This is the link of my robot and i just bought it and get it last week :
lynxmotion.com/images/html/build114.htm
i am a newbie on this robot and i am student of 2nd year mechatronic engineer student.
i hope to find someone who can really help and guild me and let me ask some question when i am assembly and program this robot.
Thank.
Ask away…
hi…here are some few questions for my hexa robot
i just finish assembly my robot and now come to connecting to pc problem.
there are 2 board on my robot and that is SSC-32 and Bot Board 2
actually what is the function of this both board on my robot? (Question 1)
if let say i just need to program some basic programming i should connect to which one?(Question 2)
when i bought the robot it only provide one serial to serial cable, but my pc only got one serial port and it already connect to my monitor, so i need to get a usb to serial cable right? (Question 3)
i should get 1 or 2 usb to serial cable ? becuase both ssc-32 and bot board 2 also have a serial port (Question 4)
Programming question
where can i learn basic programming of this robot? (Question 5)
does lynxmotion.com provide a sample programming (such as walk straight) of this robot? ( Question 6) becuase in the assembly tutorial it only teach until using a Power Pod software.
its really sorry if i am asking newbie question
becuase i really dont have any idea of this robot.
Thank
Hi,
I will try to answer some of these.
The SSC-32 board is used to control the servos. It does such things as generate the pulses for each of the servos every 20ms and you can give it commands such as move a set of servos from one place to another and have it do it such that the all arrive at their new locations at the same time. The Bot Board 2 with a processor such as Basic Atom Pro can also control servos, but by offloading it to the SSC-32, it is free to do other things.
You write basic programs to run on the process (Basic Atom Pro?) So you would connect it to the BB2.
If you don’t have a free serial port on your computer you will need to add one. One way is the USB to serial cable. Note: not all of them work well enough. Lynxmotion sells one that they know works.
1 should be sufficient, you connect your PC to the BB2 to download programs to it. At times you may connect the cable to the SSC-32, to upgrade the firmware or maybe to download sequences from programs like SEG, but not at the same time.
There is a help file that describes the basic that you can get to from the help menu of the IDE (Basic Micro Studio). Also you learn a lot by reading source code and there are several people on the forum that try to answer questions.
Powerpod is a program that you enter some configuration stuff to and it generates source code for the Basic Atom Pro (or the Basic Atom). So there is lots of sample code in this. Also you can configure and use the Phoenix software written by Xan on your hex as well. This code includes several different walking gaits for a hex robot.
Good Luck
Kurt
The big picture here is this. You are going to connect the PC to the SSC-32 so PowerPod can create the calibration information for the legs. Then PowerPod creates your custom program for you. You remove the cable from the SSC-32 and connect it to the Bot Board II so you can program the Atom chip with the code PowerPod created.
PowerPod IS what creates your program. We don’t have a walk forward program, how boring… We have programs that make the robot do everything you see in the videos…
PLEASE follow the tutorial and ask questions relating to it. There is no reason to approach troubleshooting in this backwards way. Just follow the tutorial and tell us where you are having trouble and we will help.
the jumper of ssc-32 and bot board 2 is very important right?
but i am confuse about the picture that show in tutorial
this link :
lynxmotion.com/images/html/build39c.htm
figure 4 is showing ssc-32 board
figure 5 is showing bot board 2
and this both link:
close up for ssc-32 : lynxmotion.com/images/assemb … h3r07b.jpg
close up for bot board 2 : lynxmotion.com/images/assemb … h3r08b.jpg
both of the picture is showing not same stuff.
a very confuse part of ssc-32 first link is connect VL and second link is connect to VS2
and those jumpers of both link is not same also
so which picture or figure i should follow?
The schematics are for wiring and jumper settings! Ignore anything else concerning wiring and jumper settings…
Pictures are to to show mechanical things like stand offs.
This is only an assembly guide! Install the stuff as shown and MOVE-ON.
The tutorial is where you really start working on set up and controlling the robot.
hi
i have finish assembly my hex robot and now come to power up the robot.
i connect a serial to USB cable to ssc-32 board and to my pc USB port
its come out said that usb is not recognize and my robot has nothing happen.
Installed powerpod and press “connect” and also nothing happen.
my serial to USB cable is a normal serial USB cable that get from my lab
on top of it state model : UC-232A
is my serial to USB was not support?
another question
do i need to put in 9v and 6v DC fix battery when i connecting serial to USB cable?
Please repeat this using different words.
What said “USB not recognized?”
I have used that cable in the past.
Sigh…
Step 3.
Set the robot up on a stand such as a CD spindle. Connect the DB9 or USB-to-serial cable to your PC and to the SSC-32. Power up the robot. Verify that the green LED on the SSC-32 lights up.
I know English is not your first language. But surely you can read “Power up the robot” right? This means plug in the batteries and turn on the switch. 
i am really sorry my english is bad.
i plug in the serial usb cable in my usb slot and my pc came out “USB is not recognized”
i think this means my PC can’t sense any input from the serial USB cable.
but i hope this problem will be solve after i plug in 9v and 6v battery becuase i didn’t plug in battery and direct connect serial to usb cable only.
seriously i am confuse the sentense of “Power up the robot”, i am really sorry about that.
but now i have make clear and i hope it will works fine after i plug in the battery.
thank =)
Yeah that is bad. This has nothing to do with the robot. This means the usb cable is not working or not set up properly, or defective… Fix this first…
The battery will not fix it.
question about programming stuff
i have already get some idea whats powerpod will do to my robot.
so my question is, do i need to get know about basic atom programming?
this is what i read before i get this robot :
PowerPod is the FREE Windows program that completely automates the program creation for the Atom processor. You no longer have to be a computer scientist to play with this level of robotics.
for now, i am totally dont understand about basic atom programming
so do i need to start from zero and line by line read and study basic atom programming?
