Bought some no-name curcuit board, dont know how to use it. Complete beginner.

[chevap]

Hi,
I bought a vibrating wire sensor measurement module over aliexpress. I am trying to make my own vibrating wire sensor measurement unit, to read signals from vibrating wire unit such as piezometer. I have no information about the board except that is "Model: WIN311, IN VCC: 5V, OUTPUT: RS232". All serials and info on the chips were erased by the board manufacturer. I would like to somehow connect to this board via some application and find out more info on microcontroller type on this board. Any idea on how to connect to a unknown circuit board, and where to begin on using it? I tried with Realterm terminal but dont know how to send commands to board, to get some respond from it. I have board connected to a 5V power supply via modified usb cable and data connection to computer via RS232 connector.

Info of the vibrating wire sensor measurement module, pictures of circuit board layout: https://it.aliexpress.com/item/Vibr...re-Reading-Instrument-WIN311/32571113342.html

[TomS_]

Start with Google and see what you can find, that would be my first step.

Perhaps others have used the board and have sample projects based on it, and maybe you find some libraries to at least give you some insight in to how to communicate with it.

Otherwise, look for similar boards that appear to use similar chips (package, pins etc). Download the datasheet for the chips used on those boards. Compare pinouts and circuitry. If they appear to be the same, try sending commands based on the documentation on the datasheets you have. Like many Hitachi clone LCD controllers, if the chip and/or its protocol is popular, then there is a more than zero probability that the protocol has also been copied.