Audio (voice) - Stock 9X PCB

[Crucial]

I received my parts from Digikey. Now I am just waiting for the module on the slow boat from China.

Unfortunately emartee doesn't seem to have any shipping info so I have to hope that it's on it's way.

[MikeB]

Mhotar: LCD_D2 is a BIG problem, because the signal is already at 3.3V for the LCD, so we can't put 5 volts on the place I'm using, and you can't connect your circuit directly to the processor pin as the transistor could hold the pin high when we need to drive it low for the LCD data. You can't, easily, put a resistor in the transistor output either, because there is, effectively, a 15K pull down resistor on the signal which limits the maximum value for such a resistor to guarantee a logic '1'.
I've been round this loop previously when looking into trying to get more inputs, or free off the I2C signals from the MEGA64 which involves moving some of the trim iswitch nputs.

My circuit could provide 4 more outputs as it stands, just connect LCD_D4 through LCD_D7 to the 4 grounded inputs of the '574, and pick up the outputs. I made sure the outputs had places to connect to on the stripboard layout.

Software progress:
I've now got the timer countdown saying the minutes. It is using a routine that will, hopefully, be general purpose, just give it a number, and a units reference, then it says the number followed by the units. So while it says "seven" "minutes" from the timer countdown, it should equally well be able to say "twelve" "volts", or "three" "hundred" "feet".

As soon as someone else has their unit built, I'll put test versions of er9x on the first post, together with the sound files. I've just modified my spare tx for telemetry, which is all working, so I should be able to get some voice output from that soon.

Mike.

[jhsa]

great.. VIIIIDDDEEEOOO..

I'm modding my tx at the moment.. just found out that I don't have wire thin enough for the telemtry mod
ggrrr.. sometimes I could kick myself on the backside..

[kaos]

How do you mean, worse? If it's not the hayfever season, she often is at the flying field with me. Helps to carry the planes, and is my 'official' photographer.

Mike.

You are a lucky man!

[gohsthb]

How do you mean, worse? If it's not the hayfever season, she often is at the flying field with me. Helps to carry the planes, and is my 'official' photographer.

Mike.

You are a lucky man!

Now go one step further like I did and teach her to fly. I don't think my wife will ever solo, not because she can't, I think she likes standing there with me more than she likes flying.
-Gohst

[Crashj007]

gohsthb, maybe she just feels safer when you have your hands full of transmitter ??

[gohsthb]

he he, I know she likes my hands full with something else. . . That is probably the only thing better than beer!!
-Gohst

[jhsa]

HHmm, beer.. shame I can't drink it...

[MikeB]

I've offered, but she says having seen the time I've taken to make the 'planes, she doesn't want to break them! I've pointed out it doesn't matter, and we can use buddy boxes, but she isn't that interested in flying them, very happy to watch and take pictures.

Mossie1.jpg (3.33 KiB) Viewed 12742 times

Mike.

[Crucial]

Mike, There is a discrepency between your wire strip placement drawing and the component placement drawing.
On the wire strip drawing on the right side there is a long wire strip in the C column from row 4 to row 13.
On the component drawing the strip is on C column from row 5 to row 13.

I looked at your picture of the completed mod and it looks like it matches the component drawing from row 5 to 13.

Can you confirm which is correct?

[mhotar]

Mike: Thanks for electronics lessons, you are right again and again LCD_D2 can not be driven to the 5V because of the LCD being 3.3V
But as you said, I think it can be connected directly to processor pin through some safe 200Ohm resistor. When the PB7 is HI then D2(SO) should be always in high-impedance, then PNP should be closed. Or I am wrong again?

[ReSt]

That's how my sound module will be placed in the tx.
Unlucky that I broke one leg of my only 3.3v regulator and now will have to wait some weeks to finish the wiring


Reinhard

BASE.JPG (41.44 KiB) Viewed 12719 times

base plate, wiring incomplete, distance bolt shifted over mounting screw

base plate mounted between the sticks

socket for the sound module at the bottom side

with sound module plugged in

speaker (surrounded with white plastic mounting) in the top of the housing below the piezo beeper

[Crucial]

Very nice!

[MikeB]

Mike, There is a discrepency between your wire strip placement drawing and the component placement drawing.
On the component drawing the strip is on C column from row 5 to row 13.
Can you confirm which is correct?

Row 5 to row 13 is correct, the component placement has to be correct as it is a dump directly from my EAGLE layout.
Thanks for spotting this.
I've updated the HowTo in the first post, and the image in a later post.

