Ultimate LI firmware.
uLI is a XpressNET ↔ USB converter behaving as COM port in PC (CDC).
- Processor: PIC18F14K50
- Programming language: C
- PCB: uLI
- Authors: Jan Horacek, Michal Petrilak
- Behaves as LI101 in PC
- MPLAB X IDE / vim + make
- XC8 compiler
- clang-format to format code
Windows CDC driver could be found in the Microchip Libraries for Applications.
However you need to download ~ 280 MB of data to get ~ 10 kB driver so we added driver to the driver_win directory of this repo.
- Any speed.
- No flow control.
PIC stores its XpressNET address at 0x00 in EEPROM. It is not necessary to
init EEPROM with valid address. When invalid address is loaded from EEPROM,
PIC sets its XpressNET address to DEFAULT_XPRESSNET_ADDR defined in main.h
and saves this address to EEPROM.
We used PICPgm at RaspberryPi to program the PIC.
Note: When programming the processor for first time, do not forget to include
-p_cfg argument to program fuses into the processor. Fuses are stored in main
hex file.
This LED is turned on by default. It turns off for a few milliseconds when a normal inquiry or request acknowledgement arrives from a command station to uLI. This LED usually blinks. If this LED is permanently turned on, the command station is not sending normal inquiry packets and something went really wrong.
This LED is turned on before a valid connection with PC is established. After establishing the connection, this LED turns off and blinks only when a start of data message is received to uLI (either from command station or PC).
- 1 blink = normal operations
- 2 blinks = framing errors on XpressNET
- 4 blinks = buffer half full
- 6 blinks = framing errors on XpressNET & buffer half full
uLI has several types of timeouts. We believe one should know how these timeouts work to communicate with uLI properly.
When only part of the message is received from PC, the next part must follow in < 100 ms. Otherwise, the first part is removed from USB input buffer and Error occurred between the interfaces and the PC message is transmitted to PC.
When only part of the message is received from command station, the next part must follow in < 20 ms. Otherwise, the first part is removed from buffer and Error occurred between the interfaces and the command station message is transmitted to PC.
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The command station should send normal inquiry to each XpressNET device once a while. When uLI does not receive "normal inquiry" for 5 s (this value is taken from LI specification) it sends The Command Station is no longer providing the LI100 a timeslot for communication to PC. At this point, USB → XpressNET buffer is cleared and no more data could be received from PC until command station sends normal inquiry to uLI.
When computer tries to send data in such a situation, uLI responds Buffer overflow in the LI100.
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uLI also listens for service mode entry and normal operations resumed broadcasts. When the command station is in programming mode (e.g. service mode entry was received) the previous timeout is extended to 1:30 (1 minute, 30 seconds). Tsis value is also taken from official LI specification.
When the command station starts sending normal inquiry after 5 s < x < 1:30, the uLI sends to PC normal operations resumed. This mechanism is based on Lenz' LI, which does the same thing. However, this feature is not documented in official Lenz` LI specification.
uLI also sends normal operations resumed after receiving normal inquiry after sending some specific commands from PC to command station. E. g. if PC sends "read CV 4", the command station stops adressing uLI. After some time the command stations starts adressing uLI again (it sends normal inqury). At this point normal operations resumed is transferred to PC.
Normal opeartions resumed is transmitted to PC always after the timeout overflowed and the command station starts adressing uLI again.
Sometimes, the ultimate LI might behave weirdly from your point of view, so it it is good to know why is is doing so.
- uLI DOES NOT guarantee to preserve order of messages for command station and uLI. E. g. when you send a mesage for command station and a message for uLI (e. g. determine uLI version), version response might be (and probably will be) the first response of uLI. Response from command station will follow.
- About XpressNET
- uLI meets XpressNET specification v3
- uLI should also meet XpressNET specification v3.6 (available only in German)
- uLI should meet official Lenz` LI specification