nanoFramework LoRa library Part4B

Transmit Basic Revisited

After finding some possible SPI library issues (April 2020) with my STM32F429 Discovery + Dragino LoRa shield for Arduino test rig I wanted to trial my code on another nanoFramework platform.

I had ordered a Sparkfun LoRa Gateway 1 Channel ESP32 for a LoRaWAN research project from a local supplier and an unexpected “bonus” was that the ESP32 WROOM platform is supported by the nanoFramework.

Sparkfun LoRa Gateway 1 Channel with wire antenna

I am using this in conjunction with my Armtronix IA005 SX1276 loRa node and my STM32F429 Discovery + Dragino LoRa shield for Arduino test rig.

STM32F429 Discovery+ Dragino LoRa shield with Armtronix device

The code now works on STM32F429 Discovery and ESP32 WROOM platforms. (manual update nanoFramework.Hardware.Esp32 NuGet reference required)

Sparkfun LoRa Gateway 1 Channel schematic

One disadvantage of the SparkFun device is that the reset pin on the SX127X doesn’t appear to be connected to the ESP32 so I can’t factory reset the device in code.

//#define ST_STM32F429I_DISCOVERY       //nanoff --target ST_STM32F429I_DISCOVERY --update
#define ESP32_WROOM_32_LORA_1_CHANNEL   //nanoff --target ESP32_WROOM_32 --serialport COM4 --update
namespace devMobile.IoT.Rfm9x.TransmitBasic
{
   using System;
   using System.Text;
   using System.Threading;

   using Windows.Devices.Gpio;
   using Windows.Devices.Spi;

#if ESP32_WROOM_32_LORA_1_CHANNEL
   using nanoFramework.Hardware.Esp32;
#endif

   public sealed class Rfm9XDevice
   {
      private SpiDevice rfm9XLoraModem;
      private const byte RegisterAddressReadMask = 0X7f;
      private const byte RegisterAddressWriteMask = 0x80;

      public Rfm9XDevice(string spiPort, int chipSelectPin, int resetPin)
      {
         var settings = new SpiConnectionSettings(chipSelectPin)
         {
            ClockFrequency = 1000000,
            //DataBitLength = 8,
            Mode = SpiMode.Mode0,// From SemTech docs pg 80 CPOL=0, CPHA=0
            SharingMode = SpiSharingMode.Shared,
         };

         rfm9XLoraModem = SpiDevice.FromId(spiPort, settings);

         // Factory reset pin configuration
         GpioController gpioController = GpioController.GetDefault();
         GpioPin resetGpioPin = gpioController.OpenPin(resetPin);
         resetGpioPin.SetDriveMode(GpioPinDriveMode.Output);
         resetGpioPin.Write(GpioPinValue.Low);
         Thread.Sleep(10);
         resetGpioPin.Write(GpioPinValue.High);
         Thread.Sleep(10);
      }

      public Rfm9XDevice(string spiPort, int chipSelectPin)
      {
         var settings = new SpiConnectionSettings(chipSelectPin)
         {
            ClockFrequency = 1000000,
            Mode = SpiMode.Mode0,// From SemTech docs pg 80 CPOL=0, CPHA=0
            SharingMode = SpiSharingMode.Shared,
         };

         rfm9XLoraModem = SpiDevice.FromId(spiPort, settings);
      }

      public Byte RegisterReadByte(byte registerAddress)
      {
         byte[] writeBuffer = new byte[] { registerAddress &= RegisterAddressReadMask, 0x0 };
         byte[] readBuffer = new byte[writeBuffer.Length];

         rfm9XLoraModem.TransferFullDuplex(writeBuffer, readBuffer);

         return readBuffer[1];
      }

      public ushort RegisterReadWord(byte address)
      {
         byte[] writeBuffer = new byte[] { address &= RegisterAddressReadMask, 0x0, 0x0 };
         byte[] readBuffer = new byte[writeBuffer.Length];

         rfm9XLoraModem.TransferFullDuplex(writeBuffer, readBuffer);

         return (ushort)(readBuffer[2] + (readBuffer[1] << 8));
      }

      public byte[] RegisterRead(byte address, int length)
      {
         byte[] writeBuffer = new byte[length + 1];
         byte[] readBuffer = new byte[writeBuffer.Length];
         byte[] repyBuffer = new byte[length];

         writeBuffer[0] = address &= RegisterAddressReadMask;

         rfm9XLoraModem.TransferFullDuplex(writeBuffer, readBuffer);

