Catena4612 Won't Run Until Connected to PC

[mhmayyan]

When I select USB or USB+Hardware Serial for the serial interface and I power the board externally via Vbus pin, some Catena4612 boards won't run the sketch until I connect USB cable to a computer.

Is there a way to set the board in such a way that it runs my code and enables the USB serial regardless of Vbus voltage? Why does it wait for me to connect a USB cable? I need to supply power through Vbus pin but the board thinks I am connected to a computer and suspends running the sketch until I connect it to a computer and sometimes I have to open a Serial monitor.

[mhmayyan]

I think the problem is in the Catena_Arduino_Platform library.

I found this

	// the setup function. The enabler function is used for streams like
	// USB Serial, which hang if you talk to them when they're not plugged
	// in...
	void begin(
		Stream *pStream,			// the stream to poll.
		cStreamReady *pReady = nullptr		// optional enabler.
		);

[dhineshkumarmcci]

hi @mhmayyan I believe this is because the operatingflag being not set. Can you please verify it using the command system configure operatingflags and check if it is set to 1 OR 0.

If it is set to 0, we suggest you to set it to 1 using below comant, and that helps the board to run on power-up.

• system configure operatingflags 1

[mhmayyan]

Yes, it is set to 1. I still have the same problem.
My sketch does not use the operating flags.

[dhineshkumarmcci]

Thank you for letting us know, can you please let us know about the power provided to Vbus pin and also the power source?

Whether PWR (Green) LED is ON while powering from VBUS pin?

[mhmayyan]

It is a 5V power supply. The green LED is on. The board works When I disable the USB Serial but sometimes I need it for debugging and to access some data while the system is running.

What makes it weird is that this problem does not show up on all Catena 4612 boards even when using the very same firmware.

I think this problem belongs to the library Catena Arduino Platform. The library monitors the voltage level at Vbus pin to tell if the USB is connected to a computer. If so, it blocks until I connect the board to a computer and the USB connection establishes.

[dhineshkumarmcci]

hi @mhmayyan we would like to know what sketch is being used at your end.
we would also like to know if you are checking USBCON in your sketch and waiting for Serial to enumerate.

can you please confirm if your sketch has similar lines:

#ifdef USBCON
// if running unattended, don't wait for USB connect.
while (!Serial)
/* wait for USB attach */
yield();
}
#endif

if it is being added, can you please remove them and verify if it works.

[terrillmoore]

hi @mhmayyan -- you said the library monitors the voltage -- please indicate the location in the library? Thanks, --Terry

[mhmayyan]

Hi @terrillmoore. Sorry, I was confused. I think, the library just overrides the function USBD_LL_ConnectionState. The library is awesome ^_^. Thanks.

@dhineshkumarmcci I tested the code below to investigate the problem with the four Serial interface settings selectable in Arduino Tools menu. The two options that have USB (i.e., "USB + HW Serial" or "USB Serial") cause the sketch to block at Serial.begin(115200) while the USB cable is disconnected and the board is powered externally via Vbus with 5V. I tested multiple Catena 4612 boards. Only some of them get stuck but not all of them. They all, however, pass the function Serial.begin(115200) once I reconnect the USB cable. Weird!

void flashFast(int halfPeriod)
{
  bool state=1;
  for (size_t rpt = 0; rpt < 10; rpt++) {
      digitalWrite(D13, state^=1);
      delay(halfPeriod);
  }
  digitalWrite(D13, 0);
  delay(1000);
}

void setup() {
  pinMode(D13,OUTPUT);
  /*************************************/
  flashFast(50);
  Serial.begin(115200); /*<<< It gets stuck here*/
  flashFast(100);
  Serial.println("Hello!");
  flashFast(150);
}
void loop() {
  flashFast(1000);
}

[terrillmoore]

Aha. We may owe you big time. This is probably the root cause of a problem we've been having in general with 4612s not recovering from sleep. Let me think about the best way to use this to diagnose this problem remotely.

[dhineshkumarmcci]

@mhmayyan thank you for letting us know on this issue, we will let you know about the required software changes for you to work.

[dhineshkumarmcci]

hi @mhmayyan we have updated the API USBD_LL_ConnectionState() in the library to return true only if the vBus value is greater than 4.35V instead of 3.0V. I have pushed the changes to the branch vbus-check-issue in the forked repo:

• https://github.com/dhineshkumarmcci/Catena-Arduino-Platform/tree/vbus-check-issue

Can you please use the library with these changes and let us know.

[mhmayyan]

Thank you @dhineshkumarmcci for the help.

I tested the modifications you made. I downloaded that fork and compiled my code using the forked library but it did not solve the problem. Please note that the input voltage I am providing via the pin Vbus is 5V, not even 4.95V.

What we need is that the USB connection should not wait/block until an actual USB cable is connected to the board. We deploy these boards into forests and rivers and we supply them with 5V. It is really annoying when they stop reporting just because they want an actual USB connection to establish.

I don't understand how USB works but I think the MCU can just transmit data when Serial.print() is used and should never care whether or not there is an actual USB connection to a PC.

[terrillmoore]

I agree @mhmayyan; we were just trying to see if the problem was due to the analog input. What's odd is that it should happen on all your boards, not just some of them. Thanks for testing. (On your boards that are not working, the code is the same that the boards that are working. So there's some hardware difference.)

[mhmayyan]

Thanks @terrillmoore

Yes, I agree, it is really weird that this problem is showing on some boards but not on all of them. Even on the boards that have the problem, they occasionally work. And yes, they are all the same model, i. e., Catena 4612. Even among boards from the same production batch that are supposed to have identical parts and were manufactured in the same time.

[terrillmoore]

@mhmayyan: Can you send me one of the boards that malfunctions reliably, along with repro instructions? I'd like to see if I can figure out what's going on, and it's not obvious.