I was looking into the Razor IMU from Sparkfun, and realized that the only example code on sparkfun's website was for it was meant for hooking it up to a computer (the AHRS head tracker used a serial to usb chip). I looked on google and saw nothing but stories about how it did not work.
Is there any good way to hook up the Razor IMU to an arduino uno (or any arduino without hardware support for more than one serial port), and if so does example code exist?
By searching for a different topic I found your post and I work with the Sparkfun Razor 9DOF IMU too. Actually it was a pain in the rear to get it all work.
First of all you have to do the tutorial razor-9dof-ahrs form ptrbrtz. When this is working you can do the next steps. Btw: read it carefully and you should be able to do it on your own!
First I tried to get it work with an Arduino Uno and a SoftwareSerial. Sadly I wasn’t able to get it work with a SoftwareSerial, I received with Text and Binary output only rubbish data. I worked a whole day on this topic and I wasn’t able to do it and I could say I have a lot experience with Arduino programming. If you are able to get it work with a SoftwareSerial please post an answer.
With the Uno I was only able to receive data with this configuration: http://blog.mobileapes.com/2010/09/read-data-from-9dof-razor-imu-via.html. But be aware the TX should go to RX and the RX to TX! The description in the picture (Rx to Rx and Tx to Tx) is false.
If you are able to use an Arduino MEGA, which has at least 4 UARTs, you could use the code I developed. Once I got it to work on an Uno but I searched for the code and I didn’t find it anymore, with a little try and fail you should be able to do it. But be aware, if you are sending data to the PC and receiving data from the IMU on only one UART, you could probably negatively influence the serial communication.
/**************************** INFO ********************************/
// This code expects a message in the format: H 12.00,-345.00,678.00
/******************************************************************/
#include <TextFinder.h>
/*** Defines the frequency at which the data is requested ***/
/*** frequency f=1/T, T=period; ie. 100ms --> f=10Hz, 200ms --> f=5Hz ***/
#define PERIOD 100 // [ms]
/*** Vars for IMU ***/
TextFinder finder(Serial3);
const int NUMBER_OF_FIELDS = 3; // how many comma separated fields we expect
float rpy[NUMBER_OF_FIELDS]; // array holding values for all the fields
/************************************************************/
/*** Setup
/************************************************************/
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(57600); // init the Serial port to print the data to PC
Serial3.begin(57600); // init the Serial3 port to get data from the IMU
delay(500);
initIMU();
}
/************************************************************/
/*** Loop
/************************************************************/
void loop()
{
// print manager timer
static unsigned long timer = 0;
static unsigned long currentTime = 0;
/************************************************************/
/*** Request after a specific period for the data
/************************************************************/
currentTime = millis();
if(currentTime - timer >= PERIOD)
{
// Request one output frame from the IMU
// #f only requests one reply, replies are still bound to the internal 20ms (50Hz) time raster.
// So worst case delay that #f can add is 19.99ms.
Serial3.write("#f");
/************************************************************/
/*** Get the IMU values
/************************************************************/
// the current field being received
int fieldIndex = 0;
// search the Serial Buffer as long as the header character is found
boolean found_HeaderChar = finder.find("H");
if (found_HeaderChar)
{
// Get all 3 values (yaw, pitch, roll) from the Serial Buffer
while(fieldIndex < NUMBER_OF_FIELDS)
{
rpy[fieldIndex++] = finder.getFloat();
}
}
/************************************************************/
/*** Print out the values
/*** Format: yaw, pitch, roll, left_Encoder, right_Encoder
/************************************************************/
if (found_HeaderChar)
{
// print Interval
Serial.print(currentTime - timer);
Serial.print(",");
// print IMU values
for(fieldIndex=0; fieldIndex < NUMBER_OF_FIELDS; fieldIndex++)
{
Serial.print(rpy[fieldIndex]);
Serial.print(",");
}
Serial.println("");
}
timer = millis();
}
}
/********************************/
/*** Initialize Functions
/********************************/
void initIMU()
{
// Output angles in TEXT format & Turn off continuous streaming output & Disable error message output
Serial3.write("#ot#o0#oe0");
Serial3.flush();
}
Edit: Oh I forgot to say that you must edit the Output.ino from the Razor AHRS firmware. Search for the function output_angles() and change it to:
// Output angles: yaw, pitch, roll
void output_angles()
{
if (output_format == OUTPUT__FORMAT_BINARY)
{
float ypr[3];
ypr[0] = TO_DEG(yaw);
ypr[1] = TO_DEG(pitch);
ypr[2] = TO_DEG(roll);
Serial.write((byte*) ypr, 12); // No new-line
}
else if (output_format == OUTPUT__FORMAT_TEXT)
{
Serial.print("H ");
Serial.print(TO_DEG(yaw)); Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(TO_DEG(pitch)); Serial.print(",");
Serial.print(TO_DEG(roll)); Serial.println();
}
}
The Razor IMU has an ATmega328 microcontroller on board that can be programmed with the Arduino IDE according to sparkfun's product page. You could use the tx/rx pins (serial communication) to connect to your other Arduino's rx/tx pins (tx to rx, tx to rx) and program a communication protocol to pass data from the Razor IMU to the Arduino Uno. The Razor IMU probably already has code on board to do this. It's a matter of writing the Uno's code to request and receive the data. The Razor IMU uses 3.3V logic so make sure you use an arduino variant that uses 3.3V or use a level shifter.
Another option is to hack an I2C connection. This involves soldering to a pin ATmega328 and modifying some of its code.