         Array.Copy(readBuffer, 1, repyBuffer, 0, length);

         return repyBuffer;
      }

      public void RegisterWriteByte(byte address, byte value)
      {
         byte[] writeBuffer = new byte[] { address |= RegisterAddressWriteMask, value };
         byte[] readBuffer = new byte[writeBuffer.Length];

         rfm9XLoraModem.TransferFullDuplex(writeBuffer, readBuffer);
      }

      public void RegisterWriteWord(byte address, ushort value)
      {
         byte[] valueBytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(value);
         byte[] writeBuffer = new byte[] { address |= RegisterAddressWriteMask, valueBytes[0], valueBytes[1] };
         byte[] readBuffer = new byte[writeBuffer.Length];

         rfm9XLoraModem.TransferFullDuplex(writeBuffer,readBuffer);
      }

      public void RegisterWrite(byte address, byte[] bytes)
      {
         byte[] writeBuffer = new byte[1 + bytes.Length];
         byte[] readBuffer = new byte[writeBuffer.Length];

         Array.Copy(bytes, 0, writeBuffer, 1, bytes.Length);
         writeBuffer[0] = address |= RegisterAddressWriteMask;

         rfm9XLoraModem.TransferFullDuplex(writeBuffer, readBuffer);
      }

      public void RegisterDump()
      {
         Console.WriteLine("Register dump");
         for (byte registerIndex = 0; registerIndex <= 0x42; registerIndex++)
         {
            byte registerValue = this.RegisterReadByte(registerIndex);

            Console.WriteLine($"Register 0x{registerIndex:x2} - Value 0X{registerValue:x2}");
         }
      }
   }

   class Program
   {
#if ST_STM32F429I_DISCOVERY
      private const string SpiBusId = "SPI5";
#endif
#if ESP32_WROOM_32_LORA_1_CHANNEL
      private const string SpiBusId = "SPI1";
#endif

      static void Main()
      {
         int SendCount = 0;
#if ST_STM32F429I_DISCOVERY
         int chipSelectPinNumber = PinNumber('C', 2);
         int resetPinNumber = PinNumber('C', 3);
#endif
#if ESP32_WROOM_32_LORA_1_CHANNEL
         int chipSelectPinNumber = Gpio.IO16;
#endif
         try
         {
#if ESP32_WROOM_32_LORA_1_CHANNEL
            Configuration.SetPinFunction(Gpio.IO12, DeviceFunction.SPI1_MISO);
            Configuration.SetPinFunction(Gpio.IO13, DeviceFunction.SPI1_MOSI);
            Configuration.SetPinFunction(Gpio.IO14, DeviceFunction.SPI1_CLOCK);
            Rfm9XDevice rfm9XDevice = new Rfm9XDevice(SpiBusId, chipSelectPinNumber);
#endif
#if ST_STM32F429I_DISCOVERY
            Rfm9XDevice rfm9XDevice = new Rfm9XDevice(SpiBusId, chipSelectPinNumber, resetPinNumber);
#endif
            Thread.Sleep(500);

            // Put device into LoRa + Standby mode
            rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x01, 0b10000001); // RegOpMode 

            // Set the frequency to 915MHz
            byte[] frequencyWriteBytes = { 0xE4, 0xC0, 0x00 }; // RegFrMsb, RegFrMid, RegFrLsb
            rfm9XDevice.RegisterWrite(0x06, frequencyWriteBytes);

            // More power PA Boost
            rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x09, 0b10000000); // RegPaConfig

            rfm9XDevice.RegisterDump();

            while (true)
            {
               rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x0E, 0x0); // RegFifoTxBaseAddress 

               // Set the Register Fifo address pointer
               rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x0D, 0x0); // RegFifoAddrPtr 

               string messageText = $"Hello LoRa {SendCount += 1}!";

