Is there a serial driver that dosn't take up a cog?

Matthew H

I've been trying to free up some of my cogs to make room for advancement's I'm planing on one of my projects and I've started wondering if there is a way I can send serial data back to my PC for debugging without taking up a cog by using Simple or FullDuplex Serial.

Sorry if this sounds vague and you need some more details to help me, but it just seams like a simple question.

-Matthew

T Chap

Look at the 4port in the exchange, then one cog will run 4 serial ports.

Timmoore

I can think of 2 options
1. Simple_serial doesn't use a cog
2. the is a 4 port serial object so if you use a serial prot elsewhere you can change it to use the 4 port versiona and use the same cog for debug.

Matthew H

I've used simple serial before but for some reason, I never realized it doesn't use a cog like FullDuplex Serial.

Thanks for the help guys,

-Matthew

StefanL38

as your target is to free cogs if you tell us details about your program it might be possible that other parts of your program can share a cog too

best regards

Stefan

Matthew H

Ok, here is the general idea of my program and I will attach the code. This Program is for my RC Car that is controlled by a Proto Board. I have attempted to document as I go but there are some sections that have no documentation and there are defiantly places that I should tidy up. Thanks to Timmoore's suggestion I am no longer using Full Duplex to debug which gave me the cog I need to add in a GPS sensor down the road. But if anyone can see a way reduce the number of cogs I'm using now, I would appreciate the help.


RC_Car v3-1 Main.spin (Assesses all data and attempts to avoid obstacles) (1cog)
│
├──RC_Car-Watch v1-0.spin (Watch for errors and low battery) (1 cog)
│ │
│ ├──ASM ADC code (monitor battery level) (1 cog)
│ │
│ └──Simple_Serial.spin (Debug back to PC)
│
├──RC_Car-Scan v1-1.spin (Sweeps PING sensor back and forth on a servo to watch for obstacles) (1 cog)
│ │
│ ├──servo4.spin (Controls servo that PING is mounted on) (1 cog)
│ │
│ ├──HM55B Compass Module Asm.spin (1 cog)
│ │
│ └──HM55B Compass Calibration.spin
│
└──RC_Car-Motors v1-2.spin (Controls the motor controller and a H-bridge to steer and drive) (1 cog)
│
└──Simple_Serial.spin (Talks to the motor controller) (1 cog)

Thanks,
-Matthew

Matthew H

Here is the rest of the code...

John Abshier

I count seven cogs in use from your description. CarWatch could be incorporated into main. Checking the battery every second should be sufficient.

John Abshier

Timmoore

The attached files may help
tb6612_3.spin is h-bridge driver. It doesn't use a cog but uses pwm_32_sv2.spin for pwm control which does use a cog. pwm_32_sv2.spin can also conrol servos. It will share a cog across all the uses of pwm_32_sv2.spin for all pwm and servo usage. It is a variation of beau's pwm_32_v2.spin, it can handle 32 pins as pwm or servo, the main diff from Beau's version is the shared cog.
So you can repace your h-bridge controller and your servo controller - 2 cogs with this that uses 1 cog.

Matthew H

@John, I was originally planning to add more error checks and such in addition to just monitoring the battery, and I wanted in to run independently in it's own cog. But I guess until I actually go that far, for now it makes more sense to just watch the battery from the main program.

@Timmoore, wow, thanks a lot! I won't be able to start working it into my program until tomorrow or maybe even Monday, but that should really help.

Thanks,
-Matthew

Timmoore

It looked like you are using the Pololu Micro Dual Serial Motor Controller? Looks like the commands match though I think pololu use the same controller chip for many of their controllers. I have an object using the 4port serial driver for that controller if you are interested.

Matthew H

Yes I'm using the Pololu Micro Motor Controller. I wouldn't mind taking a look at it if you don't have to search for it to much. I don't know that I would use it though since it use the 4port serial driver since I think it use a cog and I'm using Simpler Serial which doesn't. But I might learn something from it.

I still haven't tried working your PWM_32_sv2.spin program into my program, and thanks to my work schedule it looks like I won't have a chance to till Monday.

Thanks,
-Matthew

Timmoore

Here it is, the mdmsc.spin handles the controller and motormdmsc.spin handles overall motor control in this case for a 3 or 4 wheel omnibot.

Matthew H

Well, I finally got around to working PWM_32_sv2.spin into my program and it went without a hitch. After looking through it, I was able to change my RC_Car-Motors and RC_Cars-Scan objects to use PWM_32 quite easily. Thanks again Tim for showing me this object.

This means I now have 3 cogs free, which is more than I needed to free up in the first place!

Thanks again for the help,

-Matthew