Avr2070 – Atmel AVR2070 User Manual

Page 58

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AVR2070

8240B-AVR-06/09

control) and press the enter key. A simple terminal menu should be printed,
and the ASCII 'd' character should cause a dump of the radio's register set. If
these values look reasonable (not all zero's or 0xff's), then the radio is
connected properly. If terminal display does not print, then the radio code is
probably stuck, waiting for the transceiver to initialize, which will never
happen if the radio isn't able to communicate over the SPI port.

2. Using the AVR debugger, set a breakpoint on the call to appTask(). If the

firmware is able to execute to this point, then it can be assumed that the radio
has initialized properly, and therefore the radio can communicate.

If communication cannot be verified, then there is a problem with the interconnects
between the radio and the microcontroller. Try the following:

• Double-check the interconnect definitions that were added into hal_avr.h or

hal_arm.h.

• Inspect the target board for solder bridges, bad solder joints, and other

problems.

• Verify the board's power supply voltage is correct.
• Use an oscilloscope to watch each radio signal while stepping through the

code. Does each pin move up and down as directed by code?

After basic SPI communication has been established, it is necessary to verify that the
radio interrupt mechanism is working. To do this, simply start debugging the target,
place a breakpoint on the radio ISR function (RADIO_VECT) in hal_avr.h or
hal_arm.h, and then run the program. There should be at least one interrupt on
startup (TRX_END) if everything is working right. There should also be an interrupt
when the radio receives any 802.15.4 packet.

B.4.4 Step 4: Verify that the RUM network is working on the hardware

At this point, it is important to verify that the RUM network is completely functional on
the new board. To do this, a second node will be needed to talk to the first target
board. This other node must be a coordinator if the new node is configured as a
router or end node, or vice versa. If there is a telnet or serial debug interface
available and it has been enabled by setting the DEBUG flag to one, the DEBUG
interface will be able to show when the nodes connect as soon as both nodes are
powered on (and running firmware) at the same time.

If there is no network connection between the two nodes, check the following:

1. Are both nodes working in the same band?

2. If the band is 900MHz, are both radios using the same modulation scheme?

3. Is the coordinator set to a single fixed channel? See the PAN_CHANNEL

keyword.

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