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My issue is fairly simple to describe but I have no idea what the problem could be. So I got my FONA 3G and immediately after taking it out of the box, I connected the battery and I wired up my FTDI board (aka USB to serial converter), and then I plugged it into my USB port to try and establish communication. I just tried the most basic at command AT(using PuTTy). You're supposed to get an OK in response but the FONA doesn't appear to even notice that I'm trying to talk to it. I type AT and press enter and nothing happens at all.

The issue is most certainly not my FTDI board, I'm very experienced communicating with wifi modules and other GSM modules using PuTTy. So please don't be concerned with the setup. That's 100 percent definitely not the problem.

I was able to send AT commands after plugging the module into my laptop directly using the module's USB input, but there is still some issue with its UART. I haven't been able to send or receive any communications directly from RX and TX. It wont respond to any programs I load up onto my arduino. Its like the UART is asleep.

If you have experience with FONA 3G, please speak up and tell me what steps you took to get the UART to respond. What should the status indicator look like before its ready to receive commands? Any knowledge you have about the FONA3G module would be helpful.

As a side note, the FONA3G has a chip number. It is SIM5320a. I don't know if that helps. Most people know it as FONA 3G.

user3308807
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  • Also before you flag for duplicate, please look at the questions that you think may be the same. They are not the same at all. I've looked all over stack exchange and I know how irritable you guys get when there are repetitive questions, so I try not to do that. – user3308807 Apr 29 '20 at 05:15
  • Unfortunately I don't own that device so I cannot reproduce your issue _"on field"_. But reading that you are able to communicate to your device through USB is encouraging. So: 1) have you checked terminal's settings? (baudrate, bits, parity...). You can check relevant info by issuing `AT+ICF?`, `AT+IFC?` and `AT+IPR?` 2) Could you do a simple try just _inverting_ tx and rx pins connections? – Roberto Caboni Apr 30 '20 at 12:17
  • Rx goes to Tx. Tx goes to Rx. Trust me that is fine. Also thank you for your other suggestions. I will try them. – user3308807 May 01 '20 at 04:25

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All right. Thanks to those of you who posted comments. It turned out to be an issue with the baud rate! Its always the simple stuff. Adafruit said this thing has auto baud meaning you can use any baud rate but they are wrong. It requires 115200 to work properly. Also I'd like to point out that there was nothing wrong with my setup. Sometimes you should trust the person when they say their setup is 100 percent fine.

user3308807
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  • The baudrate had to be tuned, ecactly like I suggested, so it wasn't 100% fine. Do you think to be the first stating that all settings were fine but actually wasn't? That's why people start with obvious suggestions. The only one looking irritable here it"s you. – Roberto Caboni May 01 '20 at 07:07
  • Wow I said the hardware setup was fine and that was correct. The baud rate is not the wiring. Why do I have to clarify this? – user3308807 May 04 '20 at 09:44
  • Your ecact suggestion was many things. Not very specific. You recommended I invert Rx and Tx when I stated originally that my setup, meaning the wire connections, were definitely fine. But yeah go ahead and tell me how right you were. As long as you believe it, I guess that's what matters. – user3308807 May 04 '20 at 09:49
  • You said that was fine, but if only I could have 1€ for any asker stating that all was fine but it wasn't. :) Anyway the point is that SO is not a support site. It is a Q/A site, so that question and answers are not for the asker only. They must be written so that they are useful for anyone finding this question on google. If your cables were connected correctly is not relevant. It is one thing to check, and a checklist including it can be useful for someone else even if it wasn't for you. – Roberto Caboni May 04 '20 at 09:53