In the case of the fez domino how can I debug it in a remote way using visual studio? I would like to be able to do it with xbee or something of that type not a 40 foot usb cable :>
In theory, you can use xbee over serial to debug. This was never tested so we would love to know if it works for you.
The first thing you want to do is change the debug interface to serial. There is mode pin that select what interface is used for debugging, USB or Serial. Once you have it working over serial, then you can remove the RS232 circuit and put Xbee in place.
Since you are using FEZ Domino then use the RS232 shield to get you started on serial debugging.
thanks will work on that as soon as i finish porting over the adafruit motor shield code.
there are also remote (bliuetooth) serial components. If zigbee does not work, you can use such a system (around $50).
It makes a virtual serial port on your pc, then connects via bluetooth with the reciever.
Might be an idea…
Yeah i have a few bluetooth modules around that i need to put on break out boards at some point. I may fall back to those but i am hoping the xbee will work since distance is important in my case.
When distance is a great factor, I would definitely try to use zigbee. Since bluetooth is “only” max. 10M distance. (might be higher with other components)
But xbee maybe slower than Bluetooth. If responses didn’t come fast enough then the debugging interface will timeout.
Possible, indeed… I do not know if anyone has tried this yet, but I guess someone might…
I will test this plenty. I have seen xbee be fast enough over 1000 feet for real time telemetry so i would guess debugging would be ok.
The problem is not the UART speed, that is always 115200 on NETMF. It is the packetization (is this a word!) that happens on wireless technologies that causes delays between packets.
Wireless devices usually pack data in packets and then send them in chunks so they are not always online…same goes for USB-serial chipsets.