Accessing UART4 on RockPro64 (Armbian)

[antonlyap]

Hi there! I am trying to set up communication between an Attiny85 and my RockPro64 over UART (running Armbian, kernel `Linux rockpro64 5.7.15-rockchip64 #20.08 SMP PREEMPT Mon Aug 17 00:26:28 CEST 2020 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux`). The issue is that I can't connect to the serial port:

Code:

rock64@rockpro64:~$ sudo picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyS4
[sudo] password for rock64:
picocom v3.1

port is        : /dev/ttyS4
flowcontrol    : none
baudrate is    : 115200
parity is      : none
databits are   : 8
stopbits are   : 1
escape is      : C-a
local echo is  : no
noinit is      : no
noreset is     : no
hangup is      : no
nolock is      : no
send_cmd is    : sz -vv
receive_cmd is : rz -vv -E
imap is        :
omap is        :
emap is        : crcrlf,delbs,
logfile is     : none
initstring     : none
exit_after is  : not set
exit is        : no


FATAL: failed to add port: Filedes is not a tty

I can see that UART4 is not initialized on boot:

Code:

rock64@rockpro64:~$ dmesg | grep tty
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: mmc_cmdqueue=0 earlycon=uart8250,mmio32,0xff1a0000 root=UUID=73fac48d-4f73-4ac1-b899-e67dc98b5794 rootwait rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyS2,1500000 console=tty1 consoleblank=0 loglevel=1 ubootpart=f499ef85-01 usb-storage.quirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u   cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1
[    0.001600] printk: console [tty1] enabled
[    4.089584] ff180000.serial: ttyS0 at MMIO 0xff180000 (irq = 38, base_baud = 1500000) is a 16550A
[    4.089974] serial serial0: tty port ttyS0 registered
[    4.091686] ff1a0000.serial: ttyS2 at MMIO 0xff1a0000 (irq = 39, base_baud = 1500000) is a 16550A
[    4.092153] printk: console [ttyS2] enabled
[   10.755654] systemd[1]: Created slice system-serial\x2dgetty.slice.
[   14.723780] systemd[1]: Found device /dev/ttyS2.

Even though it is enabled as an overlay:

Code:

rock64@rockpro64:~$ cat /boot/armbianEnv.txt
verbosity=1
bootlogo=false
overlay_prefix=rockchip
rootdev=UUID=73fac48d-4f73-4ac1-b899-e67dc98b5794
rootfstype=ext4
overlays=uart4
usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u

If this is helpful - here are some details about my setup:

An Attiny85 is powered from a 3V coin cell. Here is the wiring:

• Battery positive - Attiny85 pin 8
  
• Battery negative - Attiny85 pin 4 - RockPro64 ground on GPIO pin 6
  
• Attiny85 pin 6 (PB1) - RockPro64 UART4_RX on GPIO pin 21 (connected through a 1K current-limiting resistor)
  
• UART4_TX is not connected because currently I only need unidirectional communication
  

I used Arduino IDE with a USBtinyISP programmer to program my Attiny85 with the following test code:

Code:

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

#define RX 0
#define TX 1

SoftwareSerial serial(RX, TX);

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  serial.begin(115200);
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  serial.println("ping");
}

Is there any way I can fix this issue? Are there any other easy-to-use alternatives to UART for establishing bidirectional communication? Any help is appreciated!



Thanks,

Anton

[antonlyap]

I have just found a solution. In case anyone is interested, here is the link: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/15419-ac...rockpro64/.
TLDR:
- In order to make the UART4 overlay load, I had to erase the SPI flash and boot directly from the eMMC because SPI1 and UART4 share the same pins
- If you are using the SoftwareSerial library on an Arduino or something similar, you need to use lower baud rates (e. g. 9600) to make the communication reliable