Orange Rx Openlrs ng - problems flashing firmware - SOLVED

Edit: The original post is at the bottom. The solution follows this message

There seemed to be some problem with the sketch not allowing a new upload, confirmed by purchasing a second RC unit and seeing the same behavior.
After replacing the onboard power regulator with one from ebay the board lived again.

I used an arduino pro mini as an ISP. I connected it to the relevant pins of the RC rx and uploaded the bootloader.

I then confirmed arduino funtionality by uploading the blink sketch,

Upon successful upload I uploaded the relevant openlrsng sketch and confirmed that it is all working,

There are some servo glitches every 5 seconds or so, maybe caused by a slightly damaged RF module, I dont know, I will do some mroe testing and when I have confirmed that I can upload and configure how I want I will upload to the NEW module that was never connected to 5v.

IF ANYONE ELSE HAS PROBLEMS WITH THE ORANGE RX OPEN LRS MODULE AND FINDS THIS THREAD FEEL FREE TO PM ME.

ORIGINAL THREAD

Hi

/i have this

Its running arduino, I have the code for it from here :

I have succesfully flashed the code onto the TX part of the system, but I cannot get the Rx to work.
I tried a google chrome config tool , that erased eeprom, and now when I power the board all that happens is that the led marked led2 ( i guess pin 13) flashes with what seems to be a familiar flash sequence,
1 flash , 3 flash, 2, 2, 2, 3.

then the other led on the board just lights up and it does nothing,
When I try to upload the code, just as the upload begins, it seems to get into its loop and block the upload.

Hopefully I havent killed it beyond repair, it takes ages to get a new one from china:(

anyone got any helpful tips for resurecting it?

well . I put a reset switch on it, didnt spot a pullup resistor on the reset pin, and the power regulator released magic smoke.

so , ordered a new power regulator , will see what happens when it arrives,

in the meantime any help is apreciated

Another compatible with an RFMxx radio. I've not seen that one before.

However, FWIW, I've had nothing but trouble with every one of those radios and libraries I've tried, and from 4 or 6 different sources. What I have found is the VERY BASIC examples may work, but in general, they are so rudimentary that you have problems trying to do anything "practical" - eg, sending over data streams larger than a few bytes long. All you have to do is look at the examples, and you realize they never did very extensive testing on the library software.

I've wasted massive amounts of time with that stuff, but was mainly trying to get them to work with the mega1284 chip. This pertains to both RFM12 and RFM22 radios. The 328 chip support is probably more likely to work correctly.

That being said, I would recommend maybe going with Moteino devices from lowpower labs. I get the feeling this guy is really trying to provide good software support, and he seems to be very responsive to addressing issues that come up. The RFM69 radio is 100mW.
http://lowpowerlab.com/

Thanks

I'll take a look at his link and see what it looks like, although the one I have linked is being used by many many people and they dont have a lot of trouble, there is a big community supporting the code,

I just dont know why I managed to apparently screw the upload, and then my stupidity burning the power reg seems to have finished the deal, i put a different power reg on the board as a test last night and it seems there is no rf output , i hope the module is recoverable, but i doubt it

spruce_m00se:
Thanks

I'll take a look at his link and see what it looks like, although the one I have linked is being used by many many people and they dont have a lot of trouble, there is a big community supporting the code,

I just dont know why I managed to apparently screw the upload, and then my stupidity burning the power reg seems to have finished the deal, i put a different power reg on the board as a test last night and it seems there is no rf output , i hope the module is recoverable, but i doubt it

Hmm, in that case, maybe I should take a look at HK's radio, LOL. As I mentioned, I've had terrible luck with the "usual" RFMxx radio libraries I've seen talked about around this forum - jeelib, mikem, attempting to use lowpower mod of jeelib with the mega1284.

Are you using it with one of the 433 transmitters shown in this page?
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__1120__1117__Radios_Receivers-OrangeRx_Transmitter_Modules.html

I guess I didn't realize this is an R/C transmitter-receiver system, per se. When I saw RFM22 and Arduino/328, I figured it was a standard radio system. Have you considered using it for a regular comms link, ala "It can even be programmed to utilize extra features such as telemetry and more!"?

From the looks of it, the board should be pretty darn simple. You should be able to tell if the Arduino is working by uploading any sketch, like a blink. And short of buying a new board from HK, you should be able to solder in a replacement RFM22 radio.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/anarduino/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Hi ,
when i try to load a sektch, (having put a different 3.3v regulator on it now)
one of the Leds flashes, something like , 3,2,2,2,3 times, then another led lights and stays contantly lit,

whenever the sketch starts to load, the arduino seems to manage to light the second led and the out of sync message appears.

Maybe I was selecting the wrong arduino type, but i was following some guys flashing tutorial, it didnt seem to be complicated enough to mess up,

Like I said, I got it on the Tx with no worries.

I may try to test the arduino part, I have a new smd power reg on the way, if the arduino is living and I get no RF output then I will get one of those modules on ebay, thanks for the link,

The bottom of this page has info for different versions of the board. Apparently there are several different ones, so you need to make the right selection.

Have you tried posting to the forum over there? This is a bit outside the normal arduino stuff.

Well..

My power regulator arrived and has been soldered on,
Now when I power the module, I get one light come on full power for about a half second, then the second LED comes on half power and stays like that.

I also have the new receiver board that arrived today, and the behavior is the same, only the new board lights the second LED at full power, i traced the second LED back to GPIO 1 on the RF module,

maybe the RF module is cooked and thats why im only getting half light on the LED? I will try to find out with mr google

Hi moose i have a similar problem. Sent you a pm. Thanks.