RoboticsConnection User Forum / RoboticsConnection News / RoboticsConnection News

Hello

demartval — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:25:13 GMT

Great day to all. Val is here.

Hi

Steve Pixley — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 04:50:52 GMT

HI all, wish you a Happy new year:)

Robotic Applications Page Updated

jsummerour — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 04:34:18 GMT

We just updated our Robotic Applications page so customers can have quick access to ready to run applications for our Serializer WL robot controller. :cool:

http://www.roboticsconnection.com/t-RoboticApplications.aspx

We have included examples for our Serializer .NET Library, Serializer .NET CF Library (for WinCE), and our Serializer Services for MSRS 2.0. Actually, we're currently testing a port our MSRS 1.5 Serializer Services to MSRS 2.0, so those will be out there in a few weeks.

We have a few more applications that we'll be adding this week (Generic I2C Command Application), and in following weeks.

Let us know if you have any issues or problems, and we'll be glad to address them immediately.

Enjoy!

Our New RedBee RFID Reader is Available!

jsummerour — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:17:10 GMT

We are please to announce the availability of the new RedBee RFID Reader! We have worked over a year developing this puppy, and we think it will be one of the best RFID readers on the market, especially at the price point of $59.95. :w00t:

If you haven't already seen it yet, you can read all the details here:

http://www.roboticsconnection.com/p-99-redbee-rfid-reader.aspx

While it provides a USB connection for a typical communication path, it also supports XBee and XBee Pro modules. Additionally, we developed the Shared Serial Device Protocol (SSDP), which allows customers to communicate with multiple RedBee RFID Readers simultaneously, with a single connection from the PC. SSDP leverages the XBee broadcast Personal Area Network (PAN) functionality.

So, very easily, you can have a wireless interface to multiple RedBee RFID readers! How many readers? Well, the SSDP supports up to 255 Device Ids (or dids), but we've only tested up to 6 readers. :D So, theoretically, 255 devices can communicate using SSDP, but realisitcally, customers will probably use fewer than 15 readers on the network at a time. I will post another thread, speaking to specifics regarding communicating with multiple readers simultaneously in a few days.

So, the SSDP is cool and all, but did I just hear you say, 'Awww man...I don't want to have to write code to implement the RedBee RFID Reader AND SSD protocols....'). NO PROBLEMO!!! We wrote the RedBee RFID Reader .NET Library for you! It implements the Basic RedBee RFID Reader protocol AND the SSD protocol! So, all you have to do is create an RFIDReader object, and start using the interface.

The RedBee RFID Reader .NET features several asynchronous events including:

Tag swipes
Tag Saves
Tag Deletes
GPIO pin changes
Communication Start/Stop
New RFID Reader Device (upon power up of a new device, or ping response)
RFID Antenna Power enabled/disabled

You simply sign up to listen to whichever events you're interested in, and you'll be notified as they happen. You can then implement whatever actions you like. You can read more about the RedBee RFID Reader .NET API here (also note the C# and VB .NET example apps).

http://www.roboticsconnection.com/multimedia/libraries/RFID/documentation/

You will see that RedBee RFID Reader .NET Library API is VERY similar to our Serializer .NET Library. So, Serializer customers should be right at home in using the RedBee RFID Reader .NET Lib!

For you Linux users, you can use the RedBee RFID Reader .NET Lib too! Just run it using Mono, and develop your apps using MonoDevelop!

We've also put a lot of time into developing How-To documents to allow customers to get the readers configured quickly, and correctly. Here are some of those documents (you can also find them on the main product page, under the 'User / How-To Guides').

We have provided several applications that allow you to immediately connect to your new RFID reader (via USB or XBee), and play with it. We also included How-Tos for the applications as well! :cool:

Tag Swiper Application How-To (single readers)
SSDP Device App How-To (multiple readers)

The RedBee RFID Reader provides an Auto-Pulse feature for 4 GPIO pins, which allow you to automatically pulse those pins for a preconfigured duration, and pulse direction (0->1, or 1->0). This makes it easy to interface relays to open/close door locks, and or control LEDs/Buzzers. Auto-Pulse functionality can be disabled for any and all OUTX pins, and those pins can be used for direct input and/or output. See the RedBee RFID Reader User Guide for schematics on interfacing LEDs, Relays, etc.

