BlueSaab 6.1 - No "BlueSaab" Bluetooth device available after power up

[Karlis]

Ok, we should take this offline at this point. PM me the error messages you are getting when attempting a build of source.

[Madsaab]

I hope you don't mind me jumping onto this thread also since I'm having similar issues as posted earlier here.
Just finished assembling a V6.1 board a few days ago with all the optional components from the mouser BOM.
This is my first real attempt at SMD soldering, so the first components I attached don't look too good. I'm getting the hang of it though, so the next board should most probably look better. So I'll wait with photos until my 2nd try (unless you insist)

Here are the events as they occurred:
After installing the last component I plugged the USB-b-micro to my computer which powered up the device. Red power LED came on and the multi color LED started flashing red and blue. I could also see the Bluetooth device on my phone. Since at this point I hadn't realized that I would also need to solder in pin headers I put the device aside for the next day.
I did not have any loose pin headers so I sourced some from a board in my old-electronics-pile. For this reason I only soldered to the FTDI/UART1 connectors. I have bought a cheap PL2303HX -clone cable from Ebay. RXD and TXD are white and green on this cable, but I'm guessing this doesn't matter?
When applying power trough UART1 only the red power LED came on. No flashing from the other LED at all. When plugging the USB-micro it's the same. No flashing LED.
Looking at the schematic the UART1 pins should be able to tolerate both 5v VCC and 5v logic? Is this correctly assumed?
I've tried uploading the "saab-cdc-emu.ino" files to the device using Arduino IDE on Windows, but I get a timeout, so it seems the device is not working.
My guess is that the ceramic resonator (Y1) is dead. I tried putting an oscilloscope on the pins but I can't get any frequency out. Also on the heartbeat pin I can only measure around ~1,2v DC.
Is it easy to destroy the resonator? As far as I can see there should not be any polarity to it, so if it's mounted backwards it shouldn't matter? The pins are numbered though and I can see in the great photos czabel had posted that his resonator is mounted opposite of mine.

So short sum up of questions:
1. Can I use a cheap PL2303HX -clone USB-RS232 cable?
2. Can the UART1 part of the chip tolerate 5v TTL level?
3. Does the ceramic resonator/oscillator (Y1) have polarity and could I have easily destroyed it?
The reason I'm asking about the resonator is that I'm going to put in a new order for a complete board at Mouser, and if this part is very fragile I'll order a few extra. Probably won't be until after Christmas though.

As you can probably tell I'm an electronics noob, so please feel free to correct me if I got something completely wrong in the above rambling.

Regards, Mads

[Karlis]

Welcome!

So, on v6.1 boards, you should be fine with supplying 5V on UART1 and use it for firmware upload. Here's the catch - you tried to upload .ino file, which is the firmware version for older ( < 6.x) BlueSaab hardware. What you need is the .bin files posted here on forum under Firmware versions. Older hardware uses ATMEGA 328P micro-controllers. v6.x uses STM32. In order to upload firmware you should keep BOOT0 button pressed while applying power to the board via UART1 (plug in the connector). Then release BOOT0 button. This will push STM32 controller into DFU mode. Then you should be able to upload your firmware depending on what operating system you are using. As for clone for FTDI - that should work, I don't see any reason why it should not.

As for Y1 - I'd let "Dr." Seth chime in he's our master of hardware.

Hope this helps.

[Seth]

The resonators have no polarity, just make sure the case isn’t shorted to anything (it’s either gnd or not connected, can’t remember).

If you’re afraid you over heated it, they’re cheap so you may want to order some extras.

The Chinese clone should work but Pay attention to the rx/tx lines; they may need swapped (it shouldn’t hurt anything if they’re swapped, it just won’t work).

On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 13:59 Karlis [via BlueSaab Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Welcome!

