uLI-master

Ultimate LI – master is a XpressNET ↔ USB (CDC) inteface. It bahaves as a XpressNET master. In this scheme, computer basically replaces the command station.

• Processor: PIC18F14K50
• Programming language: C
• PCB: uLI-04
• Authors: Jan Horacek (c) 2016
• License: Apache License v2

Used tools

• MPLAB X IDE v3.45
• C18 LITE v3.47 compiler (version for linux available here)
• clang-format to format code

Windows driver

Windows CDC driver could be found in the Microchip Libraries for Applications.

However you do not need to download ~ 280 MB of data to get ~ 10 kB driver. We added custom driver (based on the Microchip driver) to the driver_win directory of this repo.

COM port specification

• Any speed.
• No flow control.

EEPROM

EEPROM is not used in this firmware.

Programming

We use 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.

LEDs

Input LED (green)

This LED is turned on by default. It turns off for a few miliseconds when a byte arrives from a XpressNET device to Master.

Output LED (green)

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 command is being received from PC.

Status LED (yellow)

• 2 blinks = normal operations

RACK_ENABLE

When code is compiled with RACK_ENABLE defined, uLI-master will periodically ask devices to respond via Request for Acknowledgement command. uLI-mastter uses this command to keep list of active XpressNET devices. Changes in active devices list are reported to PC, see protocol.

Without this macro, this feature is disabled.

Protocols

• On XpressNET side, Master uses standard XpressNET protocol.
• On PC side, Master uses custom protocol.

Further reading

• About XpressNET