Did anyone try use Adafruit`s USB to TTL Serial Cable to connect?

BrickPi
1

Hi,

I’m wondering if this would be a good option for connecting to a BrickPi (Model A Pi):

It uses the serial pins on the GPIO.

Thanks,

Stephen

2

shday, that’s a pretty slick option. We have used modified FTDI cables to talk to the BrickPi, but not while the RPi is attached. If you’re going to try to use this to connect to the RPi A, one challenge is that to get the BrickPi to work, you have to disable getty on the serial pins. (see http://www.dexterindustries.com/BrickPi/getting-started/pi-prep/ under “enable serial pins”)

If you try this with the BrickPi image from our website, you won’t be able to communicate with the Pi. I think you need getty disabled to communicate over the GPIO’s. It’d be really interesting if someone had an idea for a workaround to this dilemma: you would have a foolproof setup for the RPi.

3

Thanks for the info! I’ll stick to one of the other connection methods for now.

Steve

4

Can I use an FTDI cable to flash the firmware? Or can it only be done with a ISP programmer?

5

Hey tjeerd, you can use either an FTDI or an ISP programmer to do it. Which do you have? (note we’re talking about the BrickPi PCB firmware here . . . is ther esomething wrong with the board we sent, or are you working on developing your own firmware?)

6

The board is fine. Although the ultrasonic sensor is working it is still jittery. I started digging in the firmware and maybe I will try to make some little changes but then I need to know how to flash it. I have an FTDI cable so I can use that one to try it out.

7

Hey tjeerd, we have a quick walkthrough on how to flash new firmware here: http://www.dexterindustries.com/BrickPi/design/firmware-documentation/flash-new-firmware/

It uses an Arduino, but you can also use FTDI and AVRISP. Would love your feedback on anything confusing about it. Thanks!