Using Altimeter with a RS485 - TTL converter (MAX485 MODBUS?) on Arduino

Hey guys.

Has anyone tested if you can use a RS485 to TTL converter connected to the Blue Robotics Altimeter and read the sonar depth directly as data into a digital port on the Arduino?

Thing is, I was hoping I could read data from the Altimeter as “normal” data via the converter and skip all the software serial stuff. We dont need to read altimeter data via the USB port (anymore). If this could be done, I was hoping to be able to read the digital data from RS485 TTL converter and present it directly as HTML on my Arduino embedded webserver.

Has anyone tried something similar? Or perhaps someone could explain why this would never work.
I dont have the programming skills to be able to present data from a software serial, on an embedded arduino webserver, so was hoping I could make things a bit easier for myself.

Thanks.

Hi @Marengsen,

I’m not really understanding what you’re asking about. Our Ping Sonar communicates with TTL Serial, which can be connected directly to Arduino pins, as covered in our Using the Ping Sonar with an Arduino guide. A TTL Serial to USB converter (like our BLUART) is only relevant for converting the sonar communication to voltage levels that a normal computer can make sense of with its USB port.

the “software serial stuff” is what converts the electrical (voltage level over time) signals from the sonar into digital bytes in the Arduino, which can then use our ping-arduino library to parse those bytes into ping-protocol messages, at which point the program has some sense of meaning ascribed to the data (e.g. a distance measurement, or error message, or PCB temperature value, etc). Sending commands to the sonar follows the same process in reverse (Arduino program → ping-protocol message → serial packets → voltage levels → sonar).

Are there issues with the data → webserver approach suggested/discussed in your previous post?

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