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Getting Started Open Echo Interface Software

The Open Echo Interface is a cross-platform Python application that interacts with the Arduino + TUSS4470 Shield. It displays ultrasonic echo data in real-time using a waterfall chart visualization. The application is intended primarily as a testing and development tool, but is stable enough for continuous use -tested for several days on a Raspberry Pi 4 without issues.

Key Features

  • Connects to Open Echo hardware over serial or UDP
  • Displays real-time and historical data in a waterfall chart
  • Auto-gain to adjust the waterfall chart colors
  • Shows detected depth, and (if supported) temperature and drive voltage (vDRV)

Note
This interface is primarily intended for development and testing. It's proven stable, but not yet a polished end-user application.

Installation & Setup

1. Create and activate a virtual environment

cd open_echo/TUSS4470_shield_002
python3 -m venv venv 
source venv/bin/activate

2. Install requirements

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Start Open Echo Interface Software

python echo_interface.py

Select the correct COM port, then click Connect or press c on your keyboard. Once connected, the Open Echo board will begin streaming data, which will appear on the right side of the interface. The red horizontal line indicates the currently detected depth, based on the strongest first echo received after the ring-down delay.

Open Echo Interface Software

4. Change to your own needs

You can change different settings in the first lines of the Open Echo Interface code to customize it to your specific use cases.

📊 Parameter Settings

Parameter Description
BAUD_RATE Must match the baud rate configured in the Arduino firmware.
NUM_SAMPLES Must match the NUM_SAMPLES value used in the Arduino firmware.
MAX_ROWS Sets the number of historical measurements displayed in the chart before it scrolls.
Y_LABEL_DISTANCE Defines the vertical axis label spacing, in centimeters.
SPEED_OF_SOUND Used to convert sample timing into distance. Set to ~330 for air, ~1450 for water.
SAMPLE_TIME Sampling interval in microseconds. For the Arduino UNO with TUSS4470_arduino.ino, this must be set to 13.2 µs.

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