# BLE Bridge Wiring — ESP32-S3 + 2× MAX485 Transparent BLE-to-RS422 bridge for the Winegard Carryout G2 satellite dish, with optional IMU and barometric sensors for orientation and refraction correction. ## Parts **Bridge (required):** - ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N16R8 - 2× MAX485 TTL-to-RS485 module - 1× SparkFun Bidirectional Logic Level Converter (BOB-12009, BSS138-based) - RJ-12 6P6C straight-wired cable with breakout - Hookup wire / jumpers **Sensors (optional):** - 1× GY-9250 (MPU-9250) — 9-axis IMU (accelerometer + gyroscope + magnetometer) - 1× BMP388 — barometric pressure + temperature - 1× RYS352A GPS module — observer location + PPS timing ## Schematic ``` SparkFun Level Converter (BOB-12009) ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ ESP32 3V3 ──────────────►│ LV HV │◄── ESP32 5V ESP32 GND ──────────────►│ GND GND │◄── (shared) │ │ ESP32 GPIO17 (TX) ──────►│ LV1 HV1 │──────► MAX485₁ DI ESP32 GPIO18 (RX) ◄──────│ LV2 HV2 │◄────── MAX485₂ RO │ │ │ LV3 (spare) HV3 (spare) │ │ LV4 (spare) HV4 (spare) │ └──────────────────────────────────────┘ MAX485 Board 1 (TX only) MAX485 Board 2 (RX only) ┌────────────────────────┐ ┌────────────────────────┐ │ VCC ◄── 5V │ │ VCC ◄── 5V │ │ GND ◄── GND │ │ GND ◄── GND │ │ │ │ │ │ DI ◄── HV1 │ │ RO ──► HV2 │ │ RO (unused) │ │ DI (unused) │ │ │ │ │ │ DE ◄── 5V ┐ locked │ │ DE ◄── GND ┐ locked │ │ RE ◄── 5V ┘ TX mode │ │ RE ◄── GND ┘ RX mode │ │ │ │ │ │ A ───────────────────┼──► pin 2 │ A ◄──────────────────┼── pin 4 │ B ───────────────────┼──► pin 3 │ B ◄──────────────────┼── pin 5 └────────────────────────┘ └────────────────────────┘ RJ-12 to Carryout G2 ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ Pin 1 (White) ── GND │◄── ESP32 GND │ Pin 2 (Red) ── TX+/TA │◄── A₁ │ Pin 3 (Black) ── TX-/TB │◄── B₁ │ Pin 4 (Yellow) ── RX+/RA │──► A₂ │ Pin 5 (Green) ── RX-/RB │──► B₂ │ Pin 6 (Blue) ── N/C │ └───────────────────────────┘ ``` ## Power Rails ``` ESP32 5V ──┬── Level Converter HV ├── MAX485₁ VCC ├── MAX485₁ DE + RE (tied high = TX mode) └── MAX485₂ VCC ESP32 3V3 ─── Level Converter LV ESP32 GND ─┬── Level Converter GND ├── MAX485₁ GND ├── MAX485₂ GND ├── MAX485₂ DE + RE (tied low = RX mode) └── RJ-12 Pin 1 ``` ## RJ-12 Cable Notes Straight-wired 6P6C. Pin 1 is leftmost when looking at the jack with the clip facing away from you (tab down). Wire colors per the standard flat cable: | Pin | Color | Function | Connects to | |-----|--------|------------------|--------------------| | 1 | White | GND | Common ground | | 2 | Red | TX+ (TA) | MAX485₁ A | | 3 | Black | TX- (TB) | MAX485₁ B | | 4 | Yellow | RX+ (RA) | MAX485₂ A | | 5 | Green | RX- (RB) | MAX485₂ B | | 6 | Blue | N/C | — | If crimping your own cable, verify pin-to-color with a multimeter before connecting to the dish. RJ-12 crimps are easy to get reversed (pins mirror if the connector is flipped). A wrong connection won't damage anything (differential signals are current-limited) but communication won't work. ## How It Works The Carryout G2 uses RS-422 full-duplex: two separate differential pairs, one for each direction. The MAX485 is a half-duplex RS-485 transceiver with a shared A/B pair and direction control pins (DE/RE). By hardwiring DE/RE, each board is locked into a single direction: - **Board 1 (TX):** DE=HIGH, RE=HIGH → driver always enabled, receiver disabled. ESP32 UART1 TX → level shifter → DI → differential A/B → G2 serial RX. - **Board 2 (RX):** DE=LOW, RE=LOW → driver disabled, receiver always enabled. G2 serial TX → differential