RAK4630 hanging after reading battery voltage

WisBlock
1

Hi,
I am trying to add the ability to get the battery voltage to the Tracker example. My intention is to add it to the radio payload so that I can monitor it at the ‘centre’.
To achieve this I have taken bits of the battery example and added them to my code.
At the moment I am just displaying the battery voltage in the serial monitor.

It initially appears to be working OK. Everything initialises and it starts the main loop - reads the accelerometer data and displays it; reads the voltage and displays it; reads the gps data and displays.
But it then just hangs.

If I comment out just the part that reads the voltage (below) it works normally.

// Get a raw ADC reading =======================================
// float vbat_mv = readVBAT();

// Serial.print(“LIPO = “);
// Serial.print(vbat_mv);
// Serial.println(” mV”);
//==============================================================

Thanks
Alan

2

Hi @Alangward ,

Can you share your could so we can have a look?

3

Sure, but is there a way I can send you a file rather than paste into here?

4

sure. you can send it to my email [email protected]

5

I got your code.

You just want the voltage values to show on the serial terminal right?

Put this code

float vbat_mv = readVBAT();

Serial.print(“LIPO = “);
Serial.print(vbat_mv);
Serial.println(” mV”);

in void loop() function instead on the tx handler.

You can add delay on your void loop() too so that you’ll not bombard your serial output.

6

Hi Carl,
My target is to include the battery voltage in the transmitted data.
I am just displaying it in the serial output as part of my testing.

Alan

BTW. I just noticed this:

Would I be better using this?
I’m new to the Arduino environment and I notice that the source files are .cpp rather than .ino.
Also that there several source files. Would I compile them separately? If so, how do I link them? Is there something I can read?

Thanks

7

Both example will work fine.

If you’ll proceed the default example, just make vbat_mv a global variable so you can access it to tx handler function then send it as LoRa packet.

You can use the LPWAN tracker of @beegee as well. The advantage of his code is the low power provision :wink:

8

I would like to try that example, but how do I compile it? And link it?

Thanks
Alan

9

Oh. You need to Platform IO on that.

10

OK.

Thanks for your help.

11

In case you need Platform IO guide - RAKwireless Documentation Center

Then you can build @beegee 's example and upload to wisblock board.

12

Sorry for jumping in here.
The RAK4631-LPWAN-Tracker can be compiled in Arduino IDE as well.

  1. from the project copy all files (*.cpp and *.h) from the folder src into a new folder, e.g. C:/LPWAN-Tracker
  2. goto the new folder
  3. rename main.cpp to LPWAN-Tracker.ino (name must be the same as folder name)
  4. open LPWAN-Tracker.ino with Arduino IDE.
  5. Choose RAK4631 board
  6. start compiling.
1 Like
13

Already found it and in the process of installing it.

Thanks again

14

Hi Carl
Sorry to be a pain. but I have hit a road-block.

This is from the install instructions:

Download the PlatformIO folder from:

Copy the file wiscore_rak4631.json to the boards folder of the nordicnrf52 platform folder.

The path should be similar to:

Windows: %USER%\.platformio\platforms\nordicnrf52\boards
Linux:    ~/.platformio/platforms/nordicnrf52/boards
Mac OS:  /Users/{Your_User_id}/.platformio/platforms/nordicnrf52/boards

Then, create a new project in PlatformIO:

I don’t understand how to do the copy above.

Alan

15

Sorry. Just understood it!!!

1 Like