A bit of a tangent issue, but one of our consulting customers asked us
to integrate an external logging device for an ARMmite to keep track
of data being collected. At first I looked at SD, but found this
Vdrive from Viniculum.
http://www.vinculum.com/prd_vdrive1.html#vdrive2
<http://www.vinculum.com/prd_vdrive1.html#vdrive2>
Just received a couple from Mouser today, they're extraordinarily cute
and should be very easy to interface to. (also quite reasonable at <
$26, and give you USB connectivity to Flash drives). I'll post some
code when I get one up and running.
FTDI Vdrive
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Re: FTDI Vdrive
I have a sample program that interfaces with an FTDI Vdrive2 using the
UART interface.
This program opens a file on a USB drive, writes out some lines in an
Excel .CSV format and closes the file.
Vdrive2 BASIC program
<http://www.coridium.us/files/vdriveSERIAL.bas>
and a picture of the setup-
picture of ARMmite - Vdrive setup
<http://www.coridium.us/images/vdrive.JPG>
UART interface.
This program opens a file on a USB drive, writes out some lines in an
Excel .CSV format and closes the file.
Vdrive2 BASIC program
<http://www.coridium.us/files/vdriveSERIAL.bas>
and a picture of the setup-
picture of ARMmite - Vdrive setup
<http://www.coridium.us/images/vdrive.JPG>
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Re: FTDI Vdrive
The Vdrive example program has been expanded to add both read and
write functions. Its structure is now a file that can be a #include
into a BASIC source program. It also makes use of the latest trial
compiler that supports SUB..ENDSUB and local variable declarations.
And a sample program that exercises those routines is also included.
write functions. Its structure is now a file that can be a #include
into a BASIC source program. It also makes use of the latest trial
compiler that supports SUB..ENDSUB and local variable declarations.
And a sample program that exercises those routines is also included.
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Re: FTDI Vdrive
> Has anyone written code to reset their VDrive from ArmBasic?
Check the example code above
Check the example code above
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Re: FTDI Vdrive
> Has anyone had troubles writing to a vdrive? I have read working,
but
> writing to a file creates garbled text writes after a several write
> operations. Do I need to send to the vdrive serially one write byte
> at a time, rather than a whole line or text from a string at one time?
> I'm just groping for answers right now, hoping one is out there.
> Anyone using the vdrive successfully? Thanks.
Been writing quite a bit to it, though slowly meaning every few
seconds, but using short messages greater than a byte (usually about 20)
using code derived from the sample
but
> writing to a file creates garbled text writes after a several write
> operations. Do I need to send to the vdrive serially one write byte
> at a time, rather than a whole line or text from a string at one time?
> I'm just groping for answers right now, hoping one is out there.
> Anyone using the vdrive successfully? Thanks.
Been writing quite a bit to it, though slowly meaning every few
seconds, but using short messages greater than a byte (usually about 20)
using code derived from the sample
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Re: FTDI Vdrive
I was pleased with the VDrive2 module That I received last March except for
one small problem. On about every tenth or 20th write it slightly garbled the
message by dropping a few bytes off a string or by omitting the sequence of
carriage return line feed (causes two lines to run together).
My interface is with an ARMexpress microprocessor using the SPI protocol.
The microprocessor writes a series of one-line strings, about four or five at a
time, for each one of a series of events it is logging. The events are
spaced out several seconds apart. Checking the file with a a file reader, I saw
that sometimes the VDrive2 sent a series of spaces (chr(32)) that were not in
the original strings, and sometimes it put part of a string in the wrong
location. There was no way I could say whether it was the ARMexpress doing it or
the VDrive2. But the ARMexpress sent the exact same strings to my PC through
the programming interface without error.
I wrote to the VDrive U.S. support office and they sent me an upgrade to the
Vinculum firmware: V03.63 29-February-2008. The latest fix in there was to
a bug when overwriting existing files after performing a SEK operation to a
cluster boundary. Sure enough, when I went back to check my garbled files,
the garble always happened at a cluster boundary.
Downloaded new firmware and the VDrive works very well.
I can send you the files if you wish.
Sincerely,
Don W.
one small problem. On about every tenth or 20th write it slightly garbled the
message by dropping a few bytes off a string or by omitting the sequence of
carriage return line feed (causes two lines to run together).
My interface is with an ARMexpress microprocessor using the SPI protocol.
The microprocessor writes a series of one-line strings, about four or five at a
time, for each one of a series of events it is logging. The events are
spaced out several seconds apart. Checking the file with a a file reader, I saw
that sometimes the VDrive2 sent a series of spaces (chr(32)) that were not in
the original strings, and sometimes it put part of a string in the wrong
location. There was no way I could say whether it was the ARMexpress doing it or
the VDrive2. But the ARMexpress sent the exact same strings to my PC through
the programming interface without error.
I wrote to the VDrive U.S. support office and they sent me an upgrade to the
Vinculum firmware: V03.63 29-February-2008. The latest fix in there was to
a bug when overwriting existing files after performing a SEK operation to a
cluster boundary. Sure enough, when I went back to check my garbled files,
the garble always happened at a cluster boundary.
Downloaded new firmware and the VDrive works very well.
I can send you the files if you wish.
Sincerely,
Don W.
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Re: FTDI Vdrive
Hi Don,
Thanks for the reply. I found the problem was crossing the cluster
boundries, also. I wrote a write routine that writes 'filler text'
over the boundry and then writes the text I want after the boundry.
It works OK as a work-around. The best solution is to fix the bug in
Vinculum's firmware.
I see in Vinculum's website the V3.66 VDAP firmware. Apparantly
there is some way to get it into the VDrive2. I could search and
experiment to find the way, but I would appreciate if you could tell
me what you did to get the firmware update into the VDrive2.
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Ron
Thanks for the reply. I found the problem was crossing the cluster
boundries, also. I wrote a write routine that writes 'filler text'
over the boundry and then writes the text I want after the boundry.
It works OK as a work-around. The best solution is to fix the bug in
Vinculum's firmware.
I see in Vinculum's website the V3.66 VDAP firmware. Apparantly
there is some way to get it into the VDrive2. I could search and
experiment to find the way, but I would appreciate if you could tell
me what you did to get the firmware update into the VDrive2.
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Ron