Posts made by dsrc12

A STEM project for Christmas.

In this project I map MIDI musical notes and their Boomwhacker colours to a M5Stack CoreS3 (ESP32 based) computer's screen.

Boomwackers are great to teach students music and I used them in STEM clubs and also to make music fun for people with disabilities. You can also use this hardware & software configuration to learn the piano keyboard as you get feedback as to what keys you are playing.

There is a wide range of material to support Boomwhackers including musical instruments like xylophones, bells and tubes and there are also plenty of books with the Boomwhacker colour codes for songs.

I go a step further and show both the notes from the C Major scale and its associated Boomwhacker colour on the computer and external RG LED strip.

So for Christmas connect your tree lights to Christmas music and let STEM students learn coding and music.

This makes a great STEM project particularly if the students share their results with other students with a disability.

This project is on Youtube: https://youtu.be/gPvJRJ3iCL8

see more on my Youtube channel: dsrc12

References:
Youtube:
M5Stack MIDI ( https://shop.m5stack.com/products/midi-unit-with-din-connector-sam2695 )
M5Stack CoreS3 ( https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5stack-cores3-esp32s3-lotdevelopment-kit )
Boomwhackers ( https://boomwhackers.com/ )

Today I am exploring the Korg Volca FM driven by a M5Stack Core2 computer and a M5Stack Midi Unit with DIN Connector. I also set the MIDI notes using a M5Stack 8-encoder and the master volume with a potentiometer. The Korg Volca FM is a re-creation of the most famous vintage synth: the Yamaha DX-7.

This is a project for STEM students and they can also learn a little about music, maths and synthesizers.

See the video on my Youtube channel: dsrc12 ( https://lnkd.in/gXhTMeM5 )

@j_doe I need help with this one. Cannot get any UART program to work on CoreS3 with UIFlow2. I am using CoreS3 as a co-processor to a Raspberry Pi using serial coms but my initial unit testing is being done on a Windows PC working with Putty. Here is the program:

What I want is an equivalent program to this which uses an original Core computer. It is based on UIFlow 1 (V12.1.9)

I am using the latest firmware & on-line UIFlow IDEs (Alpha-28)

On the Core program I had to decode before I could access text from the UART - might need a similar solution for UIFlow2?
On the UIFlow1 program I accessed the Core UART using pins TX:1 & RX:3. I am guessing that the equivalent pins for CoreS3 are TX:43 & RX:44?

I tried to verify that these unit worked using M5Stack demo software at:https://docs.m5stack.com/en/unit/poesp32.
I tried examples with Core, M5Stack Plus and Atom for both TCP Client, HTTP Client and MQTT Client. None of these worked.
All of the examples resulted in the M5tack core device hanging with a serial debug message
"wait device connect
device connected"
Taking one example using the ESP32 Ethernet Unit with Core + Base to get access to the ports. I found a potential error in the published code. The published code uses the configuration for line 23:
"eth.Init(&Serial2, 9600, 32, 26);"
If the 32 & 36 parameters refer to the Core ports then this is in error. For Port B this should be "eth.Init(&Serial2, 9600, 36, 26);". Alternatively if Port C is used then the replacement code is: Line 23 "eth.Init(&Serial2, 9600, 16, 17);" Do the parameters in "eth.Init(&Serial2, 9600, 36, 26);" refer to the host Core or the embedded ESP32 in the ESP32 Ethernet Unit?

With the new code this results in progressing execution beyond the "device connect" and it now hangs waiting for an ethernet connecitons - debug message:
"wait device connect
device connected
wait ethernet connect"
I could not get it to progress beyond this stage.

My hardware configuration was that I connected the ESP32 Ethernet Unit to an ethernet cable which was connected at the other end to a Tp-link PoE Injector TL-POE 15OS with a 12V DC supply. The input connection to the Tp-link PoE Injector came from a Ethernet Switch connected to my home network. There was a Grove cable connecting the ESP32 Ethernet Unit to the M5Stack Core on Port C.
Is there any revised and update to date code for these examples?
Do anyone else get the example code to work?
I also could not get the UIFlow example to work.

I am having trouble getting recent modules like the Red 7-Segment Digit Clock Unit and the CO2 Unit with Temperature and humidity Sensor (SCD40) to work. None of the demo work - either in Arduino IDE or the on-line UIFlow (1.10.6)

I am using the latest burner (2.5.1) with firm version 1.9.8 on Core, Fire and M5StickC Plus. Tucked away in the on-line UIFlow for the Co2 Unit is a notice that these demos only work in firmware 1.10.4

The problem is that it is impossible to update to this firmware version as the M5Burner can only support up to 1.9.8

I see that there is a beta version of the M5Burner (V3) but the M5Stack server fails to download this.

I am assuming that M5Burner(V3 -Beta) supports access to getting firmware 10.10.4 and I am assuming that this is required to get the latest units to work. There is no announcement on this anywhere and it is total guess work!

M5Stack needs to improve its quality of support

1. better version control
2. better announcements
3. better support for downloading software

Please sort this out otherwise none of the latest units work!

I have both the GPS Unit and the GPS module. Both give incorrect readings using UIFlow. Why is this the case?

@zontex I am in Australia. I also had problems with downloads yesterday - extremely slow download speeds and often downloading just hung. Occasionally core firmware downloads would get accepted by M5Burner after 10 attempts but drivers for the latest M5Stack cores could not be updated from the Arduino IDE using the Board Manager with a reference to 'M5Stack'. At the end of attempting downloads if it got that far it produced a CRC error and the Arduino IDE abandoned it.

