I hope somebody who experienced the same problem to give me some hints here because it’s getting kind of frustrating for me at this point.
I have 2 of these adapters and I was able to use them with both picpopic servo controller and pololu server controller without any problem. Those controllers don’t provide me with what I needed so I bought the ssc-32. When I connect the ssc-32 directly with computer then everything works great. When I hook up the iogear bluetooth and set everything to 9600, I don’t get any response.
To test the iogear adapters and their settings, I hook them up to 2 computers. One computer runs lynxterm and the other runs hyperterm. On the hyperterm, I get all the ascii strings when lynxterm send a command over.
On both computers, I have iogear connected to null modem adapter then to computer. With the same setup, I don’t see anything on ssc-32.
When I was using the adapter with pololu and picopic, I have to use null modem adapter between the computer and the iogear but I connected the other iogear adapter directly to the serial ports of the pololu and picopic. They worked fine. I tried this same set up here on ssc-32 and nothing happened.
What i’m I doing wrong here?
I use a 6v battery for both ssc-32 and the iogear adapter. I suspect there is a problem with the voltage here but I haven’t actually measured the pinouts of the iogear adapter to see what the output is. Anyways, that is just my wild guess.
The link to the iogear adapter is. The pinouts for the adapter is shown in the manual that you can download from the page if you need to look at the pinouts. The product is from iogear
Any help is appreciated here guys. I don’t want to spend more money to get the bluesmrif or the other wifi modules. I just want this stupid iogear adapters to work since I spent quite bit on these guys
hello,
if there’s no answer from the SSC-32 it could be a Timeout problem,
there’s no timeout configuration panel yet in lynxterm…i will add one soon,
anyway, the “timeout” problem (if it’s the problem) will block only incoming data from SSC-32, as the lynxterm Comport component is not waiting enough time for the answer from the SSC-32,
so, the “VER” function may not works for example,
but outgoing orders with no answer needed should works anyway,
“#0P1500” (CR) should set the servo connected on pin 0 to neutral position (1500), did you test that ?
Thanks for the reply. I did test the neutral position
Here are the more details on the steps that I used for testing ssc-32:
Set ssc-32 to 9600
Connect servo to port0
Connect the ssc-32 to 6v battery and computer serial port using straight serial cable. Green light is on steady
Launch lynxterm and connect to com1 at 9600.
send #0P1500 and then #0 P500 S750 . Green light flashes and goes blank and the servo responses each time.
Move the side lever of lynxterm up and down and the servo responses ok. Same response for the green light
Click the All 1500 button and same good result
Disconnect lynxterm
Connect iogear adapter with null modem adapter to the straight cable
Connect the other iogear adapter directly to another laptop’s serial port
(Both iogear adapters are set to 9600)
On the other laptop, launch hyperterm and connect to com1 at 9600
On the laptop that running lynxterm, connect to com1 again
Same the same commands and move the lever, on hyperterm screen of the other laptop, the corresponding command strings appear
Disconnect lynxterm
Disconnect hyperterm and remove the iogear adapter from the other computer
Disconnect power on ssc-32
Connect that iogear directly to ssc-32
Reconnect power. Green light is on steady
From lynxterm, connect to com1
Send the same commands #0P1500 and then #0 P500 S750 and moving the lever up and down as well as hitting the all 1500 button. No responses from servo. Green light stays on steady and doesn’t flash
Disconnect both iogear and connect the straight cable directly to ssc-32. repeat the same commands and green light and servo both response to the commands.
This reply is from Mike, the developer of the SSC-32. I’m posting it for him till we can sort out what wrong.
Jonathan,
Well, I had a nice long reply ready, and when I hit “submit” it jumped me back to the login screen and threw out everything I had typed. I guess I spent too long thinking about it. I hate computers! Anyway, I’ll try to remember what I said.
The steps you laid out are totally logical and should have worked. RS232 is RS232 and the SSC-32 doesn’t care where it comes from. This is perplexing. The fact that the green LED is on steady indicates that the SSC-32 does not think it is seeing any valid characters, and I can’t think why that would be.
I looked at the gbs301 manual for clues, and started wondering about where it gets its power from. The manual shows a power jack (page 5) and mentions connecting power separately from connecting the serial cable, but none of the drawings show a separate power connection. Does it try to get its power from the serial port? If so, this might be a problem. The SSC-32 does not have any connections to the hardware handshaking lines, which are used by some devices to steal power from the serial port. I apologize if this is a stupid question, but do you see any activity on the Status LED of the gbs301 connected to the SSC-32, or any other evidence that the gbs301 is getting power?
Another thought is that the gbs301 might be expecting flow control using the RTS/CTS signals. Again, this will not work with the SSC-32 since it does not use hardware flow control. If this is the problem, you could test it out by jumpering pins 7&8 together on the DB9 connector on the SSC-32. That would create a loop-back between RTS and CTS, which might satisfy the gbs301. I’m shooting in the dark, but this is all I can think of off the top of my head.
Yes Jim, both iogear adapters require 5v power from an external adapter plugging into the sides of the adapters. I verified that both devices have power going into them and they’re linked properly.
Although Mike’s 2nd idea about the hardware flow control sounds promising. I’m going to short pin 7 and 8 and will update the result.
