problem with qwiic endpoints and Arduino nano 33 iot

Qwiic System
1

Hello everyone,

I have an arduino nano 33 iot connected to a VL53l0X distance sensor and a stepper motor. The sensor is about 1m far, so the i2c fails in that distance. I tried to strengthen the connection by using two qwiicbus endpoints, but it seems that it burn them.

I am wondering if this caused by the fact that nano 33 iot has internal pull up resistors. Do you think that this is a problem for using the qwiicbus endpoints?

I now purchased the Adafruit LTC4311 active terminator to try, do you think that i should consider the arduino internal pull ups when connecting this new module?

Thanks!

2

The pull-up should not cause damage… how did you connect ?

Why do you think it is broken ?

3

i connected one end point in the i2c port of arduino board (sda,scl,gnd,+v) to a long UTP5 (50 cm . but in the project there is electromagnetic noise from a stepper motor) to an endpoint to the VL sensor. Now I connect them and the i2c connection do not responds (red lets on both endpoints are still on)

4

I see no reason why this should not work anymore, unless the +v voltage was higher than 5v. Still it could be that there is a issue (after all thing break down sometimes for no good reason) Maybe there is another problem:

check cabling,

check for right connection to the endpoints

Try working on lower speed ( e.g. 35khz)

does your VL work when connected to the Nano directly on the same pin ?

5

Yes, the VL works perfect if I do not use the endpoints.

Vin was 3.3V

Cables are checked and are fine.

I use Wire.setClock(10000); for lower speed

I am thinking that endpoints are broken. Is there any other way to check that these are still working?

Thanks

6

So to sum up. There is an arduino nano 33 iot that reads a distance sensor through i2c and moves accordingly a stepper motor. The distance sensor is about 0.5 m for away from the arduino, so I chose to use endpoints in order to enhance the connection. However, I have "destroyed"4 endpoints and now they do not manage to initialise the connection.

The connection is as follows: in the arduino i2c (SDA and SCL) there is connected an end point (SDA, SCL, Vcc (3.3V) and GND, ethernet cable with pins straightforward, endpoint that connects SDA and SCL to the sensor.

I have not place additional pull up resistors, and the jumpers of the endpoints are not altered.

Is this a proper setup?

Thanks.

7

how do you power the VL ?

you also have to connect GND between the sensor and endpoint

i would expect it to wotk otherwise

8

My connection is outlined in the following sketch:

Screenshot 2024-02-19 at 16.15.04.png
Screenshot 2024-02-19 at 16.15.04.png2140×1162 44.2 KB

9

A bit of a weird setup… I assume this is for test.

Some thoughts to try :

Try to connect GND ALSO between the endpoint and the VL.

Also try another UTP5 wire on the RJ45 connector and make sure your UTP5 wire is not a ""cross-wire.

try to power the VL53 from the end-point.

10

I tried all the above but does not work at all. Do you think there is another way to check if the endpoints are still working?

Thanks.

11

A logic analyzer would be helping to find the root cause/solution here… but maybe try (if you have it) another I2C device.