Today everything changed - downloads were fast, only one CRC error but a second download was successful. On a second Windows PC the first download was successful. I now have the latest drivers on my Arduino IDE for all M5Stack Cores and I have the latest firmware versions. I could develop test software for Fire, Core 2 and Core Ink using UIFlow IDE on Windows and downloaded onto all of these platforms but I was only able to execute code - Fire. While Core Ink accepted my firmware it would not execute it. Both Core Ink and Core 2 are hard to control compared to Fire and I could only get my firmware to download and execute on Fire.

I suggest that M5Stack do more alpha testing with users from a few countries before officially announcing a new version. This is a regular issue with M5Stack and happens after each new version is released. While these failures were occurring I could not do any software development on M5Stack from Arduino IDE to UIFlow.

@m5stack I had problems downloading firmware updates for cores and drivers for the Arduino IDE over the last 5 days but today it all went well. All downloads worked and my test code on Fire also worked. I was able to download the latest version for Core Ink: 1.6.6.1 and it was able to connect and accept firmware from my Windows PC UIFlow IDE on-line (V1.6.6) but it would not execute any simple programs on Core Ink. It had problems with Core 2 and ended up abandoned it and completed my latest projects with Fire - it is a good stable platform and works with the latest firmware (1.6.6).

@dsrc12: I have now got this to work and it works best if I discount the USB link to Fire. The code I had difficult understanding is based on a C++ Ternary Operator in C. Returns either ECG_Data_LENGTH if data equals 0xAA or ECG_IDLE if false. At least this is a start. Still need to decode the meaning of the parameters.

The download speed from M5Stack has dramatically worsened in the past two weeks. While I can still download firmware to core devices like Fire and Core 2 it often fails in the first attempt and it can take up to three attempts to get the download. It is now impossible to install Board Manager drivers under the Arduino IDE for M5Stack processors. I tried ten times and it failed 10 times - for example the 45MB M5Stack board Manager files only reached 10MB and refused to continue. I have excellent internet speeds and have no problems in downloading from elsewhere. I repeated the download and update procedures on another Windows 10 computer and had the same problems. On starting the Arduino IDE it attempts to update the M5Stack board file and gives me the error: Error downloading https://m5stack.oss-cn-shenzhen.aliyuncs.com/resource/arduino/package_m5stack_index.json
Is this a result of the recent UIFlow updated to 1.6.6? Software quality at and download speeds from M5Stack are terrible! This brings into question the whole viability of M5Stack - good hardware but shocking software support.

I wrote a simple UIFlow program to set and display the time on Core Ink. I had to update both the M5Burner to access Core Ink firmware and downloaded version 1.6.6 I was able to connect by Windows PC to Core Ink but it refused to accept the download and failed on each occasion. There seems to be a bug in this early release of Core Ink Firmware or it could be in the on-line UIFlow 1.6.6.

Please help me understand your code for this module
I got this module to work on a m5stack Fire but I would like an explanation of the library program, ECG.ino at:
https://github.com/m5stack/M5-ProductExampleCodes/tree/master/Module/ECG

There are no comments in the code which makes it hard to follow the program.
There is also no data dictionary for the following terms:
measurements
ECG_IDLE
ECG_DATA_LENGTH
ECG_DATA_H
ECG_DATA_L
ECG_END

parameters:
ECGdataFSM
ECGWritePoint
ECGReadPoint
ECGData
DataMAX
DataMIN

Difficult to understand constructs
What does the following do?

ECGdataFSM = ( data == 0xAA ) ? ECG_DATA_LENGTH : ECG_IDLE;
DataMAX = ( ECGData > DataMAX ) ? ECGData : DataMAX;
DataMIN = ( ECGData < DataMIN ) ? ECGData : DataMIN;

The documentation for this product at https://docs.m5stack.com/#/en/module/ecg?id=related-link
states that the MPU STM32 in the module supports a heart rate statistics algorithm. What does this algorithm do? What parameters does it use?

very helpful example - thanks!

@m5stack Thanks for your help - it now works.

@m5stack I have tried Tag36H11 images for numbers and this makes no difference. UnitV with M5Stack Fire and UIFlow did not decode the images. I did not make any alternation to my UIFlow code. Did you test this software?

The support for this camera is terrible. UIFlow introduces "Media Trans" without any explanation as to what this is - not even a link. The block commands supplied with UIFlow are not that helpful either and I can not get any programs to work. The Arduino example for Web_Cam fails to compile: Error compiling for board ESP32 Wrover Module" even through the Arduino IDE is configured for "ESP32 Wrover Module". The only software that works is Easyloader but what a disappointment this camera is because of the lack of software support, no examples for a working UIFlow and no tutorials. Please fix this. As usual M5Stack are inconsistent in naming modules and in M5Burner they call it "TimerCAM" but in it is called "Timer Camera X" and in UIFlow it is "Media Trans > Timer Camera" - please be more consistent in naming conventions. Quality Control for software at M5Stack should be improved.

@dsrc12 I still can not get any of the code software modules such as Bar code or April Tag to work with either M5StickC Plus or Fire. Here are some of my screen shots.

@m5stack Thanks for the link. I would recommend that you put a link to this tutorial from the product documentation

Hello world101, I have a similar problem. None of the UIFlow Unit V examples work. I am using a M5StickC and the latest firmware on both M5StickC (1.6.4) and Unit V. I would appreciate better help from M5Stack - there are no examples, no help and little documentation - it is all guess work. Others have suggested differences between the two V modules and a flip in image orientation may be required.

Re: M5StickC Audio Spectrum Display
Very interesting project especially has it uses the I2S microphone and there are very few examples of using this. I was able to compile your code and download it into the MCStickC. I encountered two problems: 1) after about 10 mins the program crashes 2) displayed frequency band allocations are incorrect