Product SEN-09623 | about 2 years ago

The Mega should definitely be able to pickup the output from the 9DOF.
If you have an FTDI breakout 3.3v, you could initially connect the 9DOF to the PC, with the FTDI acting as a virtual com and bring up Hyperterm or teraterm to see the 9DOF’s interactive menu and outputs from any or all of the sensors.
But if you don’t have the FTDI, and just want to connect to the Mega go through the Arduino tutorial particularly on the sample code for it’s UART and work your way from there.
Basically in the Mega you could just initialize the UART, set a delay for a few seconds, and then send out through the UART the decimal or hexa equivalent for the ASCII 1, 2 ,3, or 4, before you could start receiving data through the UART.
Hope that helps.

Product SEN-09623 | about 2 years ago

Yes a simple TX to RX pins from the 9DOF to the Mega should work with the AHRS FW, but for the SFE FW (which requires an initial input) will require you to either connect the RX to TX pins as well, or just modify the code slightly to output any or all sensor readings upon start up. Of course any of the options will require connecting the supply and GND pins as well.

Product SEN-09623 | about 2 years ago

There is another kind of FW that was mentioned but it was actually developed by the guys from DIYDrones, which is the AHRS FW (http://code.google.com/p/sf9domahrs/).
The main diff between the 2 kinds of FWs are that FW vers 11, 15, & 16 are from SFE and are actually a bit more raw in sampling the various data from the 4 sensors, which is best for testing and for a simple code to show how to sample data from the sensors. The AHRS FW though gathers data from 3 of the 4 sensors (Mag & 2 Gyros) and pre-processes them to output just the AHRS with drift compensation using the Mag. This is what you need if you just want to get the Magnetic Heading, Yaw, Pitch and Roll of the 9DOF. This is the FW to use if you want to try the cool Python GUI that represents the board (or the AHRS output) flying in an interactive 3D space.
Hope this helps the new guys.

Product SEN-09623 | about 2 years ago

Okay just so everybody has an Idea of Firmwares that had been the topic of the comments here. Anybody can correct me if I am wrong.
FW v.15 is the FW that comes with the current batch of 9DOFs (unless they have a new batch having the latest FW). FW v.16 is the latest FW. and FW v.11 is the last FW before SFE did away with the 16MHz HW version for the 8MHz HW version.

Product GPS-09758 | about 2 years ago

You should also have,
FTDI 3.3v cable’s VCC also connected to module Pin 5 VBAT, before data could start coming in.

Product SEN-09623 | about 2 years ago

I’ve just bought my 9DOF and had managed to solder a header and connected an FTDI 3.3V Breakout to it, and got the Menu showing. But I noticed that there are times when the Magnetometer Continuous Reading test (#2 in the Menu), would not change values even if I move the 9DOF around, but sometimes it works fine. And everytime, I choose the Self Test (#5 in the Menu), I always get a MAG: BAD. I tried loading in v16 of the FW from a v15, but both issues occurs on both versions. Have anybody else encountered these issues?
Here is a text capture of the 2nd issue:

9DOF IMU Firmware v16

[1]Accelerometer: ADXL345
[2]Magnetometer: HMC5843
[3]Gyroscope: LPR530 and LY530
[4]Raw
[5]Self Test
[Ctrl+z]Toggle Autorun
[?]Help
MAG: BAD
ACCEL: GOOD
must cycle power to perform another test

Product DEV-08562 | about 2 years ago

Looking at both the usbdrv.c and the boot.c files, it looks like its based from the Microchip’s Bootloader App Note AN1310 (please see http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1824&appnote=en546974) for High-Speed Bootloader for PIC16 and PIC18 Devices.
For the Host PC app, here is the URL http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/AppNotes/Serial%20Bootloader%20AN1310%20v1.03.exe
I hope this helps