Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

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ZKDMun
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Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by ZKDMun » Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:01 pm

Hi,
I have a Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout as an second ESP8266 now.
With my NodeMCU and TeraTerm as an terminal program I didn't have any problems.

But I can not get any serial connections with the HUZZAH.

Is it possible to connect this board with a terminal programm, too?
Or is it not possible because of the console cable (like this one: https://www.adafruit.com/product/954) I use for the HUZZAH - if there is any differences in the handling between the MicroUSB-connection of the NodeMCU and the console cable connection of the HUZZAH Breakout?

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deshipu
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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by deshipu » Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:10 pm

If you are using the breakout (not the feather board), then you will need some sort of a USB to serial converter -- either the one you linked to, or one based on other chips (you also need the drivers for it, if you run an operating system that needs drivers).

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pythoncoder
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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by pythoncoder » Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:14 pm

Are you setting the baudrate to 115200?

I've used a Huzzah with an FTDI cable under Linux with no problems, using rshell https://github.com/dhylands/rshell.git. The latter is written in Python so should be cross-platform.
Peter Hinch
Index to my micropython libraries.

ZKDMun
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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by ZKDMun » Wed Jan 18, 2017 5:18 pm

I am using a FTDI232 now.

The installation of the driver for this converter was successful. I used this installation guide for windows 7 (my OS): http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documen ... ndows7.pdf

The FTDI232 is on the 3.3V-mode - not on the 5V.

Now I can connect the HUZZAH. But there is an empyt PuTTY screen. Yes, I reseted the HUZZAH, but nothing appeared on the screen.
Sometimes the blue and the red LED on the HUZZAH are blinking :/

edit: baud is 115200

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deshipu
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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by deshipu » Wed Jan 18, 2017 6:47 pm

What are your connections?

ZKDMun
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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by ZKDMun » Wed Jan 18, 2017 7:15 pm

HUZZAH <-> FTDI232 (this one: https://github.com/jandelgado/arduino/w ... -converter)
GND <-> GND
V+ <-> VCC
RX <-> RX
TX <-> TX
"NotConnected" <-> CTS
"NotConnected" <-> DTR (should I connect the last two? how?)

ZKDMun
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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by ZKDMun » Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:15 pm

I read this f.a.q. about the board:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huz ... /faq#faq-2

Did this mean, that I should use the 5V option in my FDTI-converter and not the 3.3V?

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dhylands
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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by dhylands » Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:17 pm

I'm going to guess that you need to cross the Tx/Rx signals.

i.e. Tx from the FTDI should be connected to Rx on the huzzah and vice-versa.

If you're using the 6-pin FTDI connector and a 6-pin FTDI cable then the signals will already be crossed, but if you're using some other adapter then you need to get the inputs and outputs right. TX on the huzzah is an OUTPUT and needs to connect to an INPUT on whatever serial adapter you're using.

On the console cable you showed earlier, the white pin is Rx and is an INPUT, and green is TX and is an OUTPUT.

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deshipu
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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by deshipu » Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:35 pm

ZKDMun wrote:I read this f.a.q. about the board:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huz ... /faq#faq-2

Did this mean, that I should use the 5V option in my FDTI-converter and not the 3.3V?
Yes, the breakout has a voltage regulator on board, so it expects 5V power. Also, the 3.3V power from the FTDI is too weak to properly power an ESP8266 -- that board needs up to 300mA in spikes, that's much more than this poor FTDI can supply.

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Re: Unable to connect Adafruit HUZZAH Breakout Board with Terminal

Post by ZKDMun » Wed Jan 18, 2017 10:34 pm

@dhylands:
Yes. That was mistake #1. :oops:
I crossed them, and now my wiring is:
HUZZAH <-> FTDI232
GND <-> GND
V+ <-> VCC
TX <-> RX
RX <-> TX

Many thanks!

@deshipu:
And this was my mistake #2.
I use the 5V option of the FTDI now... and it works fine.
Thank you very much, too!

And after I did start the webREPL via
>>> import webrepl_setup
>>> import webrepl
>>> webrepl.start()

Now I can work with the HUZZAH breakout and upload some files via webREPL... nice, thank you :)

Only sometimes I have to press Ctrl+C to get the prompt.

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