That was it! Short out pin 7 and 8 fixed the problem.
Well, I wish this came one day earlier since I ordered 2 of those sparkfun bluesmirfs yesterday and should be receiving them pretty soon. I could have saved some money there. Maybe I will use the bluesmirf anyway because they consume a lot less power than the bluetooth that I have right now (30mah vs. 200mah). That way, I don’t have to stick too many solar panels on my robot just for charging the batteries.
Just for down the road info, I’ve found that RTS and CTS may need to be connected on win 95/98 machines when using simple serial port applications (not a problem on XP machines). Below is a good page showing loopback connections.
We just updated the LynxTerm (free download). It now has a serial timeouts box to allow more precise timing. Did you test the bluesmirf product yet. I’m interested to know how well they perform.
Hey Johnathan,
how did u jumper pins 7&8 ,wire twist ? i dontsee how to get to them…and did u have the one connected with the ssc on slave or master?
thanks…
nevermind i got impatiant and wirewrapped it !!! and it “WORKS” weeeeeeeeee , 8) still have to hook it up to a battery for range testing and see if i can figure out why it wont work on my BS2
yea on the adapter u have to short pins 7&8 thats the only way i see to do it and make it reversible, anybody got any ideas what it needs to work with a micro ??, probly looking for a hand shake ?? since its passing serial i cant see what it could be missing…
As to how I jumpered pin 7 or 8, I was thinking of soldering on the ssc-32 side but It might be a problem later. I recommend trying the low tech approach first: cut a piece of wire from a stranded 22 gauge wire, bend a u shape, stick it into pin7 and 8 of the ssc32 then just plug the iogear gear to it. It will work just fine and you don’t have to worry about soldering and unsoldering later .
I didn’t have any problem using ssc-32 with basic stamp 2 homework board; Just use TTL instead of rs-232. Unshort TX,RX jumpers on the ssc-32 board and connect the TX and RX to the bs2 board.
So an the update as promised. The iogear bluetooth worked out pretty good for me. From my computer, I was able to control the robot for about 150ft inside our office. This is not nearly as the 330ft in the specs but it’s ok due to the environment that it’s in: the controller is in a server room with all the metal racks and there are quite few walls and cubicles in the office. I was running the thing at 38.4K.
I did not try the smirf modules from sparkfun since I didn’t think I would get me much more range than the iogear. I actually ordered a pair of um96 transceivers from sparkfun instead since these might get around the obstacles in the office. I was quite disappointed with these modules as well as the support from Sparkfun. I followed the exact instructions and hooked everything up correctly but I could only see the init screen from the hyperterm; nothing else. I posted a message in their forum a while back and received no reply (unlike this forum which is rock’n - thanks guys! . Sent an email to their support and it disappeared into the black hole >:(. So I basically scrapped these modules (and $70). If you expect getting all the help like you do here then think twice before buying stuff from sparkfun.
I could have ordered some other rf modules from from the robotic sites but I just didn’t have much time to play around. I went on ebay and ordered an easy rf usb-rs232 transmitter and receiver. Here is the store in case somebody want to check it out: stores.ebay.com/embeddedworld.
The shipping was quite long (2 weeks) but I actually got it and yes, it’s little hassle getting the correct driver. It’s jz864 and I had to google it and downloaded it from the manufacture website in china. The guy later sent me the driver too. After that, this thing worked pretty good at 9600 in ‘plug and play’ mode and it uses very little power. I’m still using these for the robot in our office.
since we have wifi in the building, I’m moving away from rf and bluetooth for my next robot. I’m using the msi fuzzy lx800 motherboard which has pretty low power usage (around 11w) for a full blown pc board. It’s a little better then the via epia 5000 because it has the mini-pci adapter and compact flash adapter built-in that I can use them for the flash drive and wifi-card. Be careful when you buy this board because I didn’t get ANY manual or driver and there is NONE on msi website or the web. I had to nag ewiz and MSI had to send the manual and driver to me. I guess I could order something like the wiport from lantronix but I would like to be able to do develop applications and do a lot more than just controlling the motors. The hassle here for me here is power situation which is one of my top priorities: being able to keep the robot running 24/7, remote docking and autocharging. I guess couple of rotating 12v 7AH batteries like the currently robot will keep this thing happy.
they claim 20 mile range for 900mhz and 4 miles for 2.4 and they have serial to serial modules ,i,m trying to figure out how to turn one of my old pc,s into a bot ,found the power supply and and flash drive , and i think i can do it for less than a wiport maby i,ll get a mini itx someday
I had another problem with the iogear ,or mabe the BT software it seems that sometimes u have too unpair the iogear then pair it again to get a ssp connection ,to do this u have too turn off power to th iogear and move switch 4 too on position(up or master) turn on power wait for the light to start blicking power off again turn switch 4 back to off(down or slave) power it up and pair it ,and connect to ssp this was on win 98se so might not be a problem ,also keep in mind u have to set the baud on the lynxterm and the iogear and the ssc32 (this 1 had smoke commin out of my ears)
Those aerocomm units look awesome. Specs say they draw 400ma @12V though, and the 20 mile range is line of sight. they rate 1500 feet indoors. Thats still probably enough for most of us though
Now how the heck are we going to get 12V on a brat?
Short out pin 7 and 8 fixed the problem.
