LowPowerLab Forum

Hardware support => Moteino => Topic started by: omerattiqahmed on January 22, 2018, 08:38:45 AM

Title: Few Questions regarding 8Mhz Moteino
Post by: omerattiqahmed on January 22, 2018, 08:38:45 AM
I have recently ordered couple of 8Mhz Morteino's and wanted to ask some questions. I know they come already bootloaded with 8Mhz version of bootloader but in case i need to, i might be well prepared :

1 For 8Mhz, Baud Rate of 5700 need to be used while downloading program from Arduino IDE. Default speed for Arduino software is more i presume. How this speed can be reduced ?

2 While programming the bootloader, the link on the website says that the AVR programmer required "external power". Is it subject to the programmer ? I am using AVR dragon which hopefully can supply power (5Vdc). So i do not want to connect any other power source while boot loading ? I do not have RFM69 or SPI installed on-board so no compulsion of converting voltage to 3.3VDC ?

Cheers
Title: Re: Few Questions regarding 8Mhz Moteino
Post by: Felix on January 22, 2018, 09:25:54 AM
All info you need is here (https://lowpowerlab.com/guide/moteino/moteino-8mhz/).
Title: Re: Few Questions regarding 8Mhz Moteino
Post by: omerattiqahmed on January 23, 2018, 02:32:56 AM
Felix thanks on the prompt reply.
I did went through this webpage before posting but i was not able to find the precise answers i was looking at. Like for instance for baud rate the link only says "57600baud upload programming speed (vs. 115200)". I was interested in knowing how to reduce this speed in Arduino IDE ? Do i need to download via cmd prompt with speed 57600 ? or there is any tab in Arduino IDE that lets you download at 57600 ?

Secondly https://lowpowerlab.com/2013/01/25/moteino-programming-jig/ (https://lowpowerlab.com/2013/01/25/moteino-programming-jig/) this is the link which explains about avr programmer. Now the AVR programmer used in this particular link "expects" to be powered up externally ? Is that specific to this programmer ?
I intend to use AVR Dragon from Microchip. I hope i can download the bootloader by connecting just the 6 pin header.

Thanks again.
Title: Re: Few Questions regarding 8Mhz Moteino
Post by: Felix on January 23, 2018, 10:23:20 AM
All of this information is on the page I linked above. But ok... let me rephrase it, hoping it will be more clear.

All Moteinos at this time come with the Dualoptiboot serial bootloader. You program them with a USB-serial adapter like the FTDI-Adapter (https://lowpowerlab.com/shop/product/90). If you have a radio and/or FLASH chip on the Moteino-8mhz you need to make sure the programmer (FTDI-Adapter can be easily adjusted for this purpose) powers it from 3.3V and not more:

(https://lowpowerlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/MoteinoR6_8mhz_ftdimod.jpg)

You don't need a jig or ISP/AVR Dragon programmer, unless you want to completely reflash the board. Then you are on your own.

The Moteino-8mhz has the bootloader running at 57600baud.
You need to install the Moteino Core to have the new boards from LowPowerLab available in Arduino IDE. Then you choose Moteino-8mhz in Tools>Boards and compile/upload your sketch, everything is taken care for you:

(https://lowpowerlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Moteino_8Mhz_IDE.png)

I hope this answers your questions.
Title: Re: Few Questions regarding 8Mhz Moteino
Post by: omerattiqahmed on January 25, 2018, 02:39:29 AM
Got it. Thanks Felix !!