Updated DIY DRO Build Instruction and Adapter Options

[chrisfancyfb]

Hi Yuriy. First, thank you so much for all your excellent work on TouchDRO. It's amazing the amount of time and effort you've put in to this, and it works incredibly well.

Also, full disclosure, I am 100% a freeloader in this project as I've done a complete DIY build with all my own parts, so you have made exactly zero dollars from me and I totally understand if support is for paying customers only.

I am currently running version Universal 1.6. I have 4 TTL glass scales, 3 from Aikron and 1 from Ditron. I have been troubleshooting an issue where bluetooth disconnects after about 1-2 hours, and it won't reconnect until I restart the ESP32. When this happens, the bluetooth light is on solid blue, and it pulses about once every 3 seconds. I saw you released a new version of the ESP code (V3 Free), so I figured I'd give that a try to see if it resolved the issue.

I downloaded the files from your site, and they seemed to get uploaded to my ESP32 without issue. However, once connected via Bluetooth, the axes wouldn't update when I moved the scales.

I used a Bluetooth Serial app to see what the bluetooth was doing, and it was receiving data from the ESP but it was reporting it in a strange way. The bottom of this screenshot is what I'm used to seeing, where the data is a line number and then the position of the sensor. However, that I got was the top of the screenshot, where moving a scale sent back the an address line, the axis, and either a 0, +1, or -1:

I re-installed version 1.6 universal, and the DRO started working like normal, so I don't think it's a hardware issue. Am I, as a freeloading DIY-only DRO user, supposed to get Version 3 free, or is it only for the official TouchDRO hardware?

Also, when going through the install instructions, I found what I believe to be a few typos in the command for Windows. This is what the site has:

On windows, run this:

esptool.py^
-p <port number>^
-b 460800^
--before default_reset^
--after hard_reset^
--chip esp32write_flash^
--flash_mode dio^
--flash_size detect^
--flash_freq 40m^
0x1000 bootloader.bin^
0x10000 partition-table.bin^
0x20000 touchdro-v3_2-free.bin

The first line should be esptool.exe, not .py. And the 6th line, I believe there should be a space between esp32 and write_flash, otherwise it won't run the uploader.

Let me know if you need any more information, and again thank you for all your hard work!

 

[tommybees]

Hi Yuriy. First, thank you so much for all your excellent work on TouchDRO. It's amazing the amount of time and effort you've put in to this, and it works incredibly well.

Also, full disclosure, I am 100% a freeloader in this project as I've done a complete DIY build with all my own parts, so you have made exactly zero dollars from me and I totally understand if support is for paying customers only.

I am currently running version Universal 1.6. I have 4 TTL glass scales, 3 from Aikron and 1 from Ditron. I have been troubleshooting an issue where bluetooth disconnects after about 1-2 hours, and it won't reconnect until I restart the ESP32. When this happens, the bluetooth light is on solid blue, and it pulses about once every 3 seconds. I saw you released a new version of the ESP code (V3 Free), so I figured I'd give that a try to see if it resolved the issue.

I downloaded the files from your site, and they seemed to get uploaded to my ESP32 without issue. However, once connected via Bluetooth, the axes wouldn't update when I moved the scales.

I used a Bluetooth Serial app to see what the bluetooth was doing, and it was receiving data from the ESP but it was reporting it in a strange way. The bottom of this screenshot is what I'm used to seeing, where the data is a line number and then the position of the sensor. However, that I got was the top of the screenshot, where moving a scale sent back the an address line, the axis, and either a 0, +1, or -1:

View attachment 514770

I re-installed version 1.6 universal, and the DRO started working like normal, so I don't think it's a hardware issue. Am I, as a freeloading DIY-only DRO user, supposed to get Version 3 free, or is it only for the official TouchDRO hardware?

Also, when going through the install instructions, I found what I believe to be a few typos in the command for Windows. This is what the site has:

On windows, run this:

esptool.py^
-p <port number>^
-b 460800^
--before default_reset^
--after hard_reset^
--chip esp32write_flash^
--flash_mode dio^
--flash_size detect^
--flash_freq 40m^
0x1000 bootloader.bin^
0x10000 partition-table.bin^
0x20000 touchdro-v3_2-free.bin

The first line should be esptool.exe, not .py. And the 6th line, I believe there should be a space between esp32 and write_flash, otherwise it won't run the uploader.

Let me know if you need any more information, and again thank you for all your hard work!

ESPTOOL.PY

 

[tommybees]

Sorry, somehow hit post?

esptool.py is correct, you need to install Python on your box before you can use these commands.

 

[ycroosh]

I re-installed version 1.6 universal, and the DRO started working like normal, so I don't think it's a hardware issue. Am I, as a freeloading DIY-only DRO user, supposed to get Version 3 free, or is it only for the official TouchDRO hardware?

Also, when going through the install instructions, I found what I believe to be a few typos in the command for Windows. This is what the site has:

v3 and v-anything-else are not compatible. The pin mappings are different, so you can't use them interchangeably. The output you are seeing is correct. V3 uses a different communication protocol. Besides the axis readouts it sends all sorts of other stuff back and forth.
I will check the instructions. .py should be correct (I pasted that from my command prompt). There might be an .exe as well.

Regarding V3 Firmware that was just released, is there any benefit for my scratch built hardware set or is this really a new set of options for non scratch built boards or ESP modules? I dont think there are any pay options for my gen of hardware either?

TouchDRO is fundamentally a software product. DRO hardware these days is about as braindead simple as it gets (the whole "front-end" is now available as one high-speed RS422 receiver that doesn't need hardly any additional parts. Most of the stuff on the board is basically the power supply. The fun stuff is all in the software (either in the ESP32 module, or on the android tablet). V3 firmware is a completely different animal to v1 or v2 - it is talking to the tablet back-and-forth and does all sorts of subtle little things that previous versions didn't do. Going forward, I am not adding not updating anything prior to v3 with any bug fixes or new features. If it works for you, no need to mess with it, but there is new functionality coming to the app that need v3 firmware.

And a constructive side note, new option strategies, especially complex ones with revision dependencies, could be much more simply explained with a table and not words. This would answer most peoples endless questions...or it is just me.
Cheers

Well, I don't know if any table will answer peoples questions (based on the fact that I replied to 5 emails today asking what tablet I recommend and another 3 asking if certain scales are compatible ...), but I get your point about a table. In reality, I will just hide all of the legacy stuff in a few months. I left it there thinking that people with iGaging scales will need the v1 stuff, but I'm thinking it's not worth it.

Regards
Yuriy