GoPiGo3 and Serial Port

dwalsh · January 1, 2021, 9:28pm

I am using a GiPiGo3 and Raspbian for Robots. I do NOT have a Grove Sensor but I do have several Adafruit PM 2.5 Dust Sensors with breadboard adapter kits (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3686). I have them working with Arduino boards because I went to some summer PD at UCONN where I learned how to do this. However, I would like to have my students use the dust sensors with their GoPiGos and have them use their PS4 controllers to drive them to various parts of the school and collect data. (It also promotes the class.) My students are also more familiar with Python. Can I use the GoPiGo3 Serial port with a 4-pin to male header cable (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3955) and connect this to the breadboard? Some advice on how to program in Python in order to access/read data with the port would be appreciated. I am sure examples are available for the raspberry pi but I am not experienced enough to know if using the port on the GoPiGo3 board is significantly different. I have found the pinout of the GoPiGo3 Serial port (GND, +5V, GS_Rx, GS_Tx and am under the impression that I only need to use power, GND, and the TX on the dust sensor to connect to the power, GND, and RX(?) on the GoPiGo Serial port. Thus ends my knowledge. Thank you in advance.

cyclicalobsessive · January 1, 2021, 11:31pm

Don’t know anything about using the serial port, but I did find a GoPiGo3 example that uses the serial port:

github.com

DexterInd/GoPiGo3/blob/master/Software/Python/Examples/gps_reading.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# This example demonstrates how to use the Grove GPS sensor with the GoPiGo3.
# Connect the GPS sensor to the SERIAL port on the GoPiGo3.  This port
# is on the right hand side of the GoPiGo3.
from __future__ import print_function
import serial, time, sys
import re

en_debug = False

def debug(in_str):
    if en_debug:
        print(in_str)

patterns=["$GPGGA",
    "/[0-9]{6}\.[0-9]{2}/", # timestamp hhmmss.ss
    "/[0-9]{4}.[0-9]{2,/}", # latitude of position
    "/[NS]",  # North or South
    "/[0-9]{4}.[0-9]{2}", # longitude of position
    "/[EW]",  # East or West

This file has been truncated. show original

And will show you how to configure, and read from, the serial port.

It is on your Raspbian For Robots at:

~/Dexter/GoPiGo3/Software/Python/Examples/gps_reading.py

For writing - it appears (from Internet documentation about pyserial):

import serial
port=
baud=
timeout=

ser = serial.Serial(port,baud,timeout)

ser.write("Hello world")

dwalsh · January 2, 2021, 12:12am

Thank you. I will check it out.