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Daytripper Advanced Usage Guide

Main Page | Buy Daytripper


If you're not familiar with Daytripper yet, please see the Quick Start Guide first.

Table of Contents

Creating Custom Actions

On-Air Packet Format

Debug Mode

USB Firmware Update

Using Multiple Modules

Custom Actions

Instead of hiding windows, you can perform custom actions when TX is triggered.

Alt text

Slide the Mode Select Switch on RX to CUSTOM, middle position. Now ALT + PAUSE will be pressed when TX is triggered.

This key combo normally doesn't do anything, but you can capture it with a software and then perform your own actions.

Windows

You can use autohotkey. It is a powerful open-source keyboard automation program, where you can write a script to do anything you want when ALT + PAUSE is pressed by RX.

Check out the official tutorials, and here's a sample configuration file upon which you can tinker with.

MacOS

When you first plug RX into your mac, a window might pop up asking to identify keyboard layout, simply close it.

Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts:

Alt text

Click the box to the right of Keyboard Shortcut, trigger the TX, and it will fill in the box for you.

You can then add a shortcut to launch an application, or execute an applescript.

For more advanced scripting needs, you can try bettertouchtool, which can be considered macOS equivalent of autohotkey.

Android

Believe it or not Daytripper also works on Android!

You can use Tasker with Autoinput plugin.

Here is a tutorial: https://forum.joaoapps.com/index.php?resources/react-to-keys-from-a-real-keyboard.79/

Linux

Oh I'm sure you'll figure it out 😉

On-air Packet Format

Daytripper uses a nRF24L01-compatible chip called Si24R1. It is much cheaper, and actually has a higher TX power output, resulting in longer communication range.

Daytripper operates at channel 115, address 0xDA 0xBB 0xED 0xC0 0x0C.

Data rate is 250kbps, TX power is +7dBm, Auto Acknowledgment is used.

Daytripper TX sends 6-byte packets, details below:

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  • The first byte (byte 0) is a unique identifier calculated from the microcontroller serial number.

  • Second byte (byte 1) denotes what this packet is about. It can be either a test packet, trigger packet, or status update packet.

  • The rest 4 bytes are payloads, their meaning depending on the command type (byte 1).

  • For a Test packet, the 4 bytes are the same incrementing sequence number repeated 4 times.

  • For a Trigger packet, the first two bytes are the baseline reading of the power-up calibration. And the last two bytes are the actual distance reading. Unit in mm.

  • For a status packet, the first two bytes are the latest battery voltage reading in mV. The last two bytes are the time-since-power-on count, multiply it by 5 to get the number of seconds elapsed since TX power-on.

  • The vbat_mV is about 300mV lower than the actual battery voltage, due to the diode drop.

Debug Modes

There is a user button on both TX and RX board. Usually they are unused:

Alt text

For TX, a short press (less than 2 seconds) recalibrates the baseline. A long press (more than 2 seconds) enters Test Mode, where it sends test packets with incrementing sequence number as payload every second. It can be used to test communication range. Turn it off then on again to exit Test Mode.

For RX, a press on the button types out some debug messages. Make sure you open a text editor first.

USB Firmware Updates

You can update Daytripper's firmware via USB, for bug fixes and and/or new features.

To do this, download and install the STM32 DfuSe tool from this repo. You can download it from the official website too, but it requires creating an account.

First, locate the user button on the board:

Alt text

To update firmware:

  • Make sure the board is OFF and unplugged.

  • Press and hold down the user button while plugging it into a computer.

  • Once it is plugged in, you can release the button.

If it all goes well, the blue LED should stay off.

Now launch the DfuSeDemo software:

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In the Available DUF Devices section at top left corner, you should see a STM Device in DFU Mode.

Alt text

Press the Choose... button and select a firmware file in .dfu format. Make sure it's the correct file!

  • Click me for latest default TX firmware

  • Click me for latest default RX firmware

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Press Upgrade button to start uploading the new firmware into the microcontroller.

Alt text

And now the firmware is being updated!

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It could take anywhere between a few seconds to a few minutes. Try using different USB ports if it is particularly slow.

After uploading is complete, unplug and turn it back on to start using the new firmware.


If you generated a .hex file yourself, you can convert it to a .dfu file with the Dfu file manager and then upload this way.

This method is nice for occasional firmware updates, but quite cumbersome if you want to do extensive reprogramming. It's faster to get a ST-Link programmer and use the Keil uVision IDE. See this guide for more information on STM32 developments.

Using Multiple Modules

Daytripper wasn't really designed with multiple TX/RX boards in mind. And I haven't done any extensive testings on this subject.

Single RX Multiple TX

In this scenario RX will react when ANY of the multiple TX fires.

Single TX Multiple RX

Here ALL of RX will react when TX fires.

Multiple TX Multiple RX

Untested, probably a mess.

Questions or Comments?

Please feel free to open an issue. This is the preferred way since it helps other people too.

You can also email me at dekunukem gmail com for inquires.


Main Page | Buy Daytripper