A/B → RO → level shifter → ESP32 UART1 RX. The SparkFun level converter translates between 3.3V (ESP32) and 5V (MAX485) on both data lines. The two spare channels (LV3/HV3, LV4/HV4) are available if DE/RE ever need GPIO control for a half-duplex variant. ## Firmware See `firmware/ble-bridge/` — transparent BLE Nordic UART Service (NUS) bridge. The firmware is the same regardless of whether the RS-422 transceiver is a MAX490 (single full-duplex chip) or two MAX485s (locked half-duplex pair). It only sees UART TX/RX on GPIO17/18. ## Sensors — I2C Bus The MPU-9250 and BMP388 share a single I2C bus on GPIO8 (SDA) / GPIO9 (SCL). Both run at 3.3V directly from the ESP32, no level shifting needed. ``` I2C Bus (3.3V, 400kHz) ───────────────────── ESP32 3V3 ──┬──────────────────┬─── MPU-9250 VCC │ └─── BMP388 VCC │ ├── 4.7KΩ ── SDA bus ──┬── MPU-9250 SDA │ └── BMP388 SDI │ └── 4.7KΩ ── SCL bus ──┬── MPU-9250 SCL └── BMP388 SCK ESP32 GPIO8 (SDA) ──── SDA bus ESP32 GPIO9 (SCL) ──── SCL bus ESP32 GND ──┬── MPU-9250 GND └── BMP388 GND (SDO to GND = addr 0x76) MPU-9250 AD0 ── GND (I2C address = 0x68) BMP388 SDO ── GND (I2C address = 0x76) ``` The 4.7KΩ pull-ups are shared — one pair for the whole bus. Many breakout boards include onboard pull-ups already; if both the GY-9250 and BMP388 boards have them, the combined parallel resistance (~2.3KΩ) is still fine for 400kHz I2C at 3.3V. Only add external pull-ups if neither board has them. ### MPU-9250 (GY-9250) — 9-Axis IMU | I2C Address | 0x68 (AD0 → GND) | |-------------|-------------------| | VCC | 3-5V (onboard LDO) | | Interface | I2C (up to 400kHz) or SPI | **What it provides for satellite tracking:** - **Magnetometer (AK8963):** Compass heading for automatic north alignment. Eliminates manual alignment of dish base "BACK" marking to true north. Apply local magnetic declination to convert magnetic north → true north. - **Accelerometer:** Gravity vector → tilt angle = elevation. Independent verification of the dish firmware's reported EL position. - **Gyroscope:** Angular rate during slews. Detect oscillation, overshoot, and vibration for tuning the leapfrog overshoot compensation algorithm. **Mounting considerations:** The magnetometer is extremely sensitive to nearby ferrous metals and electromagnetic interference from motors. Mount on the fixed base plate, away from motor housings, with a known axis aligned to the dish's reference direction. Rigid mounting — any flex between sensor and dish structure introduces measurement error. ### BMP388 — Barometric Pressure + Temperature | I2C Address | 0x76 (SDO → GND) | |-------------|-------------------| | VCC | 3.3V | | Pressure range | 300-1250 hPa | | Pressure resolution | ±0.01 hPa (±8 cm altitude) | | Temperature accuracy | ±0.5°C | | Interface | I2C (up to 3.4MHz) or SPI | **What it provides for satellite tracking:** - **Atmospheric refraction correction.** Radio signals bend as they pass through the atmosphere, especially at low elevation angles. The amount of bending depends on air pressure and temperature. At 15° elevation (the Trav'ler's minimum), refraction shifts apparent position by ~0.2°. Standard refraction models (Bennett, Saemundsson) take pressure and temperature as inputs — the BMP388 provides both in real time. - **Temperature monitoring.