So, there you have it! In addition to the website revamp in December/January, the RedBee RFID Reader is what's been taking up so much of our development time. We're SOOOO GLAD it's finally finished, and ready for sale! We hope you like it, and we look forward to hearing your feedback. We'll be updating the Serializer next to leverage the SSDP! Woo-hoo!

Many thanks goes out to Amal Graafstra, who was out BETA tester, and who helped us flesh out SSDP! ;) Amal has also been working together with Trossen Robotics in parallel to put together a really cool RFID Reader Kit using the RedBee RFID Reader. Amal has put together 5 RFID projects that will be included in the kit, and I can tell you are extremely cool! Trossen doesn't have an exact date on the availability of the RFID Reader Kits, but it will be very soon!

Best Regards!

2010 RC Website Revamp Complete!

jsummerour — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:26:42 GMT

Hello fellow Customers!

We launched the 2010 revamp of the RoboticsConnection website this weekend. The revamp was made to:

Make it easier for customers to find pertinent product information
Create a section on the front page to show off Customer projects
Reduce the amount of vertical scrolling required to view product info (via collapsable divs)
Make it easier for us to post new content and the latest news
Create a more simplified look and feel
Move to a new Hosting service for improved PCI compliance scanning, and improved website performance.

If you would like to have your robotics project featured on the front page (and it uses our products), simply email us your pictures and project information, and we'll be glad to post it!

Additionally(and the product isn't available for sale yet), we launched the new RedBee RFID Reader, which features a USB and Xbee wireless interface. The Xbee interface allows you to communicate with multiple RedBee RFID readers simultaneously using one PC (and XBee/USB Carrier board). I will post more information in the next few weeks when it becomes fully available! I just need to go through one last round of regression testing before releasing it. :)

So, we hope you guys like the website revamp! It's a big load off my back to get it launched, and now I can get back to answering posts for customers that have been patiently waiting! :)

Best Regards,

Jason

RangeWizard Product Launched

jsummerour — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:00:08 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of the RangeWizard product.

http://www.roboticsconnection.com/p-86-rangewizard.aspx

The RangeWizard™ was developed to offload the timing overhead required to query the popular robotic ultrasonic based sensors, such as the MaxSonar‐EZ line and Devantech SRF sonars. This frees your microcontroller and or other controller (e.g. PC104, PC, Laptop) to use valuable interrupts and CPU cycles to perform other timing functions. The RangeWizard™takes care of all of the sensor timing, and can report the readings in microseconds, inches, or centimeters.

The RangeWizard™has the ability to query up to 10 ultrasonic sensors, and 6 analog sensors. The ultrasonic/sonar modules can be the single control line type like the Parallax Ping, or the trigger/echo type like the Max Sonar EZ line.

Additionally, there are 6 analog lines which can be used for any 5V analog senors, like the Sharp line of infrared sensors. Since the MaxSonar‐EZ ultrasonic sensors feature an analog interface, you can connect 6 additional sensors to the analog port, giving you the ability to query up to 16 MaxSonar‐EZ sensors.

The User Guide can be found here:

http://www.roboticsconnection.com/multimedia/docs/RangeWizardUserGuide_v1.0.pdf

Best Regards!

Website migration to Windows Server 2008

jsummerour — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:02:13 GMT

Migration Status:

You may have noticed some downtime on the website and forums this weekend. This was due to our migration from Microsoft Server 2003 to Server 2008. Our Shopping cart will be functioning by the end of the day, as we are waiting on our SSL certificate migration to complete. So, the shopping cart (and associated web pages) will not work until then.

The Shopping Cart Issue:

Over the past few months, when a customer goes to checkout and/or sign in, their shopping cart is emptied. It happens at random times, and it doesn't seem to matter what browser is being used. After several attempts, frustrated customers simply don't place the order (and I don't blame them). We should make it easy to spend your money!

