Safe & Sound @ E14-CLEWE @#8_GPS issues

E14-C.L.E.W.E. INDEX:

Sadly for the past week of various testing I have not been able to see anything come across to the TI MSP432 like I have was able to see with the Arduino Uno.

I even went so far as to pull the TI MCU and reset up everything with my Uno just to be sure my GPS was still working and I was able to see traffic both with Hardware as well as Software switch enabled.  So the GPS is good to go.

I have put a request out to others to see if anyone has some suggestions in coding that I can use to check my setup so hopefully either someone may have a suggestion or I will come across another hint somewhere else.

For now I am going to try and work on the sensor booster and see if I can tie that in with the LCD booster.  Since the GPS is THE key component for this project I have been focused on it a exclusively for the past week but every once in awhile you have to take a step back and work on something else and then come back to the problem.  I have had previous epiphanies doing such when my subconscious managed a break through where my conscious had burnt out.  So I have not given up on this part, merely regrouping and working other parts.

One of the last things I tried was from the Energia Reference offerings:  Energia Reference - Tutorials focused on SerialEvent.

This look very promising because it specifically mentions:  "A good test for this is to try it with a GPS receiver that sends out NMEA 0183 sentences."

When I had read this I was thinking, cool this is a perfect test!

/*

  Serial Event example

  When new serial data arrives, this sketch adds it to a String.

  When a newline is received, the loop prints the string and

  clears it.

  A good test for this is to try it with a GPS receiver

  that sends out NMEA 0183 sentences.

  Created 9 May 2011

  by Tom Igoe

  Modified 24 April 2013

  by Sean Alvarado

  This example code is in the public domain.

*/

String inputString = ""; // a string to hold incoming data

boolean stringComplete = false; // whether the string is complete

void setup() {

  // initialize serial:

  Serial.begin(9600);

  // reserve 200 bytes for the inputString:

  inputString.reserve(200);

}

void loop() {

  // print the string when a newline arrives:

  if (stringComplete) {

  Serial.println(inputString);

  // clear the string:

  inputString = "";

  stringComplete = false;

  }

}

/*

  SerialEvent occurs whenever a new data comes in the

  hardware serial RX. This routine is run between each

  time loop() runs, so using delay inside loop can delay

  response. Multiple bytes of data may be available.

*/

void serialEvent() {

  while (Serial.available()) {

  // get the new byte:

  char inChar = (char)Serial.read();

  // add it to the inputString:

  inputString += inChar;

  // if the incoming character is a newline, set a flag

  // so the main loop can do something about it:

  if (inChar == '\n') {

  stringComplete = true;

  }

  }

}

No success with this led me to research a little more and I found hints that perhaps the pins were actually serial1 not plain serial so I even modified the code and ran it as such but still nothing across.

Just to share some information on the Adafruit GPS shield here is some interesting information:

While it is specified as 3v and 5v in the documents and is clearly marked for 3v as well as 5v my testing with the Arduino and all of the examples I have seen for the shield has been using the 5v so I have stayed the same to be consistent until I have success where I can then deviate if needed.  But I did find a specific statement that is interesting:

Pin and Address Reference

The shield uses the following pins:

• +5V
• GND

For SD card:

• Digital pins 10-13 (Card Select, MOSI, MISO, SCK, respectively)

For GPS:

• Digital pins 0 (RX) and 1 (TX) when using 'Direct' switch setting
• Digital pins 7 (RX) and 8 (TX) when using 'Soft Serial' setting

This shield can usually be stacked with others (including those using SPI), provided that each has a unique Chip Select pin.

As you can see this only mentions the 5v.

In addition the digital pin specifications is nice and handy and matches up with my Arduino Uno tests.

At this point I am not sure if I need to stop trying Energia or if someone might have some suggestions for me to look at.  I wouldn't be surprised I just need to jumper something on the board but so far have been unable to see where that is needed yet.

Please feel free to share suggestions in the comments, I do read them/listen to them and even follow through!