As promised we spent our weekend building the other MiniPiio designs. So without any further ado, here’s the MiniPiio_RS232.
This is for anyone who wants a RS232 port on the Raspberry Pi but doesn’t want to give up one of the two precious USB ports or clutter their desk with a USB hub to use a USB to RS232 adapter.
Unfortunately, there’s a mistake in the dimensions of the PCB. Instead of being 50 x 40mm like the other MiniPiio’s, the MiniPiio_RS232 is 45 x 42mm so its wider and shorter than the others. Being shorter is not a problem just ask Napoleon, but being wider does mean it interferes with the RCA Composite Video connector. 30-seconds with a file cuts it down to size but it does mean back to the drawing board or rather Design Spark PCB.
It was easy to fix, but just means another trip to the PCB manufacturer for another batch of boards. A PDF for the schematics is here.
[...] UPDATE: The first PCB’s have arrived see here and heres the first built board ** Like this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
Nice!
Where/how can I get such a board and/or it’s components?
Sam
The components you should be able to get at most electronic shops.
BoM
U1 – MAX3232 (16-PIn DIL)
C1-C5 – 0.1uF capacitors
K1 – 26W-Position/ Double Row 2.54mm Socket
K2 – 9W D connectot Male RA PCB Mounted
PCB – MiniPiio RS232
I’m getting another batch of the PCB’s made so if anyone is interested drop me a line at info_at_dtronixs.com (remove _at_ and replace with @)
very useful. can you also put the pcb file on this site?
thanks!
francesco
I shall put hem on github once we’ve received the second batch of PCB’s and checked them.
perfect! many thanks, francesco
How do you enable this in debian? With me, the ttyS0 or similar does not show up?
If you want to use it with your own programs, you’ll need to disable the serial in /boot/cmdline.txt (I think there is another file as well). Search the Raspberry Pi forums for more details.
Tony
Hi,
I’d like this board but do you have any drivers so that can it be used from Basic ?
I know the old *FX 2 and *FX3 commands currently don’t work from the RISC OS BBC Basic.
I’ve not tried BASIC yet but it works find from the OS, wiringPi and Python so it should work under BASIC
If you could possibly try it and let us know which commands are used from Basic to direct data in and out of the RS232 board that would be really helpful.
Thanks
[...] Rocrail is using the ddx library to send the commands through the serial port of the rpi. The booster board (ord-3) is powering the test track. Peter Gilling, designer of the board, advised on reducing the value of the resistor R1 – I am currently using 390 ohms- , this is also convinent for usb-rs232 converters. He was also concerned about the rpi being able to generate the signal… This is something that needs further tests… so far, with just one loco and without launching rocview, it seems to work OK. The raspberry has been adapted with a connector to generate the right voltage levels. It is based on this design I found on internet. [...]
thanks for the trackback
I’d like to buy a complete board like this. Do you know where I might get one in the USA?
We don’t have distributors in the US yet, you could try our European distributors
http://www.partco.biz/verkkokauppa/index.php?language=en
and
http://www.elektronik-lavpris.dk