** Ambient temperature at the dish for thermal drift awareness and electronics health monitoring. **Refraction formula (simplified Bennett):** ``` R = 1/tan(el + 7.31/(el + 4.4)) × (P/1010) × (283/(273 + T)) ``` Where R is refraction in arcminutes, el is apparent elevation in degrees, P is pressure in hPa, T is temperature in °C. At el=15°, P=1013, T=20°C: R ≈ 3.4 arcmin ≈ 0.057°. Small but meaningful for narrow-beam antennas. ## GPS — RYS352A The RYS352A is a compact GPS module with PPS output. It connects via UART2 and provides observer location for satellite pass prediction and a 1Hz PPS pulse for precise UTC time synchronization. ``` ESP32 GPIO5 (UART2 RX) ◄── RYS352A TX (NMEA sentences out) ESP32 GPIO6 (UART2 TX) ──► RYS352A RX (config commands in, optional) ESP32 GPIO7 ◄── RYS352A PPS (1Hz rising edge, ~100ns jitter) ESP32 3V3 ──► RYS352A VCC ESP32 GND ──► RYS352A GND ``` | Module Pin | ESP32 Pin | Function | |------------|-----------|----------| | VCC | 3V3 | 3.3V power (onboard LDO on most breakouts) | | GND | GND | Ground | | TX | GPIO5 (UART2 RX) | NMEA sentence output at 115200 baud | | RX | GPIO6 (UART2 TX) | PAIR/NMEA config input (optional) | | PPS | GPIO7 | 1Hz pulse synchronized to GPS time | **PPS (Pulse Per Second):** The RYS352A outputs a precise 1Hz pulse on the rising edge, synchronized to UTC via GPS constellation. The firmware captures this edge via interrupt (`micros()` timestamp) for correlating satellite events with sub-microsecond precision relative to the GPS epoch. The module's RTC battery backup enables warm starts (~5s) after initial cold start fix (~30-60s). **UART notes:** The RYS352A defaults to 115200 baud NMEA output with `GN` talker ID (multi-constellation). The TX line (GPIO6) is used at boot to send `$PAIR` proprietary commands (Airoha AG3352 engine) that configure the GPS module for satellite tracking use. See `docs/RYS352x_PAIR_Command_Guide.md` for the full command reference. **Boot-time PAIR init sequence:** The firmware sends `$PAIR062` commands at startup to filter NMEA output — only GGA (position/quality), GSA (fix mode/DOP), RMC (time/date/speed), and GSV (satellite visibility, every 5th fix) are enabled. Redundant sentences (GLL, VTG, ZDA, GRS, GST, GNS) are disabled to reduce parser load and latency. A `$PAIR752` command configures PPS to pulse only on 2D/3D fix with 100ms pulse width. Each command waits for `$PAIR001` ACK; failures are logged but non-fatal — the GPS works with defaults if PAIR commands are unsupported. The firmware uses TinyGPS++ v1.1+ with custom field extractors (`TinyGPSCustom`) to read GGA quality (field 6: SPS/DGPS/RTK) and GSA nav mode (field 2: 2D/3D) directly from the NMEA stream, replacing the earlier heuristic that inferred fix type from altitude validity. Both `GN` and `GP` talker ID variants are registered for compatibility across constellation configurations. ## Full GPIO Map | GPIO | Function | Interface | Notes | |------|----------|-----------|-------| | 5 | GPS RX | UART2 RX | ← RYS352A TX (NMEA out) | | 6 | GPS TX | UART2 TX | → RYS352A RX (config in) | | 7 | GPS PPS | GPIO interrupt | 1Hz rising edge | | 8 | I2C SDA | I2C | MPU-9250 + BMP388 (shared bus) | | 9 | I2C SCL | I2C | MPU-9250 + BMP388 (shared bus) | | 17 | RS-422 TX | UART1 TX | → Level shifter → MAX485₁ DI | | 18 | RS-422 RX | UART1 RX | ← Level shifter ← MAX485₂ RO | | 38 | RGB LED | WS2812 | Onboard NeoPixel (DevKitC V1.1) | | 43 | USB Console TX | UART0 | CH343 USB-serial (untouched) | | 44 | USB Console RX | UART0 | CH343 USB-serial (untouched) | ## Loopback Test (no dish) Before connecting to the G2, verify the bridge by shorting MAX485₁ A to MAX485₂ A, and MAX485₁ B to MAX485₂ B (loop TX back into RX). Anything sent via BLE or USB serial should echo back.