07.12.2023 - The DCC-EX8874 Motor Shield and modifying the firmware of a Makerfabs Wifi Shield
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
- It was meant to be a short video showing my change over to the DCC-EX EX-MotorShield8874 RevA but I then found I needed to modify the firmware in my Makerfabs Wifi Shield and it all got a bit messy.
This video covers the steps needed to get the Makerfabs WiFi Shield working for DCC-EX.
For general DCC-Ex information see:
dcc-ex.com/ind...
For information on the Motor Shield see
dcc-ex.com/ref...
For information on Wifi Shield Issues and Solutions see:
dcc-ex.com/sup...
gist.github.co...
Apologies for the sound quality. I still need to get a microphone sorted.
And apologies that there are a couple of places where an inserted screen shot has failed to show.
Great work showing the update on the wifi board. I plan on going the other way as I have tried, owned and sold many of the comercial systems and moving everything to DCC-EX.
Thanks. I've found using DCC-EX works well (I usually link to the DCC-EX Command Station via wifi from my Mac on which I run JMRI).
This is the path I am travelling - thank you for the demo of how you have done it and the gotchas.
Thank you for the feedback. I hope all goes well :-)
Thank you for this - very useful. I'm going to give it a go so you posting this was very good timing!
So my wi-fi shield now works! A tip for those who have purchased a 6 pin USB to Serial adapter you may to loop RTS to CTS (if you are old enough to remember serial ports on computers this will make perfect sense!)
Hope all goes well.
Thanks for the information.
Great video, with very useful information. I started watching this last week, mainly out of curiousity after reading about the issue on the JMRI website. I have two of these wifi boards, I have only used one so far, without any issue and I am hoping the other one has the same firmware. I didn't realise until today when I saw the list of names from yesterday that we had briefly met. Dave
Hi Dave. Thanks for the comment. It was good to meet yesterday and hopefully both your wifi boards have the right firmware.
Thanks again for the comment. I've gone back and reviewed the video and have realised there are 2 points where a screenshot is missing and all that is shown is a black square 😞 Oh well will have to try and avoid that mistake in the future.
Awesome work... I was struggling a bit on this however this is a savior. Thanks a lot. It would be helpful to elaborate on choosing the ground pin on the WIFI shield or show exact location. On Makerfabs website the schematic shows pin 15 as GND hence bit confused.
Thanks for the comment. There are a couple of GRN pins on the Wifi shield. If you have the board with the makerfabs symbol in the bottom right hand corner (so the M is the correct way up) then the pins on the top edge are labels 0-13 (right to left) with pin 14 (which in fact is the 15th pin) marked as GRN. On the bottom set of pins GND is to the right of the 5V pin (in the bank of pins on the left side) and this is the GRN I used. Hope that helps.
Thanks @@AndrewH561, I was looking for the male pin you held when you were flashing the chip. I saw you were holding the bare male pin on one of the tiny contacts (I guess number 4) on the ESP-12F chip. I was keen to know that pin and how to identify it. Hope I am more clear this time.
Ah sorry I misunderstood. Yes it is pin 4 (counting from the left when the shield has the 'M' in the right hand corner).It is a bit fiddly as you have to keep in contact with that pin throughout the whole process. It took me a couple of goes the first time I tried it.
I have two DCC-EX setups. One uses Arduino Motor Shield REV3 while the second one uses the EX-MotorShield8874 RevA and all use the 20 x4 display. They work fine accept the display for EX-MotorShield8874 RevA doesn’t work, it lights up but I get no text. Both displays work’s fine when hooked to the Arduino Motor Shield REV3. The only thing I can figure is that the EX-MotorShield8874 RevA is marked wrong (SDA and SCL is reversed) Can you please help!
I haven’t come across this problem so not sure I can help at the moment but will see if I can find anything out.
Just in case you're not aware, what is presumably your full name is visible in the iOS command prompt! Enjoying your progress! Regards, Chris
Thanks for the info.
You have a terminal shield from Jack. Why not just use a ESP8266 serial wifi? Thx
I already had the Makerfabs WiFi Shield so I didn't think to try something else.
@@AndrewH561Ah, okay cool. I use them all. I got a few setups since I started with original DCC++. Thx
Have been trying to load my mega, numerous times, to no avail. Question how long did it take to download data on to the mega. Thanks
Evening. It usually only takes a short while (around a minute or so) to load the DCC software onto the Mega.