Mike.

[MikeB]

LCD_D2, I think it can be connected directly to processor pin through some safe 200Ohm resistor.

Yes, I think that would be OK. I was using the 3.3V signal partly because it was available on a via, so makes doing the mod easier, no soldering to the processor pin.

Mike.

[mhotar]

Right. Lets focus to your schematics. Thanks again for your time.

[kaos]

I think she likes standing there with me more than she likes flying.
-Gohst

and she is thinking "boy, it's so much fun to watch a big dumb boy playing with a piece of junk styrofoam and having so much fun with it"

[Kilrah]

Unfortunately emartee doesn't seem to have any shipping info so I have to hope that it's on it's way.

Hmm I did recieve a shipping notification.
...and package arrived today

[jhsa]

yeah, they are quite fast.. my board took one week..

Guys, you won't believe what happened to me last night.. I was doing the telemetry mod and removing the two bottom left resistors.. I was tired.. well, when finished, something looked very strange and not right..
I'Ve only removed the top right ones.. the board was upside down (I removed the board completly) and I removed the wrong ones And I found my mistake when I measured the resistors to check if they were still good and the multimeter showed 5,1K instead of 200 ohm

I just couldn't believe it.. specially when I've spent all morning planning my work.. What a dumb mistake..

Mike, could you please change the FW so from now on the telemetry mod need those 2 pins instead?

No, I'm joking I've soldered them back on (it was a pain) and went to bed
You see the problem is that I'm not allowed to drink beer at the moment..
Seriously the message here is, if you're tired don't attempt to do fine soldering.. you will probably mess it up like I did..

[Kilrah]

Seriously the message here is, if you're tired don't attempt to do fine soldering.. you will probably mess it up like I did..

That's valid for anything that requires concentration

[jhsa]

Yeah, after I resoldered them I've taken a photo and checked and everything seems to be ok.. also measured again between the vias and the atmega pins and I have the 5,1k. So all should be good I suppose.. Can't do more testing at the mo because the board is still out..

[Crucial]

I ordered my parts over a week ago so hopefully I will see them in a few days. I don't know if being in the US makes a difference. What kind of shipping did you 2 use?

[jhsa]

I used expedite. Paid €3 for registered postage with tracking.. well, tracking till it leaves China. But I've bought from them on ebay.. I think their seller name is emartee2009..

João

[Kilrah]

Expedited International Flat Rate Shipping.
Ordered 30.05, was sent 31.05 (I actually had a tracking no, seems I read the mail too quickly to notice ), received 07.06.

[Crucial]

I only received the paypal notice email and nothing after that. I ordered on the 29th from their website.

[MikeB]

Updated the first post with a zip file of some sounds, and a test version of er9x. It is only the FRSKY version at present, yell if you need the standard version. Flash is getting quite tight, although I could save some space if I use the newer compiler. I haven't changed yet because Erazz usually does the compiles under linux and he hasn't updated his compiler (yet). I may just need to do all the compiles myself (under windows) with the new compiler to get it all to fit.

This version includes volume setting, an option in the RADIO SETUP menu.

It also has a test version of a custom telemetry screen. It is pre-configured, and while you can change the items displayed, the selection is not stored in EEPROM (yet), so is lost when you switch off (that's why it's a test version!)
Choose the items to be displayed in the second telemetry configuration screen.

What is rather frustrating regarding the flash use is the menus actually use up over half of the total flash space (34700 bytes). I'm trying a small experiment with the second telemetry menu, when you get to the bottom of the initial screen, instead of scrolling, it jumps to a second 'page'. I don't think this is bad to use, and I think it uses less code than a scrolling menu. I'm really looking at ways to make the menus use less space, if we can reduce them by even 5%, we will gain quite a bit of space (1700 bytes!).

Feedback on this menu, and the 'custom' telemetry screen welcome.

Mike.

[Crucial]

I emailed emartee and they responded very quickly. Gave me a tracking # too. My parts were in NY on June 4 so it shouldn't too much longer.

[mhotar]

34k for menuru only is tragedy menuvise. Lots of code waste. Could be this part be writen in asembler and connected by some config table.

[SkyNorth]

Assembler !!? hey no swearing .....

[MikeB]

The compiler actually does a very good job generally in producing compact code. It's just there is a LOT of code. I'm trying to find a way of doing the menu code differently so it ends up smaller.

Mike.