Missing Synapse Portal Software Users Guide

[kbanks]

(Sent by cbowen12345 as a Private message, reposted here)

I recently recv'd my 2500 evaluation kit. The online manuals "RF Engine & Evaluation Kit (Hardware Technical Manual v2.0)". refers to the "Synapse Portal Software Users Guide". That title does not correspond to any title of a distributed manual which is available on the website. Is that a reference to the Snap Reference Manual? When my mouse cursor came to rest over the "Snap Reference Manual" it id'd the author as D Ewing an the running Title as the "Portal Users Guide".

The reason I ask is related to three issues.

First, I am intrested in using the Relay switch and need to under more clearly how to set up the appropriate calls to invoke this. It does not appear to be documented anywhere that I can find.

Second, I would like to query the battery to determine voltage or use the "low battery warning" call to remind the user to have the battery replaced or checked. This is not documented except in a single def statement in the "evalBase.py" program as "isDemoBoard()" which appears to read an ADC channel. Does the battery have a sensor that goes to ADC channel 3?

Third, as I was reviewing the snap code for the mCastcounter (under the pinWakeup), I saw the poke function invoked. I understand the function but I cannot find a listing of specific locations that are used to store values. Are these in the NV area?

Thanks

Rick Bowen

PS I may have spoken to you about my problem of having a device (microcontroller board) that only has USB output and an inability to pass this data to the RF engine. I have not found any solutions and based upon my research I am not optomistic. Let me know if you find a solution or a work-around.

[kbanks]

I recently recv'd my 2500 evaluation kit. The online manuals "RF Engine & Evaluation Kit (Hardware Technical Manual v2.0)". refers to the "Synapse Portal Software Users Guide". That title does not correspond to any title of a distributed manual which is available on the website. Is that a reference to the Snap Reference Manual? When my mouse cursor came to rest over the "Snap Reference Manual" it id'd the author as D Ewing an the running Title as the "Portal Users Guide".

Yes, the "Portal Guide" became the "SNAP Reference Manual" (Actually the original Portal manual was split into two manuals - the "EK2500 Evaluation Kit Users Guide", and the "SNAP Reference Manual"). Sorry we did not catch all the references to the old doc title when we renamed it.

The reason I ask is related to three issues.

First, I am intrested in using the Relay switch and need to under more clearly how to set up the appropriate calls to invoke this. It does not appear to be documented anywhere that I can find.

You can find the code that sets up the relay hardware and then controls it in evalBase.py. Look at initDemoHw() and setRelayState().

Second, I would like to query the battery to determine voltage or use the "low battery warning" call to remind the user to have the battery replaced or checked. This is not documented except in a single def statement in the "evalBase.py" program as "isDemoBoard()" which appears to read an ADC channel. Does the battery have a sensor that goes to ADC channel 3?

I would have thought that was covered in the "Hardware Technical Reference", but yes, on the boards that have a seven-segment display, ADC 3 can be used to read the battery voltage.

Note that this is not true on the SN171 Proto Board - we wanted all 8 ADC channels to be available for external use.

Third, as I was reviewing the snap code for the mCastcounter (under the pinWakeup), I saw the poke function invoked. I understand the function but I cannot find a listing of specific locations that are used to store values. Are these in the NV area?

No, the "pokes" are to microcontroller registers which are memory-mapped.

End users usually won't have to track down these addresses on their own (if you attempting something that fancy, you should probably be working with our custom solutions group). However, there's nothing secretive about it.

Our RF Engines use the Freescale MC9S08GT60A chip, and you can get the full data sheet for the chip directly from Freescale.

Here is one link, I'm sure it can be accessed from multiple spots on the Freescale website.

http://www.freescale.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/data_sheet/MC9S08GB60A.pdf?fpsp=1

PS I may have spoken to you about my problem of having a device (microcontroller board) that only has USB output and an inability to pass this data to the RF engine. I have not found any solutions and based upon my research I am not optomistic. Let me know if you find a solution or a work-around.

As I believe David Ewing went over with you, the USB interface on our boards is meant to be a USB slave, not a master. It also has it's own "ID", and so will be recognized as a Synapse device when you plug a PC into it, not as whatever device you are currently using. You won't be able to use the existing USB interface without changing either your USB drivers or your access DLLs.

A better approach may be what David Ewing suggested - bypass the USB interface entirely.

As I understand it, Danny Galyean is working with you to set up a visit. We just need to gather around a whiteboard and look at your system from an "overall system architecture" perspective.

Kevin Banks