Reef Angel Forum

I just bought a used Reef Angel controller which did not come with any documentation. After reading various posts in the Reef Angel forum and a few of the user manuals, I believe I have purchased a standard Reef Angel (not the plus) with a generation 1 relay box. I have been able to get the equipment setup correctly and it powers up and I can see the ports and temperature on the status display but I have not been able to upload the preloaded code. I have tried to use a Windows 7 and a Ubuntu 10.04 machine, but I receive different errors in each operating system.

I have a few general questions….

1. Is there a document or post that describes what version of Reef Angel hardware is compatible with each version of the Arduino software? For example, my problem may be that a generation 1 Reef Angel cannot run Arduino version 1.0.1 under Ubuntu 10.04.

2. Are there diagnostic utilities available that I can run against the Reef Angel hardware to make sure it is working properly?

3. Is there a command that will display the current settings that are configured in the Reef Angel hardware? For example, is there a command that will show me how much memory is actually available for use?

4. Are there firmware updates to the Reef Angel required?

Sorry if these are silly questions, but I only have 1 day of experience with this controller and any assistance you can provide will be appreciated.

My current and most pressing issue is…
In Ubuntu 10.04 and Arduino 1.0.1, I have not been able to setup the COM port correctly so I receive the error “Serial port ‘COM1’ not found. Did you select the right one from the Tools > Serial Port menu? I know it needs to be changed to COM5 but the Arduino --> Tools --> Serial Port is grayed out so I cannot select the correct port.
I found a post named “Arduino on Linux” that I believe will address the issue but I am not exactly sure how to implement it.

agentgreen suggested the following solution in the post...

If you are trying to run arduino as your normal login user and not root, you probably will notice the Serial Port option is grayed out. This is due to permissions on the device.

Plug up the usb-ttl cable, sudo to root and run ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0:

ag@aglaptop:~/ReefAngel$ sudo ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0
[sudo] password for ag:
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 Sep 20 08:25 /dev/ttyUSB0

You'll see my device is in the dialout group. So just add your normal login user (in my case ag) to the dialout group, reboot or logout/login and now you should have access to change the Serial Port.

I am having difficulty applying his suggestion on my computer.

Any assistance you can provide will be appreciated.
Thanks,
John

John. If you look for my reply to agent green in that post, I gave more specific commands to add yourself to the dial out group. Definitely a necessity on Ubuntu. I can't remember them offhand, but is probably something like

sudo useradd -G dialout <username>

Thanks lnevo, I tried your suggestion...

jtw@jtw-laptop:~$ sudo useradd -G dialout jtw
useradd: user 'jtw' already exists
jtw@jtw-laptop:~$

Arduino --> Tools --> Serial Port is still grayed out.

OK I made a little progress. I used the Ubuntu System > Administration > Users and Group utility to add my user jtw to the dialout group and now the Arduino --> Tools --> Serial Port is no longer grayed out.

I attempted to upload the Template by doing File > Sketchbook > Example Codes > Template and...

The following features were automatically added:
Watchdog Timer
Version Menu

The following features were detected:
Simple Menu
Binary sketch size: 19,866 bytes (of a 32,256 byte maximum)
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

I receive the error "Problem uploading to board. See ...arduino .cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions."

I am currently using Reef Angel Controller w/ optiboot on /dev/ttyUSB0 and the Programmer AVRISP mkll. Does that seem correct?

mudcat1 wrote: 1. Is there a document or post that describes what version of Reef Angel hardware is compatible with each version of the Arduino software? For example, my problem may be that a generation 1 Reef Angel cannot run Arduino version 1.0.1 under Ubuntu 10.04.

All versions should be compatible. There isn't anything specific about each version. The main thing is that Arduino needs to be able to compile and run on the platform. The Arduino software that is downloaded from reefangel.com has a few modifications made to it to allow for the Wizard and library updating functionality. I put together a package/tarball for 32 & 64 bit versions of arduino with the proper files updated for running the Wizard. I posted a link on here and I will have to search for it.

2. Are there diagnostic utilities available that I can run against the Reef Angel hardware to make sure it is working properly?

There are some INO files that you can upload to the controller that will run a Controller Test. Otherwise, the controller shouldn't have any major problems. Look under the Examples inside Arduino (I'm pretty sure it's the Examples folder, will have to confirm this one). Then you can load the Controller Test.

3. Is there a command that will display the current settings that are configured in the Reef Angel hardware? For example, is there a command that will show me how much memory is actually available for use?

When you create the code to run on the controller, Arduino will compile it and tell you exactly how much space is used out of the maximum space available for the controller.

4. Are there firmware updates to the Reef Angel required?

There's not firmware updates only software library updates. Most of the time, you won't need to update your software libraries unless there is a new feature that you want to use or a bug has been fixed.

As far as the usb port is concerned, I haven't had any issues running it on Ubuntu. I'm running LTS 12.04.1 64 bit. I don't recall having to do those command specifically but I may be mistaken. With Arduino running, it should find the USB port properly and update it inside the list of ports available.

Thanks for answering my questions Curt. It was very helpful.

If it is a gen one, you may want to try Reef Angel Controller, instead of Reef Angel Controller w/ optiboot.

I made a little more progress. I updated the Reef Angel Libraries to version 1.0.2. I also change the Arduino Tool > Board to "Reef Angel Controller" and Tool >Programmer to "AVR ISP". I am now able to compile and upload File > Sketchbook > Example Code > ControllerTester and it successfully uploads but I still receive the following "Error uploading"

The following features were automatically added:
Watchdog Timer
Version Menu

The following features were detected:
Dimming Signal
Simple Menu
Binary sketch size: 16,482 bytes (of a 30,720 byte maximum)
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0540
0x08 != 0x28
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch

I'm not sure where to go from here.

The good news it the controller and relay box appear to be working correctly when I use the joystick to perform the various tests using ControllerTester.