Is there a way to interface Lynxterm with the Bot Board? Right now, I have the Bot Board connected to the SSC-32 as shown in the bot board manual (port 15 of the bot board to the RX pin of the SSC-32) on my biped scout. However, I’m also using the mounting method like the ones on the picture on lynxmotion.com.
It’s hard for me to access the RX pin of the SSC-32 so I was wondering if there was a way to configure the Bot Board’s jumpers so I can just use it in a “through” mode and use Lynxterm to command each of the servos on the SSC-32, equivalent to hooking up the DB9 on the SSC-32?
I know what you mean, I also always found it a pain on my HEX to switch from the SCC-32 connected up to the serial cable or having the AP connected to the serial cable.
What I was meaning to do was to try to do a software solution. For example if you press a button either on the ABB or on the remote, the software would go into a special mode, where it would constantly poll the incoming serial data and echo it out to the SCC-32 and it would wait for responses from the the ABB and forward those back. Since the communication between the two boards is on 15 and 14 if bidirectional, you could set that up using the hardware serial port and as such would not lose any communications between the boards as you are held up on polling the serial line talking to the PC.
Maybe I will look at trying that again as I try to figure out how I want to configure the electronics on my new rover as I don’t think one AP will have enough I/O pins to do everything (6 hitec channels, motor controller, 4 encoder pins, pan/tilt, gripper, LCD, I2C, sharp sensor…) But that is a different subject…
Looking at the schematic, you can possibly hook it straight into the J7-A pin 5 and/or 7 (corresponding to the rx and/or tx pin of the SSC-32) and rig a switch. You might also need to rig switches between pins 2 and 3 of J1 to the respective pins of U1 unless the SIN and SOUT pins of U1 does not load the line when powered off. These changes are at the mercy of the PCB Layout and it can get quite messy since that’s a handful of cut-and-jumps.
A software solution would probably be the most non-intrusive and elegant… I just got back into programming the Atom after a year of hiatus so let me know if you have a sample code up and running, I’ll do the same if I get around to it…
Hmm, I have an idea. Why not use HSEROUT instead of the SEROUT commands when issuing serial data streams to the SSC-32? I’m thinking about setting the SSC-32 to accept commands from the DB9 Connector (the default configuration to interface with Lynxterm) and use HSEROUT to issue out commands via the BotBoard’s DB9 into the SSC-32’s DB9 via a short DB9 cable. Possibly a short, ribbon-style one to minimize weight…
That way, the BotBoard can still interface with the SSC-32, while the SSC-32 can still be configured as a standalone to interface with Lynxterm…
If I understand you correctly you are saying use HSEROUT on the DB9 connector… The problem is that HSEROUT does not coorespond with the DB9 connector, but instead is on the IO pins P14 and P15. These signals are TTL and not RS232 voltages. Of course you could hook up some external hardware such as a MAX232 chip and the cooresponding other electronics such as capacitors…
Thanks for the mix up. I was trying to see if I can download the datasheet for the Atom Pro 28 but to no avail. I looked at the Atom Pro 24 to see if I can figure anything out.
You’re right, you have to hook up a max232 chip in order to drive the UART into a RS232, the pc
I guess one mechanical solution would be to “string out” the pins using extender cables (like the ones included with the SSC-32 for the servos). so you can configure them out. Not sure how important the ground connection would be between P15 of the ABB and RXD pin of SSC-32 since the grounds are already being shared at the power connection (I’m feeding the SSC-32 power and jumping that into the ABB).
The baud rate is set at 38400 so not sure how much of an effect of connecting the grounds through a wimpy 26-AWG wire at the power port would do.
I gave up on trying to send out the command from the DB9 of the ABB to the DB9 of the SSC-32. I’m considering to just saw off the mounting in that corner to gain access to that area without having to unmount my ABB.
