I just received my tachyon today, and i cant for the life of me get video out from it...
some things
The battery is plugged in.
I power it on and it shows a breathing green indicating i hope, on.
i have tried usb c to c direct to a monitor on both ports with usbc powering the monitor as well..
no video output... interestingly when i plug a hub in, there is no light on the hub unless i plug it into usb 2 which is supposedly not the correct port... My goal is to build a custom tabelet. so i do need the touch screen functionality. any help is greatly apreciated
Amazon.com: USB C Docking Station Dual Monitor for Dell HP, Laptop Docking Station 3 Monitors 15-in-1 USB C Hub Dock with Dual 4K HDMI+8K DP +VGA+6USB Ports+PD+Ethernet+SD/TF+Audio,USBC Adapter Dongle for Lenovo : Electronics is my usb hub
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CM6G14YS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title is my monitor.
Hey Ben!
Only USB1 can output USB-C alt mode!
more info here: Connectors | Particle Developer
USB1 alt mode "as a standard" can only work when power is supplied into the USB-C hub, so a USB-C power adapter needs to be plugged into the USB-C hub. This is because the power requirements of a hub is more than the USB-C standard can provide in this mode.
We actually have this exact use case working here (it's very cool!). What we do is:
- power the device off (red led)
- plug in USB-C monitor and make sure the USB-C monitor has power
- power on the device
- desktop login will pop up
There is currently a bug where the desktop is sometimes not picked up on a cold boot (but hot plug works) - we're looking into this at the moment!
Thanks
Nick.
1 Like
it worked breifly, but now it doesnt again... i reflashed software as well and it is now steady cyan indicating it is connected to cloud but it still wont output a signal either hdmi through hub or direct through usb c
does that mean i need a usb c hub with usb c video out? if so thats the problem... i will just get a second usb c hub lol or would that not explain that i have a usb c video cable plugged directly into the usb 1 and it doesnt work that way...
Hey Ben
Any USB-C dock should work. We don't have the exact one you have (with dual HDMI outputs), so I picked one up - should arrive tomorrow and I'll test it again! Its possible that multiple monitor outputs is causing something unusual to happen...
What power supply are you using to power the monitor and the tachyon out of reference?
For the USB-C cable, is this a USB 3.1 cable? I ask as it needs the specific display port alt mode and high speed signal support to work correctly - we had to sell such a cable in the end as there was such high variability in these within the company (and confusion!).
Lastly, what's the device ID if you don't mind sharing? I'll check some logs. If it's possible to leave this device online so they can upload, that would be amazing.
Thanks
Nick.
(you can share the device ID via DM)
The hub i have does not do usb c video out which i need for a touch screen so I'm going to repourpase that to usb2 and get another hub with usb c video out like this one https://a.co/d/8HhQFUU it should be online shortly right now it is flashing green
Sorry I'm using a 100 w pd charger and I am according to the box the monitor came in... using a 3.1 cable
Hey Ben, typically we use a USB-C hub that supports HDMI out (or DisplayPort).
For background: USB-C includes support for Alternate Mode (Alt Mode), which allows the port to carry DisplayPort video signals. The Tachyon module supports DisplayPort Alt Mode and can output up to 4K30.
To display this on a monitor, the key is using a USB-C hub or adapter that knows how to route the correct pins and includes a DisplayPort-to-HDMI or DisplayPort driver IC. Many affordable hubs do this internally - for USB-C monitors, the monitor itself typically includes this chip.
For the USB-C ports on the hub, it looks like one port has the alt mode routed to it, so it should work. However, I've picked up one of these as well to check it all works!
My setup is Tachyon -> USB-C hub with built in HDMI output -> Monitor for reference.
Thanks!
Hey Ben!
I bought both those adapters and tested them - good news! Using my external monitors (3 x HDMI monitors I test with), the display output worked well.
A few key items:
-
make sure that you have a USB-C power supply plugged into the USB-C adapter. I'll make sure this is called out in the documentation as well. The exemption to this is if you are using a basic USB-C to HDMI convertor with out additional USB ports on it, then it will work ok. The reason is that the adapter says it needs 5A of power (to drive the USB ports and internal chips at full power) and Tachyon can't supply this much, so the external power supply is needed.
-
for the USB-C to USB-C dock, I connected the monitor to the port with a little display icon and then connected the power to the end port. Then plugged into tachyon and powered it up.
Thanks
Nick.
ok so usb c - c video hub with usb c power into monitor and usb c power into hub il try that in a bit...
my thought is to use this as a tablet but one that also records environmental and gps data as i move around... i have a 2k line python script where just the display output code is like 500 lines long...
mostly related question... if i decide to plug this in to an ubuntu laptop... will i be able to (over usb debug/not sure what the name is) be able to pull sensor data over usb to the ubuntu laptop?
