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Hi Greg,

     I apologize for the inconvenience it might have caused you. Could you elaborate a little bit more on which information is the data sheet missing? Regarding the NMEA messages, six standard messages are supported and are listed under the host APIs document.

     I just went ahead to double check the download link and I did not face any issue. Could you share an screenshot so I can better report the problem to our IT team, please?

Regards,

Miguel

Hi Miguel,

 

Miguel

Could you elaborate a little bit more on which information is the data sheet missing?

 

Ideally, I would like to see the necessary infromation more organized. I miss the followings:

 

1. schematic of the EM module (what JP1 and JP3 jumpers do? etc.) I just realized that the tiny JP1 jumper has no jumper on it - is that intentional or I just lost it somewhere? 

2.  NMEA messages clearly described

There is the CC4000 NMEA APIs Description PDF, indeed, but it is just an D'oxygen file, describing the function prototypes. Where are those NMEA sentences? Where are the information what they actually contain? How do I know how I'm supposed to calculate the checksum?

Maybe I'm wrong but the first place where I supposed to start my evaluation is the CC4000 Wiki. There is no such link like 'NMEA sentences' or anything which is leading towards this information.  It'd be more nice if someone shouldn't has to check every possible document under every link.

3. Sample application

All the information I could use so far was coming from studying the sample source. It is a very nice application probably but I'd rather see a far less complex application. There are people - including me - who don't own a MSP430 EXP board or RF1-RF2 connector compatible Stellaris board, but have a FRAM board instead. It is just a couple of I/O lines and an UART receive function, after all.

 4. UART pins

The GNS datasheet suggests that their module is only transmitting - it won't listen. However, in your Wiki and in your code, the UART TX lines (seen from the host mcu) are labeled and  defined. After studying the code I didn't find any part where the host mcu would send anything to the GPS module via UART. Am I missing something here or was that only a copy&paste way of a general purpose UART code? A clear description would be nice here, too, saving people from digging in the sample code for hours.

 

5. Page access

In the last days there were page access problems, when I wanted to d/l the sample application. It reported a broken link in my browser (Opera 11.62) Yesterday I was able to d/l the file so I consider it a temporary problem.



Maybe some of my points are valid and helpful. I'm well aware that this is a new product and it is very hard to keep the things organized in this phase.

Best regards,

Greg

Hello Greg,

The Wiki for the CC4000 is currently in the middle of a major reorganization, and I have already made major additions/changes. There is now a page describing the NMEA messages for the CC4000 for people to enjoy (I know how hard it is to find this info).http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CC4000_GPS_NMEA_Messages Also, I have written a demo program for the CC4000 + MSP430F5529 platform described in the page, which has only one source file (main()) required to get the GPS data, and put it in a usable format. However, this demo has to undergo a thorough testing process first. Also I have fixed a few bugs in the original full user experience code, and deploying that version first has priority. I will tell you this though... getting the CC4000 to work is not nearly as complicated as the full user experience code makes it seem to be. The majority of code you would write to support this would be for your own MCU in setting up the UART, GPIOs, clocks, etc. The NMEA message parsing state machine is the only other significant thing, and there is a decent example of that in the full user experience code (in the UART ISR in HAL_CC4000.c), although I'm sure you could write a much more efficient one.

-Aaron

Hi Miguel,

 

thank you for the answers!

Miguel

[MS]: The user guide for the EM board is located in here: http://www.forum.gns-gmbh.com/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=116

Registered a couple of a days ago but still haven't received permission to download the document. I keep trying, nevertheless. Maybe it's not a bad idea to make the UG accessible from the TI site.

Miguel

[MS]: This information is available in section 11 of the Design Guide  http://www.forum.gns-gmbh.com/index.php?page=Attachment&attachmentID=105&h=4a7e3de05b496202df1fe83740e7548dadb2856b and also in the Software Description wiki http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CC4000_MCU_SW_Description . We will try to make it clearer.

 

 

Finally, I googled those sentences and had found what I was looking for. 

 

Miguel

[MS]: I looked at the design guide section 3.6, and I see that it covers the UART information. Is this information what you were looking for? http://www.forum.gns-gmbh.com/index.php?page=Attachment&attachmentID=105&h=4a7e3de05b496202df1fe83740e7548dadb2856b

No, I had problems to figure out why did you define and configure UART TX pins (from the MCU to the CC4000) in your code. Probably for the EEPROM update option but I maybe wrong.

Anyway, things seem  sorted for now.

Hi Aaron,

 

finally I came up with a basic, FRAM board compatible code. It receives the NMEA sentences from the module and forwards them to the PC via the on-board UART2USB of the FRAM board.  It's a bit tricky since the MCUs hardware UART pins are 

1. not matching the modules UART pins
2. but in the mean time the UART TX pin (tx from mcu) is connected to the module's FIX_AVAILABLE pin so it'd interfere with the UART communication.

So, I implemented a software UART both rx and tx and had to "fly wire" the sw UART TX pin to the J3 TXD (with jumper removed).

I can send you the code for testing if you want.

Best regards,

Greg

Hi Greg,

I was able to access the user manual for the TC6000GN-EM1 from that link a while back, but now I cant either. I'll get back to you on why that is. In the mean time: http://www.tc6000.gns-gmbh.com/files/tc6000gn_em1_s_usermanual_v011.pdf . This may differ from your module as far as the RF connector, but I believe otherwise it should be the same. The new wiki main page has a link to the GNS page for this product, which is where people can get this.

The UART TX is indeed for updating the firmware, but it is quite unlikely you will need to do that.

As far as your FRAM board, I'm assuming you have tested it yourself already? If you're willing, other CC4000 users would appreciate a link to a working code example on the forum (or maybe just a copy paste). Unfortunately it would not be an easy thing to test this on our side, as I do not have one of those boards in particular, and releasing code in an official sense is a lengthy process.

-Aaron

Greg,

I spoke with GNS and the link for the TC6000GN-EM1 can be acquired here without trouble here: http://www.forum.gns-gmbh.com/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=130 . The link you posted earlier is for the TC6000GM-EM1-S. The difference is the EM1-S has an SMA connector, whereas the EM1 has an onboard antenna and a murata micro coax. GNS as affirmed that you must register at the forum to download the manual for the TC6000GN-EM1-S. If GNS's website is working improperly, you may want to contact them directly for the sake of efficiency.

-Aaron