Hi there…
I just fired up an xPlained mini board for a specific project.
Burned the bootloader, everything works fine using the IDE to program… it’s quite a simple project, BUT… the SERIAL device isn’t working as expected…
No compile or upload errors, .begin(115200) and .print() all compile, but the output is junk characters…??
Yes - I know about and checked my serial console and PuTTY settings. I tried a couple of other bitrates either side of my 115200 goal…
Just an odd one. I suspect the onboard USB interface chip is not quite doing what I expected.
The code runs fine, just no serial comms - yet the bootloader could send and program without any problems.
Furthermore, if you consult the user guide for the xPlained board, you'll find on page 10 that DTR needs to be set in order for the UART to work. AFAIK the IDE should do this (as this is part of the Serial Monitor auto-reset procedure), but perhaps I'm mistaken.
In any case, I'd just start by sniffing the 328PB's TX/RX directly through the respective pins on the extension header (13=RX, 14=TX; see user guide page 21). If that doesn't give proper UART communications with your host machine, start checking potential clocking problems as @horace suggests.
Thanks… that looks promising.
Luckily my project doesn’t really need serial, other than a few debug prints - but I’ll have a look at that.
I like the very low profile of the board… it fits nice and tight up against the lid of my project box…
The project is running perfectly, a 4-channel sequencer for 10A mains outlets, with self varying step rates based on power consumption..
For my catering wife to run four 2000W hotplates (8000W) or food warmers from a single 10A outlet (2400W) !
thinking thermal mass and inertia, it works remarkably well