I am using hagisonic stargazer rs 1.0 kit to work together with irobot for localization, and the position data is transmitted through the 4 pin serial port “OUT” (RX,TX,GND and 5V). The 5V pin is left blank, and the other three are all connected. The stargazer has been working well before but recently just stopped sending back data. It is blinking all the time though, meaning it is recognizing the tags on the ceiling. So I want to see if its TX port is sending out data or not. Is there any convenient way to test this?
Besides, I assume by using Arduino I can see the readings in TX, but I do not know if I also need to connect RX pin in this case. I learned from the stargazer manual that, when I use the monitor on windows, it needs a start command of ~#CalcStart’ to let it start sending data. Do I need to send this command to stargazer (and maybe also wait for its response of ACK ) if I write a testing program on Arduino? Or it is just consistently sending its readings back once powered on?
you might need indeed to make an external test program if you want to test the module individually.
If you want to monitor the communication that is already happening, you could connect the RX and TX lines of a US-to-serial adapter and snoop into the communication (you can even use an Arduino with a blank program to achieve that).
I connected individually with stargazer and laptop, and used CuteCom to read serial data coming in. I saw readings from UART port, but nothing from 4 pin port. I double checked through oscilloscope, and UART is working perfectly fine but 4 pin port is still with no output. Therefore, it is clear that other parts are working fine but the 4 pin port.
I guess the signal may be blocked/disabled internally for such 4 pin port to transmit, because we have some more stargazers having the same issue. Any good ideas on this? Thanks a lot!
