Just finished building my AL5D last night. Couldn’t wait till this morning, so I downloaded and installed Lynx Arm Config and Dual Arm Control. I’ve also downloaded the free version of Flowstone and the Arm Control file for that.
I ran through the Arm Config last night with no problems. I also ran Dual Arm Control with no problems and had a BLAST setting up my first sequences (until my wife insisted I leave my Man Cave). I turned everything off before leaving. This morning . . . no joy. Dual Arm Control isn’t connecting. But here’s the weird thing: Arm Config and Flowstone ARE connecting on COM7. I’ve tried every combination of turning the arm on and off before and after I launch Dual Arm Control, reinitializing the serial/USB converter, but I’m still getting the “Not Connected” message.
I don’t see anything within Dual Arm Control for troubleshooting connection problems. HELP!
BTW, I’m semi-experienced with this kind of stuff. I built my own MakerBot a couple of years ago – a Thing-O-Matic, and it runs great.
UPDATE: I found the problem – or at least A problem. Last night when I had Dual Arm Control Working, I didn’t have my MakerBot on. This morning, I did. It was on COM3. The Calibration software and Flowstone had no problem with this, but Dual Arm Controller apparently did. When the MB finished the build it was working on, I turned it OFF and unplugged its USB-serial connection. Voila! Dual Arm Control connected to the SSC32 on COM7.
I Would be curious to know whether this is really the issue and, if so, whether there’s any resolution to it – my 3D printer is running basically all the time that I’m in my Man Cave (right now, its printing pieces for a custom base system for my AL5D).
Well . . . back to connection problem. Had to reboot my PC. Not running Makerbot or other serial or USB/serial device. Arm on. Dual Arm Control not connected. Help!
Windows is a bit funny in the way it uses peripherals and it is possible that your computer still thinks a serial port is in sue even when it is not. In general a restart will solve this but it can be indeed annoying.
Also, you might want to set your arm COM port number to a low value (e.g. COM1). Having a lower com port than your Makerbot might solve the concurrency problem.
Also Flowstone which several of these programs like the Dual Arm control program is not very smart when it comes to devices. That is unlike programs that are written in lets say VB, it does(did) not have the ability for the flowstone program to ask the system for it’s list of devices such as Comm ports. So many of these programs, simply iterate looking at each comm port starting at 1 to see if it is connected to an SSC-32, by sending commands such as “VER” and seeing if the comm port returns data that looks valid.
There are potentially some issues with this approach, which include maybe this will interfere with some devices, or maybe you have more than 1 SSC-32…
Also he iterated over a fixed range of comm ports like 1-20, so if you are like me, you may have had many different Arduinos or Arc32s, or… on your computer and the Comm port assigned to your SSC-32 or the USB to serial Adapter that your SSC-32 is connected to, may have a number higher than this program is looking for. I know there were some issues with this before and at least in some of his programs he upped the range, but maybe not on this one.
So, try looking into the device manager on your machine to see if the devices are properly there. And as Carlitos mentioned, maybe try to set the SSC-32 to a low comm port number.
Thanks for the replies. I’m still facing unpredictable and intermittent connection problems with the Dual Arm Control (“DAC”) software. I’ve tried manually re-assigning the COM port number for my USB-serial converter, and also unplugging ALL other USB devices, and rebooting. In every case, the Flowstone Arm Control and Lynx arm calibration software sees my arm, but DAC doesn’t. On the other hand, in the SAME Windows session, I’ll go away for some time time (hours), come back, change nothing, try the DAC software and BANG! it sees the ARM.
This morning, I’ve tried Windows (7) reboot, had my USB-serial converter get automagically assigned COM port 1 (because everything else is unplugged), Flowstone sees my SSC32 but . . . DAC says “Not Connected.”
Any ideas? Evil spirits? Bad Karma? Lack of connection troubleshooting tools in DAC?
I checked and the COM Port was set to 9600 baud. Changed it to 115200. Everything stopped working – no connection to Flowstone or Lynx Arm Config and, of course DAC. Reset the COM port to 9600 – now even Flowstone and Arm config aren’t connecting. Very frustrated, especially since, in all of my many, many Arduino-based projects (including MakerBot), I’ve never had these kinds of problems.
How do you reset baud rate of SSC32? If its Lynx Term, I’m stuck there, too – I downloaded the zip file and, when i go to install it, am getting an error message that the installer can’t find the Data.cab file . . . but it’s definitely in the zip folder. Very, very frustrated.
OK . . . just realized that in my spazzing around, I disconnected my USB-serial converter, so some of my last post is wrong. Flowstone and Lynx Arm Config ARE connecting properly with the COM Port baud rate set to 115200. That was just me being stooopid. But still no joy on connecting with DAC or installing Lynx Term
To confirm - you have successfully controlled the arm via software on your computer? Do you have a next objective? Lynxterm seems to have a few issues with Windows 7, and unfortunately we are no longer supporting these free programs and instead investing our efforts in FlowBotics, set to be released in May.
What is the problem with Lynxterm and windows 7? There are times I have had a few minor issues, that usually are cleared up by first uninstalling the program and then reinstalling. I did this just a week or so ago and worked fine.
If you can connect with the Lynx Arm COnfig, but now with the DAC, then it sounds like a bug in the DAC. Does not look like Devon has logged in since November, so not sure if anyone will be able to debug it… I personally don’t use flowstone…
As for FlowBotics, I hope the new version will have better system integration, like ability to list the actual devices that are currently attached. Also the ability to resize the window and have the layout of the controls updated to the new size… But that is a different topic.
Correct – I’ve got my arm working fine with the FlowArmControl program, and am connecting with the Lynx Arm Config software very reliably. But I’m having intermittent to no connection with DAC.
BTW, I’m very happy with the AL5D kit. Having built my own MakerBot and upgraded it myself many times, I can say that the arm compares very favorably as a robotics kit, in terms of “buildability” and hardware assembly documentation.
I have very high hopes for Flowbotics. Moving into “free range” robotics from 3D printing (where I’ve been tinkering for quite some time), I’ve been underwhlemed by the state of hobby robotics software. I definitely have a “wish list” of things I’d like to see! The Flowstone foundation seems like a very good idea, as it seems extremely powerful and flexible and able to reach the level of development that I think hobby robotics software should be (but definitely isn’t).
Although I have low hopes for the issue being addressed, with the news that it’s not being supported, I thought I’d report the latest bizarre twist in my DAC tale. Last night I fiddled around in the Man Cave and, among other things, ran my arm for a while on the FlowArm software. During that time, I closed FlowArm and opened DAC. No joy – no connection. I went back to FlowArm and happily played around some more before going on to other things. I left my workbench with the arm’s power turned off, but FlowArm still open. My system (i.e. PC running Win7, FlowArm open, both arm power circuits off) stayed in that configuration overnight.
This morning I sat down at the bench and ran the arm through FlowArm for a few minutes. I then closed FlowArm and tried opening DAC again . . . . connected! So here’s the thing: The pattern of opening FlowArm, turning the arm power (processor and servos) off and then on again, and then running in FlowArm before closing FlowArm and then opening DAC is NOT new. I’ve tried that (and every other combination of on/off, reboot, etc.) many times. DAC connecting seems to be completely random.
I’ve never seen this kind of erratic behavior in a piece of software before . . . weird . . . .
We will be releasing the first version of FlowBotics in May (the price will be amazing - especially considering that it will include the full FlowStone software - valued at $250). After some time has passed and people have found bugs, nuances etc. we’ll start a new thread where people can provide feedback. We foresee people developing small and large stand-alone programs created using FlowBotics via MyRobots and Lynxmotion (such as DAC).
