Problem with PC-serial control

Lynxmotion Legged Robots
1

Alright. I have been walking my CH3-R around with the PS2 controller for a few weeks now and thought I’d try to control it with my laptop via an USB to DB9 cable.

I generated the new program for serial control with PowerPod and programmed the BA. I launched the Serial Port Control Panel from the Tools folder in the PowerPod directory. Configured the setup to COM5/9600/8/1/None/None and pressed “Connect”. The hexapod stands in its basic position and when pushing the different buttons in the program the robot makes all the appropriate bips and sounds. It even plays the little tune when i press R3.
However none of the controls that generates any sort of motion works. All the servos are buzzing though so the SSC-32 is doing its job.
I have tried changing the different read/write timeouts. Set the Read Interval to > 25. I read somewhere that that could help when using a USB - Com cable. Anyone know of something i might be forgetting?

-Stian

2

Well this post over the weekend I think solves your problem.

lynxmotion.net/viewtopic.php?t=3445

Specifically you must send the motion commands continuously just like the joystick would be in the position every loop of the program. :wink:

3

Doesn’t the program that comes with the PowerPod do this?

4

Not sure. I’ve got an email in to Laurent. He should be able to help. Hang on a little longer…

5

Hello Stian,

Well, i have tried many things and i was not enable to recreate the problem, anyway could you try this :

Unplug the serial to usb cable then switch on the robot :
does it move to the initial position ?

Then could you check the SSC-32 baud rate jumpers, it must be set to 38,4Kbps (so only one jumper just above the “B” of “Baud” label on the SSC-32 card)

Of course the BotBoard baud rate is 9600Bps as the PC control program.

Then could you try to connect the serial cable (black and yellow wires one between SSC-32 and BB) on the Botboard pin 8 if it was connected on 15 or on the Botboard pin 15 if it was connected on the 8, then try again.
(of course check if you have connected again the serial to USB cable)

At last please check if FIFO buffers are enabled for this COM port (system hardware display (Windows))

6

It seems it was the serial cable that was the problem. I connected it to pin 15 instead of 8 and it worked like a charm.

Thanks for the help guys!

-Stian

7

So Laurent and I were right. 8)

Remember when you select Bot Board I in PowerPod it uses pin 15. But when you select Bot Board II it uses pin 8 because pin 15 is used or reserved for the PS2 controller interface.

What threw us a little was you have the SSC-32 set to auto initialize the servos.

I’m really glad you got it going! 8)

8

I think there is a bug in the new power pod program. If you select BBI or BBII it does not make a difference. The com port between the BB and the SSC32 is always set to P15

9

That seems a little strange. What version of PowerPod are you using? Which master file?

I’m using the newest version and master file here, and it seems to work just fine.

10

I’m using the latest powerpod and H3 VX.43 - Master.pmp

I just tried it again just to make sure and I’m still getting P15 on both instances.

[code]
;-------------Constants
;
DeadZone con 8

;*** SSC-32 card communication on pin 15 ***
SSC32 con p15[/code]

11

I have just tested it too.

With Bot Board I selected I get this.

;*** SSC-32 card communication on pin 8 *** SSC32 con p8

With Bot Board II selected I get this.

;*** SSC-32 card communication on pin 15 *** SSC32 con p15

This is affected by PS2 Controller / BB Connection setting. Are you sure you are changing the right thing?

12

Yes, I’m changing the correct option in powerpod

I even tested it at work and got the same results.

13

Please re-download the code from our website and try it again. That’s the only thing I can think of to tell you.