Please don't make fun of me .... okay,
I'm doing a project that is creating a GPS Tracker. I am using the arduino mega 2560, a GPRS/GSM module, and a GPS Logger Shield. My problem right now is trying to make sure the ports are correct. I'm the programmer to this project and I know a lot of nothing about these boards but I know that I need TX and Rx to use the software serial to send and receive data. Is there anyway someone can help me. I will give more info if necessary.
There are enough Arduino based GPS trackers out there that you should be able to find some examples to look at. If you're using a Mega, then you shouldn't need to use SoftwareSerial. The Mega has 3 hardware serial ports. Use them instead. You'll be glad you did. I know all the examples you're going to see are going to be for an UNO and they're all using SoftwareSerial, but that's because the UNO only has 1 serial port. You'll want to use Serial1, Serial2, or Serial3 instead.
It sounds like you just need to do some basic learning about the Arduino and how to code for it. What have you done so far? This is a pretty steep ask for a very first project. You should really just take a night or two to play with blinky lights and get the hang of the thing first if you haven't already.
I've been doing that I've played with all of the examples and right now I'm playing with the TinyGps example and which is where my question is coming from. The boards are stacked so its a lot harder for me to follow on a video because the videos have each piece connected with the wires so I don't really understand.
Also, I know about using the serials(1,2,and 3) but I don't believe that will work for me since the other boards only connect to the pins that would be using the main serial. Or would that matter ?
I attached the example code at the bottom I know its made standard for an uno.
arduinoweb.txt (4.43 KB)
We're starting to get into the area where it really matters what parts you actually have.
That's a lot of code. How much of it do you understand? This probably isn't something where you can just hack and paste your way through. You're going to have to have at least a basic understanding of what is going on there.
i understand all of the code. im just trying to understand the RX and TX ports honestly for each board so it can be programmed properly
I don't understand the question then. Are the boards not labeled?
they are stacked, and every video I've referenced shows them using jumpers which made the declaration in the code for the connection is easier to define I don't know if there is a difference with them being stacked. The reason why I chose software serial because using hardware serial you have to use TX 14 RX 15 TX 16 RX 17 TX 18 RX 19 for the additional serial usage. but the boards aren't connected to those.
Sounds like you need to have a look at the documentation for the boards and see what they say they are connected to and what pins are being used. With shields, you can always bend pins out of the headers and hook them up differently. That comes up a lot when combining two shields that want to use the same pins. You could even completely separate them and connect between them with jumper wires provided you look at the documentation and see which pins need to be connected to where and why.
Yeah I read some more and decided to do that because the other two are too different to stack if that makes sense