               // load the message into the fifo
               byte[] messageBytes = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(messageText);
               rfm9XDevice.RegisterWrite(0x0, messageBytes); // RegFifo

               // Set the length of the message in the fifo
               rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x22, (byte)messageBytes.Length); // RegPayloadLength

               Console.WriteLine($"Sending {messageBytes.Length} bytes message {messageText}");
               /// Set the mode to LoRa + Transmit
               rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x01, 0b10000011); // RegOpMode 

               // Wait until send done, no timeouts in PoC
               Console.WriteLine("Send-wait");
               byte IrqFlags = rfm9XDevice.RegisterReadByte(0x12); // RegIrqFlags
               while ((IrqFlags & 0b00001000) == 0)  // wait until TxDone cleared
               {
                  Thread.Sleep(10);
                  IrqFlags = rfm9XDevice.RegisterReadByte(0x12); // RegIrqFlags
                  Console.WriteLine(".");
               }
               Console.WriteLine("");
               rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x12, 0b00001000); // clear TxDone bit
               Console.WriteLine("Send-Done");

               Thread.Sleep(10000);
            }
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
         }
      }

#if ST_STM32F429I_DISCOVERY
      static int PinNumber(char port, byte pin)
      {
         if (port < 'A' || port > 'J')
            throw new ArgumentException();

         return ((port - 'A') * 16) + pin;
      }
#endif
   }
}

When I initially ran the application in Visual Studio 2019 the text below was displayed in the output window.

Register dump
Register 0x00 - Value 0X00
Register 0x01 - Value 0X80
Register 0x02 - Value 0X1A
Register 0x03 - Value 0X0B
Register 0x04 - Value 0X00
…
Register 0x3E - Value 0X00
Register 0x3F - Value 0X00
Register 0x40 - Value 0X00
Register 0x41 - Value 0X00
Register 0x42 - Value 0X12
Sending 13 bytes message Hello LoRa 1!
Send-wait
.
.
.
.
.
Send-Done
Sending 13 bytes message Hello LoRa 2!
Send-wait
.
.
.
.
.
Send-Done

I could the see the messages arriving at the Armtronix device in the Arduino monitor.

18:21:46.299 -> Sending HeLoRa World! 188
18:21:48.700 -> Message: p8V⸮⸮⸮⸮⸮Kg
18:21:48.700 -> Length: 13
18:21:48.734 -> FirstChar: 112
18:21:48.734 -> RSSI: -70
18:21:48.734 -> Snr: 9.50
18:21:48.769 -> 
18:21:50.193 -> Message: Hello LoRa 10!
18:21:50.193 -> Length: 14
18:21:50.226 -> FirstChar: 72
18:21:50.226 -> RSSI: -49
18:21:50.226 -> Snr: 10.00
18:21:50.260 -> 
18:21:56.652 -> Sending HeLoRa World! 190
18:21:58.765 -> Message: Hello LoRa 2!
18:21:58.765 -> Length: 13
18:21:58.798 -> FirstChar: 72
18:21:58.798 -> RSSI: -71
18:21:58.798 -> Snr: 9.75
18:21:58.832 -> 
18:22:00.268 -> Message: Hello LoRa 11!
18:22:00.268 -> Length: 14
18:22:00.302 -> FirstChar: 72
18:22:00.302 -> RSSI: -49
18:22:00.302 -> Snr: 10.00
18:22:00.336 ->

The first message was getting corrupted (only when running in the debugger) which after some trial and error I think was most probably due to my RegOpMode register mode configuration.

// Put device into LoRa + Sleep mode
rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x01, 0b10000000);

// Put device into LoRa + Standby mode
rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x01, 0b10000001);

After a couple of years and half a dozen platform ports still finding bugs in my samples…

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nanoFramework LoRa library Part4B

Transmit Basic Revisited

One thought on “nanoFramework LoRa library Part4B”

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devMobile's blog

Random wanderings through Microsoft Azure, Windows 10 Iot Core, .Net Micro Framework, .Net Nano Framework and GHI Electronics TinyCLR

Transmit Basic Revisited

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