I forgot to mention that when the Robot Magazine did an article on building the brat, they added in a set of switches to easily switch which of the boards you would plug the RS-232 cable into (Bot or SSC-32). You can find it up at:botmag.com/articles/brat_photoessay.shtml
Can not help much with the scout (don’t have one). But the wiring should be pretty easy. They did it with 4 switches. I was going to do it with a DPDT switch (Double pole double throw). I will try to semi-diagram it out with text. If you look at the SSC-32 toward the bottom right, there are two sets of pins for the communication. One row has three pins and the other two pins. You need to run a ground wire from the ground pin(right pin of the three pin set) of the SSC-32 to the ABB so they have a common ground. Now take the other two pins of that set and connect them to the two common (usually center) connections of the switch. Then connect the two pins on one side of the switch back to the two pin set on the SSC-32 and connect the two pins on the other side of the switch to two pins on the ABB. In my case 14 and 15. Note, I am using bidirectional communications. If you only want to download stuff from the ABB to the SCC-32 without any querys back you can skip one pin on the SSC-32. A rough diagram looks like:[code]
Likewise for SCC TX. Sorry if the text diagram does not come out overly well.
EDIT - I forgot to mention that you will need to set the baud rate switches to something that works well both to communicate with the PC and with the ABB and make sure both your PC (SEG or the like) and your code on the ABB are set to use that baud rate.
Well I think I figured it out...
Here's the diagram of what I think it should be:
SSC-32
1 2 3
________
! o o o !--->>GND
! __!
! o o !
-------
4 5
_____________________________________
DPDT Switch
______
14 ! o o ! 15
! !
1 ! o o ! 2
! !
4 ! o o ! 5
--------
BotBoard
_______________________---->
!
! _gnd________
! ! o o o o !
! ! o o o o !
! ! o o o o !
! --------------
! 15 14 13 12
!
! _______
! ! o o o !
! ----------
! 5v vs
!
! _______________________________________
!! !
!! !
!! ATOM Chip !
Well is that right guys
if so let me know......the grounds should be together due to the fact that the power is shaired but if not then i think you can ground to any thing that is ground..RIGHT??
Tkx
Well I stil cant get this perfect…text doent stay put…
hope this helps…
Trick is to use Notepad, then cut and past into the code box…
SSC-32
1 2 3
-----------
| o o o |--->>GND
| __|
| o o |
-------
4 5
_____________________________________
DPDT Switch
----------
14 | o o | 15
| |
1 | o o | 2
| |
4 | o o | 5
----------
BotBoard
|------------------------>
|
| --------------
| | o o o o | <---Gnd
| | o o o o |
| | o o o o |
| --------------
| 15 14 13 12
|
| -======----
| | o o o |
| -----------
| 5v vs
|
| _______________________________________
|| |
|| |
|| ATOM Chip |
Open Notepad and select a monospaced font if it currently does not have one. Mine has Courier New, but others are available such as fixedsys, or monospaced, etc.
The text I was useing was the default one arial…
didnt know about the special fonts…tkx
as for pics …got it …tkx
now for the baud rate on the smrif…NOT…
it doent explain what the numbers are and I dont want the 115200 baud rate …I need the 38400…
Am I just stupid ??
I want the smirf to hook to the botboard…so I can program it wireless and /or - send/get - data to my PC…
I got the AT set from sparkfun…but what a crazy set of info…not user friendly…
any Ideas…
tkx
you guyz are GREAT!!
hey jim need a brat jr sheet on what parts I need so I can get one up and running so I can show the tech school guyz…hopefully I can get them to use it for there class room projects…
If you have the same BlueSMiRF as in the tutorial, try this command
ATSW20,157,0,0,1
That should set the baud to 38.4k
The ATSW20 is the command, the 157 is the ascii value of the baud, the first zero is parity, second is stop bits, and the last number is store (if it stores the parameters in flash or not)
If you have the new one (with the blue ceramic antenna) try this one
SU,38
We will be adding a new BRAT tutorial for the updated SparkFun components very soon. This will help with the confusion of the modem and dongle versions.
