Not enought Serial ports

[FIRSTMa2104]

My team has decided to use a high-powered IR system but the receiver (which is suppose to be on the robot) use a serial port to connect to the RC and the RC has only 3 Serial port (including Tether). So is there any way to “create” a new serial port for the IR to connect to?

[Mark McLeod]

You can turn any of the digital I/O pins into serial connections by writing your own code.

[wireties]

What are you using the existing serial ports for?

HTH

[FIRSTMa2104]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

You can turn any of the digital I/O pins into serial connections by writing your own code.

ohh, ok will do that. thx

Originally Posted by wireties

What are you using the existing serial ports for?

HTH

We will need the tether for practice in competitions, radio for the radio, program for downloading code into RC.

[Mark McLeod]

The FRC has two serial ports--the program port and the TTL port (small pins on the side).

The tether is not a standard serial port that you can use and neither is the radio port.

For your purpose look at using the TTL port. It'll do what you need.

[FIRSTMa2104]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

The FRC has two serial ports--the program port and the TTL port (small pins on the side).

The tether is not a standard serial port that you can use and neither is the radio port.

For your purpose look at using the TTL port. It'll do what you need.

thx great help at the moment we are looking at TTL to RS 232 converters.

great help see you in UTC i see you are going to be there.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by FIRSTMa2104

thx great help at the moment we are looking at TTL to RC 232 converters.

IFI makes one "TTL to RS-232 Converter Board" for $10. http://ifirobotics.com/camera.shtml

[Mike Hendricks]

Originally Posted by FIRSTMa2104

We will need the tether for practice in competitions, radio for the radio, program for downloading code into RC.

You can use the program port for this, just unplug your IR board when you need to load your program .. this was a common practice for those who used the feedback on the old IFI breaker panels.

[FIRSTMa2104]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

IFI makes one "TTL to RS-232 Converter Board" for $10. http://ifirobotics.com/camera.shtml

I told my mentor but I think he already ordered a TTL to RS-232.

[garyk]

Originally Posted by FIRSTMa2104

I told my mentor but I think he already ordered a TTL to RS-232.

A TTL - RS232 converter was standard in the KOP for years 2005, 2006, and 2007. It's the postage-stamp sized PC board connecting the CMU camera to the RC's "TTL Serial Port", the four pins between the Relay Outputs and the Reset button. You can get an idea how to read the serial port from the camera code of years past.

[Los Frijoles]

You could always program your own UART code and use a MAX232 chip...however that requires considerable programming experience.