For networking I decided to do the Hello bus 45 project designed by Neil Gershenfeld. This project uses a bridge and one or more nodes which all communicate through the RX and TX pins on their Attiny45's. |
The first step was to use the bridge schematic to create one bridge module. This module gets programmed as node 0. |
Then I created the node modules using the above schematic. These are programmed as node 1, then node 2, etc. |
Next I flashed this file to the bridge and each of the nodes using this makefile. Making sure to change the node number and re-save the file between each flash. |
Once this was complete I used the Arduino IDE serial monitor to communicate with the system. I knew my project was finally successful when I could enter a node number, for example node 1, and then all of the nodes and the bridge would light followed by just the node I called out. |
Next I used my schematics shown earlier to mill out all of the nodes and the bridge on the mini mill. The board layout was not my own design, but rather the generic fab networking layout used by many students. |
I cut them all on one pcb board to make it easy to keep them together and so they would be held in place when I connect them with ribbon cable. |
Then, as I have done with all other pcbs, I used the soldering iron and reflow station to solder the components onto their respective positions on the pcb. |
Next, I used the same software steps as I used with the breadboard circuits and recreated the project on the pcb board. Flashing the bridge and each node, then using the arduino serial monitor to communicate with the system. |
Overall this week was a huge learning curve. In the past I had never done any networking and communication between chips. Because of this it was very helpful to have the code below written by Neil Gershenfeld as a starting point. It allowed my to get a quick introduction to communication between microprocessors in one busy week. |