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Serial Communications with Badge

A project log for Badge for Hackaday Conference 2018 in Belgrade

In the 1980's, you had to know programming to use computers. They were used for... guess what? Computing! Want to see how it looked?

mike-szczysMike Szczys 05/14/2018 at 21:469 Comments

Badge to Badge

Remember those TI graphic calculators that had a cable to transfer programs? The badges can work in the same way.

         IMPORTANT TIP: If the receiving badge doesn't react, reset that badge (shift-reset) and try again.                                                   Sometimes this is necessary after first connecting the cables.

Computer-to-Badge

A serial-to-TTL cable will allow you to communicate between the badge and a computer. If you own one of this cables we highly recommend you bring it with you! We will have cables on hand but it will be necessary to share them so extras are great!

Wiring Diagram:

Serial Connection Info:

Linux: Simple Instructions for Transferring BASIC Programs

This quick walkthrough assumes that USB to TTL serial cable will enumerate as /dev/ttyUSB0. Look at dmesg output after plugging cable to ensure this is true.

Setup simple Linux serial connection:

Send a File to Badge

Receive a File from Badge

Discussions

bosko wrote 05/25/2018 at 18:00 point

@M.daSilva  i was planing to do that :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

M.daSilva wrote 05/25/2018 at 18:14 point

how about working together on it? :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

bosko wrote 05/25/2018 at 21:58 point

yes we can.... i did not find you tonight so let me find you or you fine me tomorrow :) 

  Are you sure? yes | no

M.daSilva wrote 05/25/2018 at 22:03 point

No probs! We just arrived at our hostel, too tired to go out again... See you tomorrow! I'll be wearing a HaD Belgrade 2016 tshirt (with loads of dots), and probably with walkie-talkies :D

  Are you sure? yes | no

bosko wrote 05/16/2018 at 13:27 point

Is it possible to connect Badge with Serial communication, example to communicate with Arduino ?

  Are you sure? yes | no

jaromir.sukuba wrote 05/16/2018 at 14:51 point

Yes it is. There is UART on badge, brought to expansion header, you have the same on arduino. Note that badge has 3,3V levels.

  Are you sure? yes | no

bosko wrote 05/17/2018 at 11:24 point

@jaromir.sukuba  will be there some documentation about it ? or just append above here on this log how we can make that communication. Above log i can see only how to transfer programs PC <> Badge

  Are you sure? yes | no

jaromir.sukuba wrote 05/17/2018 at 12:21 point

@bosko The documentation is still in process, as well as final software. Apart from using serial port as backup to save/load your BASIC programs to PC, you have other options.

* There are words to send/receive data from BASIC program on badge.

* You can send/receive serial data to/from virtual Z80 running CP/M.

* You can redirect all badge standard input/output to serial port.

* There will be provided simple C language skeleton with hardware access routines (display, keyboard, UART etc...) if you want to delete badge firmware and load your own.

  Are you sure? yes | no

M.daSilva wrote 05/25/2018 at 14:42 point

Thanks for the amazing work! I was planning to connect it to serial radio modems, I'll probably use this feature :)

  Are you sure? yes | no