Arduino Uno & ESP32 communication using RS485

Question

I am trying to establish a communication between Arduino Uno ( Master) and ESP32 (Slave) using RS485 protocol (using MAX485 module). I have successfully done this between two Arduino Unos. SoftwareSerial library is what i am using between two Arduino Unos, now trying with ESP32 and Arduino Uno (using MAX485 module) . For ESP32 i have used SoftwareSerial (https://github.com/akshaybaweja/SoftwareSerial) library.

After reading the library and making connection i am not be able to establish a communication between them. Sharing my code below.

Receiver

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial softwareSerial(9, 10);
String str;

void setup()
{

  Serial.begin(9600);
  softwareSerial.begin(9600);

}

void loop()
{

  while (softwareSerial.available() > 0) {

    char inChar = softwareSerial.read();

    if (inChar == '$') {

        str.trim();
        Serial.println("received command" + str);
        memset(&str, 0, sizeof(str));
        Serial.flush();
        softwareSerial.flush();
    }
    else {
        str = str + inChar;
    }

 }

}

Sender

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial swSer1(22, 23, false, 256);
String str;

void setup() {

  Serial.begin(9600);
  swSer1.begin(9600);

}

void loop() {

  String sendCmd = "MSG1$";
  Serial.println("Sending ");
  Serial.println(sendCmd );
  char copy[50];
  sendCmd.toCharArray(copy, 50);
  swSer1.write(sendCmd);
  delay(1000);


}

Here my question is where i am going wrong in this project. Please guide me.

Note : DE AND RE PINS are connected to high for sender device and to low for receiver device as given in the RS485 documentation.

Answer 1

Maybe you have already solved this but in any case, have you tried working with the hardware serial ports? You have three of them in the ESP32. I read sowhere else that there may be some interrupt issues using the SoftwareSerial library on the ESP devices, especially at higher baud rates.

Answer 2

I don't think you can use pins 9 and 10 they are connected to the internal mSPI flash, uart0 is connected to FTDI usb chip, use uart2 on 16 and 17.