Adafruit GPS logger shield kit - v1.1 troubleshooting

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sharamun
 
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Adafruit GPS logger shield kit - v1.1 troubleshooting

Post by sharamun »

After completing shield assembly of http://www.adafruit.com/products/98 w/EM-406A SiRF III http://www.sparkfun.com/products/465 testing w/Arduino Uno and sketches GPStest_RMC and SD_GPSLogger compiles and uploads fine, the GPS EM-406A SiRF III red LED blinks every second or so as expected but LED1 and LED2 never light up, an empty GPSLOG##.TXT file is created on the flash card, but no GPS data is logged to the serial monitor or the flash card.

I know it's not the Arduino Uno or the GPS EM-406A SiRF III because I can successfully use them with the http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10102 GPS shield.

Not sure where to start troubleshooting this, so any pointers would be appreciated.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Adafruit GPS logger shield kit - v1.1 troubleshooting

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Photos of the front & back of the board would be a good start.

Have you been through all the steps of the tutorial? In particular the "Re-Wire" section of the "GPS Logging" page.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/gpsshield/logging.html

sharamun
 
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Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:28 am

Re: Adafruit GPS logger shield kit - v1.1 troubleshooting

Post by sharamun »

Thanks for the reference to logging.html as that page has a v1.1 image which showed the LED1/5, LED2/6 wiring and installation of TXJMP which I had not done. Once I completed those and I uploaded the SD_GPSLogger sketch, red LED2 blinked as GPS data was being received/written and LED1 stayed lit once the GPS acquired location lock. Awesome!

Since I want to use the Arduino Uno/Adafruit GPS logger shield assembly as a standalone mobile device, I powered it up off of a ~11VDC 4.5AH LiPo battery but it only started logging after I plugged it into my Debian 6.0.1a laptop via USB and initialized the Arduino Uno serial port from Java via rxtx. It continued to log successfully after this initialization and unplugging from the USB port.

Is there a mod I can make so that the data logging can commence without opening the Arduino Uno serial port? That way it can function standalone without any dependency.

Thanks for the help!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Adafruit GPS logger shield kit - v1.1 troubleshooting

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

There is a startup problem with some versions of the Uno in some circumstances. See here for an expalanation and fix:
http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.ph ... 1&p=113576

sharamun
 
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:28 am

Re: Adafruit GPS logger shield kit - v1.1 troubleshooting

Post by sharamun »

Thanks for the heads up on the startup problem with the Arduino Uno R2 which is the version I am using. I am able to avert the problem by pressing the reset button on the Arduino Uno after power-up, which I am ok with.

To resolve the dependency on the serial port, I simply commented out all Serial.print* statements in the sketch and after uploading it, the standalone device successfully logs data to the flash card.

Thanks for providing such an awesome product!

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