Resolution:

In order to improve our website and reduce the number lost customer shopping carts during checkout, we have migrated our website over to be hosted on a Windows Server 2008 machine.

Migrating the website to Server 2008 allowed use to double the amount of application pool memory from 100MB to 200MB. This reduces the number of times the application pool gets recycled. We've learned that when the application pool recycles, all customer shopping carts get cleaned out.

We will also be making a change later today so that customer shopping cart session data will be stored in our database. Therefore when/if the application pool recycles (at random times), your shopping cart contents will persist. This does impose a small performance hit, but at least your cart isn't lost.

We appreciate your patience while we figured this issue out, and we hope we won't be seeing any more empty shopping carts during customer checkouts.

Feedback:

If anyone does encounter any issues while checking out, please don't hesitate to drop us a line, or post, and we'll be glad to help you check out (over the phone if need be).

Best Regards,

Traxster .NET Micro Framework Robotics Kit Launched!

jsummerour — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:32:48 GMT

We are pleased to announce the availability of the Traxster .NET Micro Framework Robotics Kit.

We teamed up with SJJMicro.com and combined our popular Traxster and Serializer products together with the EDKPlus .NET Micro Framework development kit to offer a very exciting and easy to use .NET Micro Framework robotics development platform.

You can read all about the new Traxster MF Kit here. Documentation, MSI Installer, and Visual Studio 2005 Solution (source code) can be found on the Serializer Robot Controller page under the 'Docs/How-To/Library' tab.

Questions/Issues can be posted on the Serializer .NET Micro Framework Forum.

Best Regards!

Customer Projects Forum Added!

jsummerour — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:57:05 GMT

We've been getting some really cool customer application/project photos/videos, that utiliize our products and technology. :cool: So we decided to add a forum just for those cool projects!

Feel free to post images and video of those projects within the Customer Project Forum!

We appreciate everyone's feedback and info on the projects they're creating! ;)

Best Regards!

Serializer Lib MF (for the .NET Micro Framework) BETA version released!

jsummerour — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:06:27 GMT

We now have a BETA version of our Serializer Lib MF (for the .NET Micro Framework) available, along with documentation. :D

You can read more about it in this post.

NOTE: This requires the EDKPlus board from SJJMicro.

Best Regards!

Forum Login Session Key Fixed!

jsummerour — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:22:59 GMT

Thanks to the excellent customer service from Ryan InstantForum.NET, we have fixed the issue where you're logged out after only a few minutes of use. Customers may have noticed that after typing long posts, and submitting them that they are prematurely logged out, and required to log back in (thus losing their post).

It turns out that we just needed to enable a machine encryption key in our Web.Config.

Now, if you want to stay logged in, be sure to select the 'Remember Me' option at the Login screen, and you should stay logged in for a period of 1 year.

We have been very impressed with this Forum software we purchased from InstantForum.NET, and now we like it even more! :cool:

Thanks for the great service Ryan!

Best Regards!

Serializer .NET Library v1.2.3.0 Released

jsummerour — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:01:24 GMT

We just released the Serializer .NET Library version 1.2.3.0

Serializer Page
Serializer .NET Library Installer (msi)
Serializer .NET Library Release Notes (.txt)

This fixed the following issues:

PIDMotorController not allowing identical distance and rotation angles to be set back-to-back
TPA81 Fahrenheit conversion bug
Updated and auto compiled MSDN documentation examples

Best Regards!

Cool New Pixar Robot Movie

jsummerour — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:21:35 GMT

Saw this at the theaters this weekend, when I took my daughter to see "Horton Hears a Who!".

WALL-E: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e/ :cool:

Can't wait to see it!

Serialzier .NET Library v1.2.2.4 and Firmware v1.5.2 Released

jsummerour — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:34:26 GMT

The Serializer .NET Library v1.2.2.4 was released today which contains the following enhancments.

