Crazy Results with I2C and I2C_Anything()

Question

I have the following code in a Arduino Mega function to retrieve two 4-byte integers from a Teensy 3.2.

Wire.requestFrom(SLAVE_ADDR, sizeof(float)+ 2*sizeof(long));
mySerial.printf("\n<<<<<<< In IsIRBeamAvail() >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>\n\n");
mySerial.printf("Wire.Available() reports %d\n", Wire.available());
I2C_readAnything(Fin1);
mySerial.printf("Read Fin1 %d, Wire.Available() reports %d\n",Fin1, Wire.available());
Fin2 = Fin1; 
mySerial.printf("Fin1 = %d, Fin2 = %d\n", Fin1, Fin2);
I2C_readAnything(Fin2);
mySerial.printf("Read Fin2 = %d, Wire.Available() reports %d\n", Fin2, Wire.available());
mySerial.printf("Fin1 = %d, Fin2 = %d and SteeringValue = %2.2f\n", Fin1, Fin1, SteeringValue);
mySerial.printf("Read %f, Wire.Available() reports %d\n", SteeringValue, Wire.available());
mySerial.printf("Fin1 = %d, Fin2 = %d and SteeringValue = %2.2f\n", Fin1, Fin1, SteeringValue);

And this produces the following output:

<<<<<<< In IsIRBeamAvail() >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Wire.Available() reports 12
I2C_readAnything: Sizeof(value) = 4
Read Fin1 5375, Wire.Available() reports 0
Fin1 = 5375, Fin2 = 0
I2C_readAnything: Sizeof(value) = 4
Read Fin2 = 10750, Wire.Available() reports 0
Fin1 = 5375, Fin2 = 0 and SteeringValue = 0.00
Read 0, Wire.Available() reports 4
Fin1 = 5375, Fin2 = 0 and SteeringValue = 0.00

This is driving me nuts, because while the Fin1 & Fin2 values are apparently received correctly, the Fin2 value is always reported as 0, even after it was explicitly set to be equal to Fin1 as a test (line 6 in the code).

The values obtained from the Teensy (5375 and 10750 in the output snippet) are correct, but I can't get Fin2 to print out correctly (the 'SteeringValue' issue is probably the same as the 'Fin2' problem, but I haven't gotten there yet).

I cannot for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong here. Could someone walking by take a glance from 30 feet away and immediately see the problem?

TIA,

Frank

3/31/20 Update:

I finally got Wire.requestFrom() & I2C_Anything() to behave the way I thought it should, but I'm still left with a mystery - why the PrintEx version of printf refuses to print the values properly: Here's the code snippet:

//get latest info from IR Demod Module
long Fin1 = 0; //03/30/20 needs to be 'long int' (4 bytes) here to match Teensy int (4 bytes)
long Fin2 = 23; //03/30/20 needs to be 'long int' (4 bytes) here to match Teensy int (4 bytes)
float SteeringValue;
mySerial.printf("\n<<<<<<< In IsIRBeamAvail() >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>\n\n");
Wire.requestFrom(SLAVE_ADDR, sizeof(Fin1) + sizeof(Fin2)+ sizeof(SteeringValue));
mySerial.printf("Wire.Available() reports %d\n", Wire.available());
I2C_readAnything(Fin1);
mySerial.printf("Fin1 = %d\n", Fin1);
I2C_readAnything(Fin2);
mySerial.printf("Fin2 = %d\n", Fin2);
I2C_readAnything(SteeringValue);
mySerial.printf("SteeringValue = %2.3f\n", SteeringValue);
mySerial.printf("Fin1 = %d, Fin2 = %d, SteeringVal = %6.3f\n", Fin1, Fin2, SteeringValue);

And here's the output produced. As you can see, the individual values print out correctly, but when combined into the last mySerial.printf() statement, things go awry. Anyone have a clue?

Wire.Available() reports 12
I2C_readAnything: Sizeof(value) = 4
Fin1 = 1986
I2C_readAnything: Sizeof(value) = 4
Fin2 = 3972
I2C_readAnything: Sizeof(value) = 4
SteeringValue = 6239.219
Fin1 = 1986, Fin2 = 0, SteeringVal = 0.000

Frank

And one last update: I compared the output obtained by using the StreamEx mySerial = Serial; object, and the one obtained by using the more traditional Serial.print() statement. The code

 Serial.print("Fin1 = "); Serial.print(Fin1); Serial.print(", ");
Serial.print("Fin2 = "); Serial.print(Fin2); Serial.print(", "); 
Serial.print("SteeringValue = "); Serial.println(SteeringValue);
mySerial.printf("Fin1 = %d, Fin2 = %d, SteeringValue = %3.2f\n", Fin1, Fin2, SteeringValue);

And the output:

Fin1 = 9185, Fin2 = 18370, SteeringValue = 28851.73
Fin1 = 9185, Fin2 = 0, SteeringValue = 0.00

The top line is entirely correct, but for some reason, the mySerial.printf() version gets it wrong. Ideas?

Frank

• Fahad: What is the type of Fin1 and Fin2? Also, on lines 10 and 12, you are actually printing Fin1, twice.
• starship15: Fin1 & Fin2 are both 'long int' (4 bytes on Arduino Mega). These match the 4-byte 'int' type from the Teensy 3.2 slave. And yes I know I'm printing things multiple times, but I don't think that changes the basic craziness of getting a correct result into Fin2 and then not being able to print it.
• Fahad: What library you are using for printf()?
• starship15: Arduino PrintEx library

Answer 1

The devil is in the details. From the PrintEx repo doc, this is the formatting for printf:

%[flags][width][.precision][length]specifier

When you use long, you will have to provide the [length], and the lib only accepts "l" (Letter L).

#include <PrintEx.h>
long int Fin1 = 5;
long int Fin2 = 2;
float SteeringValue = 3.5;
void setup() 
{
 Serial.begin(9600);
 PrintEx mySerial = Serial; 
 Serial.print("Fin1 = "); Serial.print(Fin1); Serial.print(", "); 
 Serial.print("Fin2 = "); Serial.print(Fin2); Serial.print(", "); 
 Serial.print("SteeringValue = "); Serial.println(SteeringValue);
 // This will fail
 mySerial.printf("Fin1 = %d, Fin2 = %d, SteeringValue = %3.2f\n", Fin1, Fin2, SteeringValue);
 // This will work as expected
 mySerial.printf("Fin1 = %ld, Fin2 = %ld, SteeringValue = %3.2f\n", Fin1, Fin2, SteeringValue);
}
void loop() {}

Line 16 is what you have. Line 19 is the format you should use.

• starship15: Yep -that did the trick, although I would have sworn on a bible that I had tried the %ld modifier at some point.