You DO NOT need to know anything about programming to make your robot work.
For help with programming read this.
lynxmotion.com/images/html/build147.htm
PowerPod will make your program!
I will try to help you…
Open the program, and select the current Master.pmp program.
Select:
IDE - 8.0.1.7
Control - PS2
H3 Legs - 3DOF-B
H3 Body - Inline
PS2 Cont / BB Conn - Bot Board II
PS2 dead zone - Normal
Tibia Angle - Vertical 0
Click Build Basic Program button and your program will be created for you. This is the code you program the Atom with. Questions…
plug in 9v battery and 6v (1.5v x4) battery…
then the bot board 2 speaker has sound keep coming out.
it is something like “tak tak tak” and non-stop.
i did press the reset button, but same thing happen also.
after that plug in serial usb cable into my pc, nothing happen
open powerpod and press connect, nothing happen also.
A couple of quick things. First off for 6V are you using something like a Lynxmotion NIMH battery or are using 4 1.5V batteries with some type of holder. It is my understanding that most if not all of these holders will not work as the contacts and wires do not allow enough current to flow.
I would need to reread your thread, but if you are using the PS2 code, it has code in it that tries to get the PS2 into analog mode and will beep if it can not and then loop… Also I often put some type of beep at starts of my program to let me know if the program is resetting…
Good Luck
Kurt
i am using 4x1.6v battery holder, and i am not using ps2 control, i am using serial to usb cable to connect to my pc.
can i know what does it mean when the speaker of bot board keep coming out sound?
tomorrow i will use multi meter to test my battery holder with 4x1.6 volt battery.
so the power to start up the ssc-32 is 6v.
can i know the current that support by ssc-32? i will use multi-meter to test voltage and current.
Depends on the code. If you use unique sounds for different things you can tell by what sound is played.
Also you can modify the code. When debugging things I often sprinkle more debug code in, which often looks something like:
serout s_out, i9600, “Before PS2 Init”, 13]
(do the ps2 init)
serout s_out, i9600, “After PS2 Init”, 13]
Many times I will include printing out information from variables to help me figure out what is going on. For example in the above if you get the before but not the after message, you know you are hanging up in PS2. In that case I would probably add some more debug outputs in the PS2 function and maybe print out the current mode… Many times I will leave some of these outputs in my code, but surround them with #ifdef/#endif, that I can turn on or off
There are other methods to debug as well. I like to use the LEDS on the BB2 to turn on or off or toggle when I reach certain code. If you are using the PS2 on the BB2 this is a little more difficult as IO pins 12-14 are used, but you can jumper some other IO pins to the LEDS to use them. I will sometimes use a servo extender wire and jumper IO pins 4-6 with it to the top row of the LED/Button jumpers that had 3 jumpers on it. Then you can use things like: low p4, high p4, toggle p4 to turn on, off or toggle the state of one of those buttons.
Good Luck
Kurt
facepalm This sounds like the test program that is prewritten on the Basic Atom chips, meaning that no new program has been written to the BA.
Basically, here’s what you’re going to want to do:
Be sure that your SSC-32 is set up as shown in this picture:
Then connect your SSC-32 to the computer with the DB9 cable.
Open PowerPod and make sure no other programs that make use of the serial port are open.
Set your offsets and generate your code.
THEN set up your Bot Board and SSC-32 like this:
Close PowerPod and open up the Basic Micro editor that you have (Basic Atom IDE for Basic Atom chips, Basic Atom Pro IDE for Basic Atom Pro chips, or just go with Basic Micro Studio)
Open up the code that PowerPod generated, turn on your robot and click on Program.
That is just the boiled down version. Check out this guide for more detail:
lynxmotion.com/images/html/build99c.htm
This means the Atom has not been programmed.
I’m sorry… You need someone to help you with the translation of English in the documentation. This is not working.
i have follow the picture that FISH show in the post. The jumpers setting is a bit different from picture 1 and picture 2 but i just follow everything the same in picture 2.
what i didn’t follow is just i didn’t connect the yellow and black wire (bottom right of ssc-32) from ssc-32 and bot board 2, and the PS2 wireless receiver or controller (in bot board 2). Because i just want to program it using only serial to usb cable.
9v dc power supply i am using normal 9v dc battery thats the shape is in square.
6v dc power supply i am using a battery holder thats can hold four AA battery(1.5v).
I have used volt-meter to measure the voltage and the reading was 5.93v.
When i only plug in 6v dc supply, nothing is happen on ssc-32 board. This is normal, right?
After that i connect 6v dc and 9v dc supply, both ssc-32 and bot board 2 LED is light up and stay on. And bot board 2 speaker is on and has sound “dik dik dik” non-stop. Actually this step will happen also if i didn’t plug in the 6v dc supply and only plug in 9v dc supply.
Question : about the 6v dc power supply, when i turn the on-off button off and i use volt meter to measure, the reading is 5.93v(6V), then i turn the on-off button on and i use volt meter measure, the reading is 1.42v. The voltage of the battery holder drops when i turn it on, so does it mean i have success supply correct voltage to ssc-32?
Question 2 : my serial-USB cable is short, so i am using serial-serial cable (provided) to extend the wire. One of the end of serial-serial cable is connecting to ssc-32 board and another end is connecting to a serial-usb cable. And finally usb part is connect to my PC(USB port).
And finally also, i have follow all the steps in tutorial but when i plug in serial-usb cable in pc, nothing has happen. I have re-read the tutorial, but my robot is still not connecting to PC.
