Week 8 - Input Systems
Not trying anything ambitious this week since I'm trying to catch up to everyone due to my week long flu!! :(
So... Basically just used all the same components as found in Neil’s temp sensor board.
Once that was working. I plugged in the board and how to deal with the real problem. Communicating with the board to read the temperature sensor.
Instead of the typical FTDI cable that was 20$ on amazon, I ended up purchasing a PL2303 from Prolific Technology Inc. USB to TTL Serial Cable. Due to this, I had a lot of pain figuring out how to make this device communicate with my Mac (macOS Mojave version 10.14).
First off, the cable that I purchased does not have 6 pins, but instead only 4. Based on the schematics, the color-coding is as follows: Red - 5v; Black - Ground; Green -Tx; White – Rx. Thus, I plugged them into the board accordingly.
Also, side note, I have a mokin A1501 USB adapter to create USB 3.0 ports. Once, my device was plugged in, it looked like everything is good and working since, the USB to TTL serial cable is present in system reports.
However, I wasn’t able to get the computer to communicate with the device. Thus, the following steps were employed to solve the problem.
A drivers is needed!!!
To install the driver, use this link HERE
Also, its necessary to provide access to the to the prolific technologies driver installation otherwise it will not be properly installed. To do so, go to system pref> security and privacy> click allow
Now, to verify that everything is installed correctly and that this device is not recognizable to your computer. In terminal, type the following
$ ls /dev
within this list, you should be able to find “tty.usbserial”. If this is present, then it has been properly installed on the computer.
Now, to run the board, I typed in the following command:
$ python hello.temp.45.py /dev/tty.usbserial
And this should pop up. Which means success!!!!
And, if the temp sensor is working, when you touch the sensor, your heat should increase the reading. Just like this.