Hey Ben - yes! Try and connect the device and then use 'adb' on your ubuntu laptop - I'll post a documentation page of this shortly on how to get going. You can also make network access work as well if you want to connect apps over this connection.
Thanks!
nick you are amazing... ps here is the list of sensors...
f"{latitude_dd_cardinal}",
f"{longitude_dd_cardinal}",
f"{latitude_dms}",
f"{longitude_dms}",
f"{location_display}",
generate_separator("*****"),
f"GPS Altitude: {data['Altitude']:.2f} m | {data['Altitude'] * 3.28084:.1f} ft",
f"Corrected GPS Altitude: {corrected_altitude_m:.2f} m | {corrected_altitude_ft:.1f} ft (Barometric adjustment applied)",
f"Sea-Level Pressure Estimate: {sea_level_pressure:.2f} hPa",
generate_separator("*****"),
f"GPS Accuracy: {gps_accuracy:.2f} (Lower = better signal)",
f"Satellites in View: {num_sats} (More = better GPS fix)",
f"GPS Reliability: {gps_reliability:.2f} (Higher = more accurate GPS fix)",
f"Satellite Factor: {satellite_factor:.2f} (Scaling based on satellite count)",
generate_separator("*****"),
f"Distance Traveled (Since Last Update): {gps_data['distance_last_km']:.3f} km | {gps_data['distance_last_km'] * 0.621371:.3f} mi",
f"Avg Speed (Since Last Update): {gps_data['avg_speed_last_kmh']:.2f} km/h | {gps_data['avg_speed_last_kmh'] * 0.621371:.2f} mph",
generate_separator("*****"),
f"Speed: {data['Speed']} m/s | {data['Speed'] * 2.23694:.1f} mph",
f"Accel X: {data['Accel_X']:.2f} g",
f"Accel Y: {data['Accel_Y']:.2f} g",
f"Accel Z: {data['Accel_Z']:.2f} g",
f"Gyro X: {data['Gyro_X']:.2f} °/s",
f"Gyro Y: {data['Gyro_Y']:.2f} °/s",
f"Gyro Z: {data['Gyro_Z']:.2f} °/s",
Added Magnetometer Data & Corrected Heading
f"Mag X: {data['Mag_X']:.2f} µT",
f"Mag Y: {data['Mag_Y']:.2f} µT",
f"Mag Z: {data['Mag_Z']:.2f} µT",
f"Corrected Heading: {data['Corrected_Heading']:.2f}°",
generate_separator("*****"),
System performance data placed after Gyro Z
f"CPU Usage: {cpu_usage:.2f}%",
f"Available RAM: {available_ram_mb:.2f} MB",
f"Battery Percentage: {battery_percent}%",
f"Time: {data['Timestamp']}",
f"AQI: {aqi}",
generate_separator("*****"),
f"PM1: {data['PM1']} µg/m³ | {data['PM1'] * 0.0000283:.4f} gr/ft³",
f"PM2.5: {data['PM2.5']} µg/m³ | {data['PM2.5'] * 0.0000283:.4f} gr/ft³",
f"PM10: {data['PM10']} µg/m³ | {data['PM10'] * 0.0000283:.4f} gr/ft³",
generate_separator("*****"),
f"CO₂: {data['CO₂']} ppm",
f"CO: {data['CO']} ppm",
f"NO₂: {data['NO₂']} ppb",
f"VOC Index: {data['VOC Index']}", # Added SGP40 VOC measurement!
generate_separator("*****"),
f"Barometric Pressure: {data['Pressure']} hPa",
f"Pressure Altitude: {pressure_alt_m:.1f} m | {pressure_alt_ft:.1f} ft",
f"Temperature: {data['Temperature']:.1f}°C | {(data['Temperature'] * 1.8 + 32):.1f}°F",
f"Humidity: {data['Humidity']:.1f}%",
generate_separator("*****"),
f"Radiation: {data['Radiation (µSv/h)']:.2f} µSv/h",
generate_separator("*****")
Hey Ben - I would recommend you try the ADB instructions in here!
Install adb on your laptop - you can use 'adb shell' very simply by running a shell command in a python app (etc...) on your laptop and it can execute a program / script on Tachyon, then return the result to you on the laptop. It's a very easy first step to get data out of the device.
Another trick can be to use 'adb pull' to pull files from the device and then process them locally.
Thanks!
Love adb pull so i can write a python script that pulls csv file generated on taychan and reads the last line and outputs it