If you need a quick "wireless" PanelDue...

gtj0

I'm on the road this week but wanted to make some additional PanelDue firmware changes while I was away. The problem was that the printer and PanelDue would be separated by about 1700 miles so how would I test? On a whim, I tossed the PanelDue in my bag and scrounged around in my store room and found a few of these https://www.adafruit.com/product/954 so I tossed one in as well.

So now I'm sitting in my sister's house in Boston with the PanelDue connected to my laptop via the USB serial converter and my laptop connected to the printer in Denver via VPN.

I just ran...

# socat TCP4:duet0:23 /dev/ttyUSB0,b115200,nonblock,rawer

to connect the Duet's telnet to the PanelDue's serial port and now my PanelDue is happily connected to my printer!

I should have set up the webcam before I left but I forgot. That way I could have scared the hell out of my pet sitter by raising Black Beauty's bed 500mm up and down at 6000mm/min whenever she walked by.

Anyway, this will work with any Linux (and possibly Mac) machine and if it has a 3.3v UART, like a Pi you don't even the USB converter (but you will still need 5v power).

I actually have some Wandboards in the store room so I'm going to print a case that has the PanelDue in front with a Wandboard behind it to provide network connectivity.

Danal

FANTASTIC!!!!

Going to convert my Panels, even the local ones, immediately. Build a little charging dock for a little LiPo in the Panel case, etc.

NIFTY. NEATO. COOLNESS. SLICK. INSPIRED.

Wisdom always seem obvious AFTER you hear it... yet it takes someone to realize it and say it...

Thank You

bret4

Sounds interesting but I'm not that great at understanding just how you did this. Maybe some kind of video or picture instruction on how to do it.

gtj0

@bret4 It's easy...

Here's a pic of the USB adapter connected to my PanelDue 7i:
alt text

When you connect the adapter to your host of choice, you'll get a device named /dev/ttyUSB0 (or 1 or 2... depending on whether you already have another USB to serial converter attached).

Make sure you have the "socat" program installed using whatever your distribution's package manager is.

Now run...

$ sudo socat TCP4:duet0:23 /dev/ttyUSB0,b115200,nonblock,rawer

Replace "duet0" with the ip address or hostname of your Duet.
Assuming the Duet is responding to telnet requests, the command will just block but in the background it'll now simply transfer whatever data it gets between the two connections, the telnet connection to the Duet, and the serial connection to the panel..

On the PanelDue, press the reset button.

That's it.

bret4

Thanks, that I can understand. Cool!

gtj0

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention... The default baud rate on the PanelDue is actually 57600. I have mine set to 115200 which is the "b115200" on the socat command line. If yours is at the default, replace "b115200" with "b57600".