AH2 Hexapod Board Frustration

Prognathodon · December 30, 2018, 12:08am

Hi!
I received a Lynxmotion AH2 hexapod kit for Christmas, BotBoarduino option. I’ve got the legs and body assembled, moved onto installing the boards, and hit what seems like a brick wall. The instructions refer to installing a BasicAtom 32 onto the BotBoard II, attaching the standoffs to the boards and attaching to the bot’s body, and plugging in the servo controls, but the details are . . . lacking. I also seem to be missing the BasicAtom daughter board . . . which doesn’t seem to be available any more?

I’m a Civil Engineer, so I asked my husband, who has done hardware/software QA for a couple decades, for help. He also cannot follow clearly where the servos are to be connected to the boards, or how the boards are supposed to communicate with one another - the schematics in the Lynxmotion tutorials only show power shared between the two boards. The images of the boards in the tutorials also do not match the boards I have.

Hardware
Lynxmotion AH2 2 degree of freedom Hexapod kit
BotBoarduino II board
SSC 32 board

Software concerned: not that far…

Troubleshooting steps already taken:
Two mature college-educated adults reading, staring, Googling, looking for possibly-missing parts.

Additional information:
I have included a photo of the boards in my posession.

Does anyone have any guidance on:
Do I need a BasicAtom board, or is there a suggested alternate? Guidance for installation?
Where/which pins on which board should the servos connect to? - better circuit diagram?
How are the two boards connected/communicate?

Thanks!
Frustrated Prognathodon

GeneralKenobi · December 30, 2018, 12:34am

Hey!

It seems that the boards in the tutorials are old versions. The newer version of the botboard doesn’t have the socket for the Atom Pro and has a usb port instead of the serial port. The ssc 324 also has a new bee socket.
I know that Lynxmotion kits are usable with only the SSC and the botboard but the guides need to be updated for sure.

I’ve put my references below:
http://www.lynxmotion.com/images/html/build165.htm
http://www.lynxmotion.com/images/html/build164.htm

I suggest that you take a look at the updated botboard and ssc datasheets:

Prognathodon · December 30, 2018, 1:08am

Aha, the updated board documents look promising! Thank you!

GeneralKenobi · December 30, 2018, 1:31am

Alright, no problems!
Be sure to post your robot here once you’re done, I’ve never seen that kit in action

Prognathodon · December 31, 2018, 6:25pm

Here’s pictures of the finished hardware portion of the build (pointed away from viewer). It powers up, and the servos twitch.

Aaaaand I forgot to check the system requirements for the Lynxmotion Servo Sequencer Utility and FlowBotics Studio, and we are an Apple household. Found an inexpensive refurbished desktop running Win7, should be here Friday, and offspring says we have a spare working monitor lurking about.

Once I get it running with pre-programmed motion, I’ll probably add an XBee for remote control. My husband revived his RC truck this weekend, we can compare performance, and really fluster the beagles - they DO NOT trust the truck. The husky just looks at them like they’re idiots “What are you on about? It’s a silly human thing”