I previously order an ALD5 Lynxmotion arm from the shop. I have fully constructed the arm and wire up the cables to the servo control board per your assembly guide. Flowbotics studio came with the arm so I installed the software on a laptop along with your servo sequencing software. When plugging in the servo control board with the micro usb cable the board cannot be “found”. I made sure our com port drivers were up to date which they were so I proceeded to try another computer. After switching computers the software detected the board and flashed the found light but then proceeded to say that the com port was timed out.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Hi Apple_Nut,
Sorry to hear you have issues regarding the Lynxmotion AL5D / SSC-32U hardware.
Can you attach some pictures of your setup as it was while testing, details are important here.
At the same time, try the following and the order is important:
]Connect the USB cable to the SSC-32U & Computer/:m]
]Apply Power to the SSC-32U/:m]
]Open FlowBotics Studio / AL5 Arm project/:m]
]Click the “Bluetooth” icon at the left of the COM port drop menu. Should now be lit in blue/:m]
]Click the COM drop down menu and select “AUTO” /:m]
After that you should get both AUTO and FOUND lights steady ON.
Let us know
I was able to get the robot to work with the servo sequencer but I still have not been able to connect it to flow botics studio. I am trying to get this arm to work with an xbox 360 usb controller or a ps2 controller. Any ideas?
Which sequencer are you using ? LynxTerm or SSC-32 Serv Sequencer Utility ?
The FlowBotics Studio project will work just like the second sequencer but LynxTerm allow for different BaudRate settings.
There is a sample code available for the BotBoarduino and PS2 controller
GitHub - Lynxmotion / Arms
Am I unable to use a usb xbox controller with lynx motions flow botics studio? I have to by the additional board and ps2 controller? I was using the SSC32 Servo sequencer.
The sample application can use the USB PS2 controller (here) but since this is already coded we can’t verify that your XBox controller will work.
Have you been able to connect to your arm with FlowBotics ?
No flowbotics won’t detect the arm. I’ll get the ps2 controller ordered. Do I need the bot boardunio as well or no?
FlowBotics do not use the BotBoarduino, that’s usually when you want something autonomus.
First thing would be to have the arm connected to FlowBotics.
By looking at the LED on the SSC-32U can you tell at which baud rate the board is set ?
Sorry I have been rather busy.
So let us restart and be clear.
I purchased the ALD5 arm with flowbotics software bundled with it.
I have since built the arm and plugged everything into the included SSC-32U board.
I have been able to detect the arm with the servo sequencer and control the servos using the sliders there.
I would like to use either an xbox 360 wired controller or a PS2 controller with the robot.
The controller can be attached the the computer (I don’t need the controller to directly connect to the robot).
How can I go about doing this and do I need to purchase anything additionally.
Hi,
Lets confirm some details before we proceed with more recommendations:
-
With the SSC-32U powered (6 V DC @ VS1 input, VS=VL jumper is NOT in place), please press the BAUD button (found near the Bee socket / USB port).
When you do, the LED A/B should blink rapidly. Please let us know which pattern you have (green only, red only, both, neither). This will indicate your baud rate, as per described in the SSC-32U manual, bottom half of page 34.
By default, the SSC-32U has a baud rate of 9600, so you should only get the green LED blinking for a few seconds. If that is not the case, please follow the procedure on page 34 to change your baud rate to 9600.
-
Once the baud rate situation is resolved, proceed to opening FlowBotics Studio, loading the “AL5 ARM” app and set the COM port to OFF. Then, activate the Bluetooth icon next to the COM port dropdown list (it should be blue, as dialfonzo-u14717 mentioned). Then, set the COM port to the known port of the SSC-32U. Please note, the COM port will always show up when the board is connected by USB, even if it is not powered by 6 V DC on VS1, so make sure the SSC-32U’s power is on before you try connecting to it.
With this down, you should be in one of three situations:
- A) The software connects, the board is found and you can control it graphically.
- B) The board is not found (the green FOUND light never turns on).
- C) The board is found momentarily but then you get a timeout message.
Please try what is mentioned above and let us know your results. Also, please provide us with one or more pictures clearly showing your setup (the SSC-32U, its wires and jumpers, power connections, etc.). You can add the pictures to your reply by opening the Attachments bar above the four orange buttons (Preview, Submit, Save draft, Cancel) in the Full editor mode.
Sincerely,
I followed through your steps exactly:
- the baud rate is now correctly set to 9600
- the robot connected to flowbotics studio and was able to be controlled graphically
What are the next steps I should take to get this working with a controller? (PS2 or Xbox 360 wired I have both)
Pictures of connections:
imgur.com/a/YycKX
imgur.com/a/WOCq1
By default, the AL5 Arm app should already support the use of a PS2 controller. See the image below (the PS2 LED will light up when the software detects the controller).
If you wish to change how the controls are mapped or switch over to an XBox 360 controller, you will need to modify the app. This can be done by going into editing mode (SHIFT+ESC).
From there, you have to browse to the control section (inside “User programming”). To do so, double-click the “ArmControl” module. Then, double-click the “User Programming” module.
This should bring you here:
You will see there the “PS2 Controller” module, which contains a PS2 object and various other objects to prepare its output signals for use. There are sent to other modules to control the robotic arm using wireless signals (the little green waves in the bottom right corner of the modules).
If you are new to FBS programming, we recommend that you read the following:
FlowBotics Developer Zone
FlowBotics Studio - User Guide
FlowBotics Studio - Component Reference
You can also find other examples in the forum.
Sincerely,
Thank you so much.
Everything is working now. Could you show me a guide for how to create patterns if I want to make autonomous instructions? Thanks again.
There are many ways to implement such a task.
One possible way would be to create individual patterns for each of the tasks (motions) you wish to do.
Then, with all of those patterns loaded, you can call them using the commands for the sequencer.
For example, in the User Progamming module, you can see that some of the modules there will send commands to the sequencer.
(ex: Play Home sends commands to the Sequencer wireless signal, such as “stop”, “play”, etc.)
Using this as a basis, you can create your own modules that also send commands to the sequencer for other things, such as changing patterns and playing/pausing/stopping them.
To see what is available, you can check the Ruby code of the sequencer. You can find this under Arm Control -> (main arm window) -> (sequencer window, under the Side Elevation) -> Ruby code window (red border). See the attached image for details.
In this code window you will see all the code for the sequencer, including what kind of commands you can send and the parameters required. You will have to dig around a few places and most likely try a few things before making it work as you need.
It might be a bit hard to see all this code (quite large) in the editor in FBS (meant for small pieces of code), so we recommend that you copy & paste into your favorite code editor with syntax highlighting. I personally like to use Notepadd++ (on Windows).
Unfortunately, there is no clear guide to do this. And, since this is a custom modification, there isn’t much support we can offer directly either. But, feel free to post any questions about FBS itself, using Ruby, etc. We can certainly help you understanding the environment. You can also find a bunch of examples from previous questions around the forum, too.
Sincerely,
