The green light is steady, which means that I am not receiving any data. I am running windows7 64bit, using the Lynx Terminal with a direct serial connection, PORT1. I checked the status of the port in the device manager; port is good, set for 9600bps.
I have configured the SSC-32 for 9600bps, and serial communication correctly, hopefully, see attached picture.
I disconnected the VL VS1 jumper in case it was a reset issue, and I have VL powered with 9v battery and VS1 powered by power supply, exactly 8.75 and 5V respectfully. I do not have any other application open that uses serial communication PORT1.
The servos I am trying to control are in the Mecha TE robotic hand, Futaba S3114 Micro Servos.
The video is not part of the problem. The twitching was probably caused by running the servos supply at 4.7vdc, which is a bit too low. When you open LynxTerm there is a com port selector. What com ports does it show are available?
BTW When you open Lynxterm it constantly hits the serial port trying to get a reply to it’s VER command. If the LED never goes out your serial port is not working. The data can be formatted wrong, wrong baud rate, and be completely gibberish and the LED will still go out.
This information may be useful. I had the board only powered by the 9V, the green light was steady, then I attached serial cable, the green light was steady, I looked around in some of the functions, I think H2 Seq, then I noticed the light went out. I said wow maybe Im finally connected, so I started entering commands, and sure enough, the LED would blink whenever I sent the commands, so I know it has the capability to connect.
Then I attached my servo, but as soon as I applied power to VS1, the green light came on and stayed lit. Ok, what is going on?
BTW on this particular attempt, the twitching did not happen.
So I noticed that I had my baud rate at 9600 this whole time, and I configured both the COM1 port, the Baud jumpers, and the setup within Lynx Terminal for 115.2k now, but I still cant communicate through my computer.
The green LED is solid, or flickering. It will change from one state to the other without input, or any real reason at all.
I measure the power supply input to the boards ground and there does not appear to be a common ground issue.
Ok I will test it on a different computer (different serial port).
I plan to use a micro-controller for the project, I just wanted to use SSC-32 as a quick way to calibrate the springs on the hand.
1)If I were to use TTL, is there information on that in the manual?
2)Would I just send a high level ASCii command like
#0 P1500
, or is it more complicated than that?
The baud rate issue would not prevent the SSC-32’s LED from going out and blinking when receiving data. There is definitely something strange going on between the pc and the power supply. As you stated before the thing was acting right until you attached the power supply to the VS terminals. Controlling it from TTL is covered in every hexapod tutorial on the website. Just open the Assembly Guides page and look at them. It’s also covered in the SSC-32 manual but not as much detail. It uses the same command set, it’s just using a different method of transfer.
There is nothing wrong with the power supply, I read directly from the soldered bumps under the board corresponding to the input terminals, good supply, not noisy. I will assume now that there is something wrong with the serial port, even though its status reads “working properly”. I will try on another computer and if problem remains I will assume that the board doesn’t work.
This can not be that difficult. Is there any other possible setting in Lynx Terminal or anything that might not be set up. In Lynx Terminal you just enter the command (ie #0 P1500) and hit enter and thats it? #0 refers to the 0th servo slot? Terminal has a green led, when I hit disconnect, it goes out, when I hit connect, it goes on. But it is actually not connected.
Today my green LED on the board is solid, with no flickering. What would be the reason for that change, with the same exact setup, only a few hours apart?
By the way can you actually provide me with a link to the TTL information, I looked at one of the hexapod tutorials and it didnt have much on it and I dont feel like being on a wild goose chase.
There is no differences in commands, between using TTL communications through the jumpers or using RS232 level communications through the DB9 connector. So the SSC-32 manual that the above link to shows the details…
Thanks Kurt. My reply wasn’t as good as yours! So I deleted it.
Fred,
There certainly may not be anything wrong with the power supply, but what I was describing was a potential issue with the two pieces of equipment, (PC/power supply) not working together. But we know the board is working properly.You could try a different PC, or even try a battery pack in place of the power supply. The results would tell the story. The SSC-32 is a mature product with a long history of reliable operation, and no known hardware or software issues.
I just looked at the video again. I noticed you have a bar joining the “-” and the frame ground terminals on the power supply. I would recommend you remove that and allow the DC output to float to the PC’s ground potential, which might not be the same…
I just got to a new computer with serial, and the board works fine. I’m not sure why or how, but it must have been the computer I was on. Thanks for working with me, I’ll check out the TTL stuff and hit you up if I have questions.
