I was wondering exactly how do you program the SSC-32.
I see a serial cable connector on the board but there is also a serial header pin on the board to hook to the Mni-AB. Can you program the SSC-32 via the serial cable? If so, what software interface do you use to do this? Can I use Parallax’s program interface and download to the SSC-32?
Please excuse my ignorance. 
While it is possible to download new firmware to the SSC-32, that is not how one would ususally use it.
You send commands to it using either the RS-232 serial port or the serial header on the board. The commands are things like “send servo 5 to position 1400” and look like “#5p1400”. You can send the commands using whatever you’d like including a terminal program on your PC. The SSC-32 processes the commands as it receives them.
When hooked up to a microcontroller like a BS2/Atom/BasicX in the BotBoard you use the serial commands in basic to send the commands from the microcontroller to the SSC-32. So, you write the program and download it to the BS2/Atom/BasicX and in that program you send the commands to the SSC-32 via serial interface.
But, as it uses a serial interface you could use anything with a serial interface in place of the bot board. You could even write a program for your PC that sends commands to the SSC-32.
Thanks AliasMrJones!
You really cleared it up for me. I was thinking you had to download basic code to the SSC-32 just like you would with the stamp and then have both sets of code communicating with each other. What you are saying is that the basic code is downloaded to the stamp, and the stamp sends serial commands to the SSC-32 to move the desired servo to a location… Very cool! and much easier!
My next question would be how would the stamp tell the SSC-32 how fast to move the servo specified?
Sorry for all the questions. I just want to understand how this works so when I am ready to buy the things I need, I won’t have to spend all my time trying to figure everything out. I’m one of those guys that like to assemble first and refer to the directions when something doesn’t seem right.
The SSC-32 handles servo motion speed in three ways. You can simply tell the servo controller to move a servo to a new position, and it will go there as fast as the servo can move. You can tell the servo controller to move a servo at a specific rate, or you can tell it to take a specific amount of time to move a servo or a group of servos. The last method is very powerful and not available on any other servo controller that I am aware of.
You can DL the manual for the servo controller to learn more.
lynxmotion.com/ViewPage.aspx … ID=70#serv
what is the simpliest way to send necesery commands via serial port to SSC-32 ?
without BS2/Atom/BasicX in the BotBoard