So, on v6.1 boards, you should be fine with supplying 5V on UART1 and use it for firmware upload. Here's the catch - you tried to upload .ino file, which is the firmware version for older ( < 6.x) BlueSaab hardware. What you need is the .bin files posted here on forum under Firmware versions. Older hardware uses ATMEGA 328P micro-controllers. v6.x uses STM32. In order to upload firmware you should keep BOOT0 button pressed while applying power to the board via UART1 (plug in the connector). Then release BOOT0 button. This will push STM32 controller into DFU mode. Then you should be able to upload your firmware depending on what operating system you are using. As for clone for FTDI - that should work, I don't see any reason why it should not.

As for Y1 - I'd let "Dr." Seth chime in he's our master of hardware.

Hope this helps.

2001 9-5 SE V6; 2006 9-5 Wagon; iOS; BlueSaab version = "latest and greatest" :)

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[Madsaab]

Thanks Karlis. This will surely be helpful when (if) the device comes to life
There is a lot of info scattered about this forum, and for different hardware revisions. So figuring it all out from the beginning is a steep learning curve.
Regards, Mads

[Madsaab]

Thanks Seth
At this point I'm just hoping I didn't fry the STM32.

Which pins should I attach to to check if the resonator is working? Is it just ground and either of the pins?

Regards, Mads

[Seth]

Here’s the problem with measuring resonators...

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/104580/how-to-test-a-crystal-resonator-in-board

On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 14:14 Madsaab [via BlueSaab Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks Seth
At this point I'm just hoping I didn't fry the STM32.

Which pins should I attach to to check if the resonator is working? Is it just ground and either of the pins?

Regards, Mads

MY99 9-5SE V6t aut

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[Madsaab]

Thanks again Seth. I'll have a look at it tomorrow.
Regards, Mads

[Madsaab]

The device is alive
Uploading the correct .bin file with the correct programmer did the trick.
I also had to swap the RXD and TXD lines.
Just to see, I tried the oscilloscope on the resonator pins, and I now get a nice sine wave on both pins.

I get a green/red/blue flashing LED and I can see the device on my phone. I paired to it, but the connection is a bit unstable it seems. I'm running it of USB power, so maybe it'll be more stable on 12v? Or was there something with it only connecting to the phone when CD-Changer was selected in the car?

A slight note: I didn't solder the 6 ground pads underneath the RN52 since I couldn't figure how to do it (skillet trick maybe?) and I deducted that the four accessible ground pins would be enough. I might have been wrong?
Anyway, I'll try connecting it to the car and report the progress. I just need to solder in the CDC plug and remove the bulky CD changer from my trunk. Don't have time today but hopefully I can do it tomorrow.

Thanks for the help here so far.

Regards, Mads

[Seth]

You don’t need to solder the smd gnd pads under the rn52; they’re only possible to solder With reflow.

You should be able to connect to it via Bluetooth anytime but obviously when it has power in the car it should be stable. Usb power should be enough though but don’t worry about that just yet. 

Let us know how the car test goes. 

On Thu, Dec 19, 2019 at 10:25 Madsaab [via BlueSaab Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

The device is alive
Uploading the correct .bin file with the correct programmer did the trick.
I also had to swap the RXD and TXD lines.
Just to see, I tried the oscilloscope on the resonator pins, and I now get a nice sine wave on both pins.

I get a green/red/blue flashing LED and I can see the device on my phone. I paired to it, but the connection is a bit unstable it seems. I'm running it of USB power, so maybe it'll be more stable on 12v? Or was there something with it only connecting to the phone when CD-Changer was selected in the car?

A slight note: I didn't solder the 6 ground pads underneath the RN52 since I couldn't figure how to do it (skillet trick maybe?) and I deducted that the four accessible ground pins would be enough. I might have been wrong?
Anyway, I'll try connecting it to the car and report the progress. I just need to solder in the CDC plug and remove the bulky CD changer from my trunk. Don't have time today but hopefully I can do it tomorrow.

Thanks for the help here so far.

Regards, Mads

MY99 9-5SE V6t aut

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[Madsaab]

Quick update as promised. The device works perfectly as far as I can tell. No dropouts and good sound quality. I'm using the V6 firmware with SID text. Might try the V6.1.1 firmware.
It's quite amazing to have crystal clear audio from the phone coming trough the original sound system.
I know that it's popular to add a modern headunit to the older SAABs, but in my opinion this is much better since you can retain all the original functions of the car.
Thanks again to Seth and Karlis + all others who participated in making this possible.
Regards, Mads

[Karlis]

Yay! Glad it's working. Hope it will serve you well.

