RaZberry, Banana Pi, and Linux Flavors

Discussions about RaZberry - Z-Wave board for Raspberry computer
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jepeneter
Posts: 2
Joined: 23 Nov 2022 20:23

RaZberry, Banana Pi, and Linux Flavors

Post by jepeneter »

I have been using RaZberry HATs on Raspberry Pi's for the last two years (I bought 3; don't ask why). With Rasberry Pi supply shortages making it really hard to buy those boards, I thought I would try Banana Pi (BPI-P2 Zero). However, I can't seem to crack the code to getting the RaZberry to work. There are some threads (here and elsewhere) that seem to indicate that it is just figuring out which tty to use. On some sites it says the Banana uses ttyS1, ttyS2, or even ttyS3 (on the Rasberry it is usually ttyAMA0).

Questions:
1. Is there a best image/flavor of Linux that would best support the RaZberry? I have tried about a dozen images and none seem to matter.
2. Is there a way to test/know whether the RaZberry is "seen" by the OS? I am not using Z-Way but if installing that somehow adds drivers to my image or otherwise allows me to easily test, I am willing to go down that road. As far as I can tell, it should show up as UART3 based on the GPIO assignments.
3. Speaking of drivers, what package does the RaZberry use? I know that if I use a SiLabs USB stick, it will show that in dmesg (I would love if RaZberry shows up there too; see #2 above) so maybe I just don't have some package installed.
4. From the above, you can see that I am not a super Linux person. But if I need to start going down the road of building my own kernel/image, what kernel mods should be included to make sure RaZberry shows up correctly?
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PoltoS
Posts: 7562
Joined: 26 Jan 2011 19:36

Re: RaZberry, Banana Pi, and Linux Flavors

Post by PoltoS »

RaZberry is using UART, so you need to configure the UART in your OS to work as ttyAMA* or ttyS*. For example, Raspberry OS by default has the UART off and a special configuration is required. The version for Raspberry Pi should also work on Banana Pi, but some tricks might be required. Please be more specific about your issues, so we can help
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