Bpod UART serial communication

ch3ddarp3pp3r

Hello,
My lab is attempting to integrate a scale into our Bpod suite through a serial port on our r1 state machine. The controller for the scale is here: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/openscale-applications-and-hookup-guide#interface-specifications and has a UART serial pinout. Would it be possible to pin this directly into an RJ45 breakout board and connect to the state machine via CAT5/6, or would I have to first convert this into a differential signal through something like the bpod teensy shield? If UART is possible, what is the necessary pinout into the cable?

Thanks,
Lowell

Josh

Hello Lowell,

Unless you need measurements from the scale with <10ms timing precision, you can plug the scale into the PC and use MATLAB's serialport class to interface with it. If measurements will be taken between trials, that's all you need. If during a trial, you can use soft codes. Additional examples are given here.

The state machine's Module ports are RS-485, and expect behavior event bytes. The scale probably outputs character arrays, so you'd need to have a separate microcontroller read the scale's output, determine any events, and send event bytes to the state machine on a separate UART connection. The Bpod Teensy Shield + Teensy 4.1 should be sufficient for the job (if the scale's UART is 3.3V).

-Josh