[1S2A1B]

Okay, I've managed to flash the 6.1.1 firmware. Now I'm getting pretty much exactly the same LED activity seen in the original post: red-blue-green quickly for a few seconds, then a green pulse with the blue flashes which keeps going. So far no luck searching for the BT device though.

When I attach the RX and TX wires over to UART3, open the serial port with PuTTY w/ 115200 baud, each reset gives me "R,1,104Saab v6". After a few seconds the R changes to a Q. Moving the RX and TX over to UART2 as you requested, I haven't been able to get a readout.

I did struggle with alignment while installing the STM32. Appears I got it all sorted, but no surprise if she got too hot and bothered.

[1S2A1B]

And, just like the original poster, I was eventually able to make the Bluetooth connection. It showed up plainly on an iPad, while on an Android phone it took a lot of resets and search refreshes. Thanks guys!

[Karlis]

It is expected that after a reset (or application of power) the blue and red LEDs flash alternatively. That indicates that RN52 module is in discovery mode. Green LED (flashing every second) indicates a presence status CAN frame being sent out on the bus. We call it the heartbeat indicator.

If I recall it correctly, RN52 will go into sleep mode if it does not get a pairing or re-connection request from a mobile device within 10 seconds of booting up. This is done for two reasons: 1. not to advertise when it's not necessary; 2. for "hackery" way of managing PDL (Paired Devices List). The latter means that if there's more than one device paired to BlueSaab, RN52 module will cycle through the PDL and try to connect to each of the devices. If it can't find a device within 10 seconds, it will look for the next one. And so on.

Clear as mud, eh'?

[Karlis]

As for information on UART, you should be probing UART2 only for debug information. You would only see information on UART3 using a logic analyzer of some sorts as that's the interface that's used for RN52 <-> STM32 comms.

What you should see as an output on serial console is:

BlueSaab
Hardware version: 6.1
Firmware version: 6.1.1

If you are seeing gibberish, I'd suggest you check the serial connection. Have you connected GND from FTDI as well?

[kunte_o]

Hi,

seems unnecessary to open a new separate thread due to a similar problem I've got. I am unable to access discoverable mode of RN52.

I managed to build a v6 BlueSaab module. I successfully flashed it with v6.1.1 version of FW (no-sid version due to SPA present), but as mentioned above I am unable to get it to discoverable mode.

I've got the green LED for CAN-bus heartbeat, but only blue sporadic flashing from RN52 (indicating it is only connectable, not discoverable).

SID shows "CD PLAY 01" after double push of CD selector, so the communication is there and the car is aware of the module, but device does not pop up in a list of discoverable devices after pressing "1" button (no button seems to be affecting anything).

On UART2 I am getting messages:
BlueSaab
Hardware version: v6.1
Software version: v6.1
Configuring RN52...
RN52 configuration completed!

which should signify RN52 is set up. Still, for some reason I am unable to make it visible and pair it. Next step I would like to try is to reset RN52 to it's factory settings, if this won't help...I have no idea what to investigate further.

I would be grateful for any hint.

[kunte_o]

I've built up another board to eliminate possible faults related to assembly reflow and cleaning. The second board behaves exactly the same. I'm starting to be lost a little...

[Karlis]

Since you have access to console (as you mentioned earlier, you see RN52 configuration completed! message on terminal), you could try using some of BlueSaab 6.1.1 built-in debug commands to fix the issue you're experiencing.

On serial console (while connected to BlueSaab, of course), try typing in "V" and pressing return key. This will instruct RN52 module to become discoverable. Another option is to try "B" command which will reboot RN52 module but will leave STM32 running.

For a complete set of debug commands, type "H".

Hope this helps.

[Karlis]

All of debug commands, have to be typed in without quotes, of course.