Added QueryStatus() to query internal PID algorithm status to determine when PID distance algorithm has finished traveling specified distance in the PIDMotorController class.
PIDMotorController no longer derives from QueryableComponentBase, but from SerializerComponent now.
Changed PIDMotorController QueryVelocities() to be manually invoked, instead of invoked at a specified UpdateFrequency.
Added Motor1Speed and Motor2Speed properties to the PIDMotorController class.
Updated Velocity and Distance PID params to work w/ latest motors on Traxster and Stinger
Updated encoder params to match latest encoders on Traxster and Stinger
Added optional DistDeadband and DeadbandEnabled PIDMotorController properties to work with firmware versions 1.5.2 and higher.
Added ConstantUpdates property to LineFollowingSensor, so that the LineSensorChanged event constantly occurs (based on UpdateFrequency). ConstantUpdates defaults to false, in which case the LineSensorChanged event only occurs when the actual value of the sensor changes.

We also launched a new Serializer Firmware version, v1.5.2, which includes the following enhancements:

Added Deadband for Distance PID. Also added additional (optional) deadband parameter for 'dpid' command so you can set the deadband. Deadband is defaulted to 5, and you shouldn't really need to set it.
Modified mogo and digo commands to set wheels speeds as close to the same time as possible. Mismatched motors might still show signs of one starting over the other.
Updated PID velocity and distance parameters for smoother acceleration for the DC Gearhead Motor combo used in our Traxster and Stinger Robot Kits. (vpid -> 10:0:5:10 dpid -> 1:0:0:20:5)

The Serializer .NET Library and Firmware can be downloaded from the Serializer Robot Controller Page under the Docs/HowTo/Documentation tab. The MSDN style documentation has also been updated to reflect the latest changes in the .NET Library.

Best Regards!

New Improved Website Launched!!!

jsummerour — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:15:55 GMT

Greetings Customers!

As you may have noticed, we just launched a new and improved website! What's new an improved about it? Here is a list...

Visa Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) Certified Shopping Cart - This means even more secure payment processing for our customers!
Optimized Shopping Cart - This saves you time since the website is a lot more responsive!
Improved Shopping Cart checkout - Over the past several weeks, we've had too many customers call and complain regarding errors they encountered during checkout. We apologize for those inconveniences, and believe that those errors have been addressed with the new shopping cart.
Automated order imports into QuickBooks. This helps the shipping department ensure that your order is fulfilled accurately, shipped to the correct location, and saves us tons of "copy and paste" time.
Improved look and feel.
Improved/Optimized Website Maintenance. This makes it easier for us to add new products, and keep the site in shape!

We still have more improvements coming this week, including an updated MSRS page (with new Serializer and SerializerLite services) and new products.

If you are having difficulties navigating our site, or have any issues in the checkout procedure, please don't hesitate to drop us a line at sales@roboticsconnection.com, and we'll be glad to look into it. We believe that you will find the updated website much more user friendly. :)

Best Regards!

Website Shopping Cart Issues

jsummerour — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:30:35 GMT

We have experienced some very odd issues with our shopping cart over the last week. We have been working with our hosting company, and the company that developed our shopping cart software to resolve these issues.

We have purchased an updated version of our shopping cart software, and will be launching it this coming weekend (2/8/2008).

If anyone has any issues going forward with ordering products from the site, please don't hesitate to drop us a line so we can investigate it.

We appreciate your patience, and apologize for any inconveniences it may have caused you.

Best Regards!

New User Forums Launched!

jsummerour — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:25:29 GMT

We continually strive to improve communication with our customers, as well as optimize the way we response to customer questions. In doing so, we have decided to replace our old open source forum with a new, commercially available forum, which is a lot easier to maintain, provides far better search capabilites, and has some very useful capabilities.

Our new forum engine uses InstantForum.NET, and I can say that we really, really like it! It's very easy to install, configure, and maintain, and has excellent user documentation. It's very reasonably priced, and worth every penny.

So, we will be migrating old topics to the new one over the next month, but feel free to post any questions that you may have (or can't find via searching).

We will be keeping the old depricated forum around until we feel that our new forum contains all of the older pertinent posts. We will be removing duplicated/similar posts/questions as well.

Best Regards,