and enter the reply would be ATZ with a (y with to dot over the letter).  I will go through more testing in a couple of hours with a friend who's very familiar with Putty.  Thanks guys, bare with me.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on June 4, 2012 at 7:26pm

I sometimes get that

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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Dean Wynton on June 3, 2012 at 2:54pm

Just out of interest Steve, have you tried just clicking on the terminal button in mission planner? does it connect then, and print out loads of symbals?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Steele on June 4, 2012 at 3:20pm

No symbols, just one line saying "Opened com port"

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Permalink Reply by Steve Steele on June 4, 2012 at 4:33pm

Oops I deleted my reply from above, it was "Yes, I receive OK on both coms."
Green light on USB blinking and green and red light on air side via the FTDI cable are blinking as well.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on June 4, 2012 at 9:21pm

Looks like this is a tough one!  Seems like the uC and coms are working.  Settings all seem right.  I can't see any obvious electrical problems with the board.  But they just won't link.

Without some RF test equipment it might be hard to do much more diagnosing.  Seems to me the only part left would be the radio side of the chip, the PA, and the oscillator/crystal.  If you have a multimeter with a frequency counter or an oscilloscope you could check the oscillator.

I would try reflashing the firmware on both radios.  Other than that I don't really know enough about the chip radio to do anything more without a SiLabs debug adapter or more test equipment.  You might just have to send them back.

Try doing all the other AT commands and post the results.  Maybe something will stand out.  I can run them on my set also for comparison.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Stew on June 4, 2012 at 10:34pm

Yep.  Flashing greens means searching for a link.  I've only seen the solid red on bootloader mode.  The red only flashes visibly when you're sending a lot of data, and it flashes upon serial com port data (not RF data) IIRC.  I could be wrong on that last part though, don't have them handy.

I'm also doubtful that the radio would interfere with 900mhz video.  I don't think the tiny shred of fast hopping bandwidth it uses would be noticeable on video.  I can test that though.  I've got a 8XX-1100mhz video TX and the radios.

That will actually be interesting to test.  I think the video may well knock out X% of packets if I set a channel it in the 900 range.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Steele on June 5, 2012 at 1:48pm

With both usb and FTDI plugged into my laptop I get GREEN blinking LED on both (approx. 2 per second).

For the USB end when I use Mission Planner and select to connect on COM6 it has GREEN LED blinking (approx. 2 per second) and both RED LED's blink (approx. 1 every 3 seconds) and then fails with message "No heartbeat packets received", I then Ctrl A and select Load Settings, the large GREEN LED continues to blink (2/sec.), the large RED LED blinks only 2 times within the 1st sec. and then the other small LED's(GREEN&RED) blink twice fast per second until the settings are finished loading and the the LED's go back to only the large GREEN blinking (approx. 2 per second).

For the FTDI side with Mission Planner when I select connect for COM8 the GREEN LED blinking continues to blink at 2/sec. and the RED LED blinks bright about 4-5 blinks per second.  The same LED light pattern remains in place during and after I use the Load Settings button.

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When the air side module is plugged into the APM2 board I and I plug in the power the GREEN LED is solid right from the start and the RED LED is dim and blinking fast (approx. 6+/second).

After pushing the connect button, on the USB the large GREEN LED blinks for 2 seconds and stays on for 3 seconds and repeats

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3D RoboticsPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on June 5, 2012 at 1:53pm

Steve, given that you have early production versions, I'd suggest you get a RMA and return them for replacement. All the ones I've tried just work right out of the box, so it sounds like there's something wrong with yours. 

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Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on June 5, 2012 at 5:16pm

Steve,

I'm with Chris and Monroe here. With those settings, that power configuration, and cabling, you should be seeing a solid green light on both units. The data you've provided suggest a problem on the board, possibly a bad solder to the antenna or an issue on the radio board, or something like that. I'd RMA them. Sorry you got hit with a puzzler. Mine work like gangbusters. I have a sizable investment in Xbee, but I'm likely to push most of those into service as a wireless sensor network, and replace all my telemetry stuff with the 3DR radios based on my experience with my units. 

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Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on June 5, 2012 at 1:22am

What are you using to power the APM2 when trying to communicate? You will read voltage on your servo rail, even if you don't have the power to drive your radio and servos. Be sure you are using a power supply capable of delivering enough amps... a 3S lipo, or I use a ham radio power supply. 

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