3 UART streams and three I2C devices - looking for board suggestions

Projects General Guidance
1

My project is to read data from 3 UART streams and two I2C sensors, format that data and display it on a 40x2 I2C LCD. Speed is not an issue, a refresh of once every 10 seconds is probably more than I need. I am currently trying to get this to work on a Mega for the UART, a Nano for the I2C sensors, using I2C to communicate between the boards. The Nano is only there because when I tried to do everything on the Mega, I had trouble with display data being corrupted and thought offloading some work to a second board might be a good solution.

I am having trouble getting the 2 board solution to work right. Question - ahould I be able to get the single Mega to do all of this work, or am I pushing too hard? If you have a better setup that you would suggest, I'd appreciate the input.

I do have an ongoing thread on the Programming section, trying to get the 2 board solution to work.

Thanks in advance for your help.

2

Maybe if you posted your code and your observations..?

Just a thought.

3

I2C between controllers has given problems as I remember.
Using the Mega ought to work. Did You get any advice about solving those issues?

4

Have you checked the impact of the display refresh on the overall performance? Eventually let the second controller do the GUI of your application. It won't work in any configuration if the display, sensors and second controller hang on the same I2C bus. Let each controller use its own I2C bus and use Serial or ISP for controller communication.

5

It should work on a single Mega, any dual processor approach is needlessly complicated.

Post datasheets of the I2C sensors and the expected serial baud rates and protocols for a more definitive response.

6

Thanks everyone. I'm going to go back to the single controller configuration and ask for help on the specific issues I face. Steve

7

We'll be waiting for You.

8

Thanks to all for the support. I wound up starting over on the Mega by itself - cleaned up the wiring, streamlined the code. Now is working as it should.

9

Always good to hear of success! The extra effort always pays dividends.

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