Usable with Arduino Mega 2560 + ESP8266 clone?

[msebald]

Hey,

great fork of the original software. Before I try too much: Is the code usable for an Arduino Mega 2560 + ESP8266 clone? You can find these boards in many online shops for small money. It is a single board which includes an Arduino Mega 2560 and an ESP8266 component.

Thanks and cheers, Martin

[afch]

Hello Martin.

This fork was specifically designed to be used with Arduino MEGA 2560. So you can feel free to use it. And if there will be any questions regarding original Firmware feel free to ask.

Regards.

ср, 16 сент. 2020 г. в 09:52, Martin notifications@github.com:

Hey,

great fork of the original software. Before I try too much: Is the code usable for an Arduino Mega 2560 + ESP8266 clone? You can find these boards in many online shops for small money. It is a single board which includes an Arduino Mega 2560 and an ESP8266 component.

Thanks and cheers, Martin

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-- Alexey [GRA & AFCH]

[msebald]

Hi,

I was talking about a clone. Like this one: https://aliexpress.com/item/32978927929.html

It is identical to the Arduino Mega 2650 (except the serial chip) and has an ESP8266 onboard, too.

With the DIP switches you can set different operation modes.

So my question is if and how I must modify the fork code to get it working. And also in what operation mode the clone board must run for the clock.

Regards, Martin

[afch]

Hello.

You need to talk about it with the author of the fork. The owner of the blog. He have made a mod for the Firmware. And used the WiFi module as well. We have not been experimenting. So write to him within he's blog and ask him about it.

Regards.

ср, 16 сент. 2020 г. в 15:03, Martin notifications@github.com:

Hi,

I was talking about a clone. Like this one: https://aliexpress.com/item/32978927929.html

It is identical to the Arduino Mega 2650 (except the serial chip) and has an ESP8266 onboard, too.

With the DIP switches you can set different operation modes.

So my question is if and how I must modify the fork code to get it working. And also in what operation mode the clone board must run for the clock.

Regards, Martin

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/buildxyz-git/nixiclock_ncs314/issues/3#issuecomment-693360037, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAROBMUDBY2BAS7BPPUODY3SGCSQZANCNFSM4ROKX7NQ .

-- Alexey [GRA & AFCH]

[msebald]

Thank you, I will. My thoughts were that I can reach him best here on Github. :-) Will leave this issue open as he might want to write here as well.

[buildxyz-git]

Hi all,

I have no direct experience with such a Mega 2560 clone so I can't offer any direct advice unfortunately.

In general, I would suggest using the original firmware unless you familiar with coding and can troubleshoot your issues. The debugging facilities in this fork have improved over the original as I had to do a lot of debugging myself.

[msebald]

I have no direct experience with such a Mega 2560 clone so I can't offer any direct advice unfortunately.

In general, I would suggest using the original firmware unless you familiar with coding and can troubleshoot your issues. The debugging facilities in this fork have improved over the original as I had to do a lot of debugging myself.

I have experience with Arduino and also do a bit of programming. My question was aiming more for the "special" Arduino including the wifi component.

I tried a bit yesterday but I was unsuccessful. Flashing the code without changing anything did work, but the clock does not work.

Then I tried the same with a "normal" Mega clone and the result unfortunately was the same. The tubes and LED do something but not what they need to do. I see what should happen in the serial console but the tubes don't do what they need to do. The only thing which does work is the tune which gets played at startup.

Is there a difference I need to setup in the code or the shield when using a Mega instead an Uno? I noticed that the Uno shipped with the clock is also a clone (CH340 chip) but this all does not make any difference as the clones are identical to the originals (except the serial chip).

Or is there a problem with the new 3.4 version of the shield? Does your fork work with it? @afch can you say something about this?

[msebald]

PS: Just tried the original firmware on both Mega clones (with and without the wifi component). The clock works with both devices. As I did not do anything on the code the wifi component is unused. But at least it looks like everything which is needed for the clock is still where it needs to be. I did not check GPS, remote control and temperature, yet.

[buildxyz-git]

I developed this fork using the shield version 2.2 from 12/01/2018. Another user reached out to me with the same issue. So something on a hardware level may have changed between versions. In which case you would need to debug as I do not have access to a 3.0 shield. Maybe @afch can comment on hardware changes made from v2.2 -> 3.0?

[msebald]

@buildxyz-git It works. A bit. Then it stops. I tried to insert the code changes from 2.x to 3.x from the official code into your code. Here is what I changed.

But I consider myself more like someone messing around in existing code than a programmer. So I might have failed big time here and there. Maybe you want to take a look.

NixieClock_NCS314_utils.cpp.txt

[msebald]

Ok, my clock now works with the 3.x shield, the ArduinoMegaWifi clone and NTP. I used the original software of @afch and your ESP8266 software plus the NTP code of your NCS314 firmware. I did not strip out or alter anything from the original software. At least not yet. No idea how far my motivation goes on that. ;-) I like most of your ideas and modifications. Like turning off the tubes at a certain time.