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Gainspan WiFi module


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#1 mcinnes01

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Posted 25 February 2014 - 11:49 PM

Hi,

 

I wonder if anyone can help, I am trying to get my gainspan WiFi module working with a netduino 1. I wonder if anyone has a library or can give me some help getting started in creating a library for it?

 

Many thanks

 

Andy



#2 hanzibal

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Posted 26 February 2014 - 08:24 AM

Forum search engine doesn't work in my opionon so I use Google: http://lmgtfy.com/?q...m gainspan#seen

#3 mcinnes01

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Posted 26 February 2014 - 09:54 PM

Yeah I use google search too the forum one isn't great, spent a few hours going through the old posts. There is a forum thread http://forums.netdui...fi/?hl=gainspan

 

This was started by nickduino now monewwq1 and there used to be an example youtube video or two and some sample code on there. A while back I did some work TTLing the gainspan, but never got round to wiring it up with the netduino. Sadly nicks sample code has gone now and I'm a little unsure of where to start in terms of communicating with it via the netduino, how to send and receive the commands required to setup the gainspan module and finally how this then works in terms of a network connection.

 

I guess I also wonder if mIp can work with this as well?



#4 hanzibal

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Posted 26 February 2014 - 10:22 PM

Gainspan wifi modules have full tcp/ip stack already built-in to them so mip probably won't do you any good there. EDIT: I've got a driver going for a board that I made based on the RAK410/411 wifi module. It runs a full tcp/ip stack and accepts simple AT commands. However, I've only just started and It will take me a good while longer.

#5 Frode

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Posted 27 February 2014 - 07:30 AM

Hi, when you search the forums you need to change the button/dropdown to the left of the search-icon from 'Topic' to 'Forums'. Not very intuitive.



#6 mcinnes01

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 02:11 PM

Hi Hanz,

 

I wonder if you have made any progress with your RAK410/411 wifi module class library?

 

The problem I have with writing drivers is I don't really know where to start, and although I have been through the datasheets and command guides a few times I'm a little unsure as to where to approach it from.

 

I wonder if you have perhaps started the lib for your module, if I could see the code so far I can try to follow your approach to and see if I can do the same for my module?

 

Thanks again for all your help,

 

Andy



#7 hanzibal

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Posted 23 March 2014 - 07:15 PM

Progress has been extremely slow, it can scan and list SSIDs of available networks and also connect given the corresponding WPA2 key.

However, It can not do anything useful like accessing actual content on remote servers because of general problems reading and writing streams so there's little or no point in pblishing any code until I got those basics working.

There's probably as many recepies to writing drivers as there are chips to write them for but I think, In general the key is to read the d/s back and forth until you know your way in it, which sections contains which bits of information, where to find the info you need in various situations that you can anticipate.

Get the hang of the terminology used by the vendor and get a good feel for how the chip works and how you are supposed to use it. Ask your self the relevant questions, how can I achieve this or that required functionality and make sure you know where in the d/s the answers are.

Make up some kind of hypothetical API structure in your head and test it against what you have gathered from reading the d/s to see if your model is realistic and valid. Sometimes you can find some code for another architecture for inspiration or that you can port from but you will need to understand the chip nevertheless.

Proceed by establishing a working communication with the chip. Implement register read ops and verify by reading some expected power-on default value. Then get write ops working, verify using write and read-back testing. Write a value to some register and verify by reading back the register value to make sure it "stuck".

Come up with a programming model with some basic properties and methods supporting the model in your head. Create a class and definine the various constants, enums, register addresses and such that you will need.

Then start implementing, pick something simple like "getversion", "soft reset" or whatever is available, preferably something really simple that can be easily verified.

By now your knowledge and confidence will have grown enough to make the rest fall into place as if almost by itself.

Good luck!




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