RoboticsConnection User Forum / Serializer Robot Controller Support / RoboticsConnection Hardware Support

Is the Serializer still available?

pirobot — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:28:02 GMT

Hello,

It seems the Serializer has been out of stock for quite a long while and I can't seem to find it for sale at other robot stores either. Is the Serializer being discontinued? Or will we still be able to get one? I have two of the older v2.0 boards but would like to get a 3.0 version.

Thanks!
patrick

http://www.pirobot.org

What does the Serializer Really Buy Me? Read on!!!

jsummerour — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:09:18 GMT

Patrick,

Hopefully, I can ramble enough to explain to you how useful the Serializer Robot Controller is, and help you and your son get started (quickly) with robotics.

I’m going to post this on our forum as well, so others can leverage this information.

So, to control robots, you have to obviously have some control software. The software has quite a few tasks to perform, but basically it has to do the following:

1.) Control Motors/Actuators/Servos

2.) Read Sensors and interpret their meaning

3.) Perform an action based on the sensor input

I know the list above is very elementary, but it’s a good starting point for discussion.

Interfacing Motors/Actuators/Servos:

Regarding point 1, everyone interfaces microcontrollers to DC motors using a h-bridge. This requires some low-level bit twiddling to send a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) output to the h-bridge, which then makes the motors work. So, typically, you have to purchase an additional h-bridge to interface your motors (costing $50-$100). In addition, you have to write(and debug) the low-level software to control the h-bridges. The Serializer has built-in dual 4 Amp h-bridges, AND also has the ability to interface external H-Bridges, if the onboard 4 Amp h-bridges aren’t enough. So, you’re not stuck w/ the onboard h-bridges. Thus, you could spend time re-implementing the control software for the h-bridges, but why? It’s been done a million times, including by ourselves.

Almost all hobbyist based robotics kits use standard hobby servos. To interface a servo, you basically just need an I/O line from your microcontroller, power, ground, and write some control software to send the correct pulse width to the servo, so that it goes to the desired position. While this is pretty easy to do, it’s yet another piece of code that you have to write (and debug). The Serializer supports control of up to 6 servos, and implements this code for you. In addition, we’re launching a new product at the end of the month to allow you to control up to 25 servos from the Serializer’s I2C port. The board will plug into the Serializer, and our firmware and libraries will support the interface to allow you to immediately use it.

We are also launching a new product at the end of the month to allow you to control up to eight relays from the Serializer’s I2C port, which are useful for turning on devices that require larger currents that microcontrollers can’t handle. Again, the Serializer firmware, and our libraries will support control of this device.

We are also launching a new product at the end of the month to allow you to control up to 10 sonar sensors from the Serializer’s I2C port. And, you guessed it, the firmware and our libraries support it too. J

By the way, the Serializer’s I2C port is a perfect way to expand the functionality of the Serializer, without using up a lot of I/O lines.

Interfacing Sensors:

In order for your robot to sense and “see” it’s surroundings, it obviously needs sensors. There are many sensors available for measuring distance to an object, temperature, direction/heading, distance traveled, and many more. In addition sensors have different ways to interface them to query the information, which includes analog, pwm, i2C, SPI, and others.

As you can see, you’ll have to write (and debug) software to interface all of these sensors, which can be a real pain (and can be VERY time consuming). So we decided to take all of the most popular sensors on the robotics market, and provide a physical and software interface for them via the Serializer. The Serializer can read up to five 10-bit analog sensors, up to 127 I2C devices, and up to ten I/O sensors.

Once you have written software to read the values of the sensors, you have to interpret it. This might mean converting a 10-bit analog value to a meaningful distance, or converting the number of ticks your wheel encoders reported to a distance.

Again, all of this sensor interfacing & interpretation is packaged for you within the Serializer firmware and libraries.

A very powerful sensor is a Camera. We’ve worked with www.RoboRealm.com to provide some cool vision processing examples via their software as well. We are currently trying to find a quality wireless camera that we can offer to our customers at a reasonable price. So far, most wireless cameras have been pretty junky. L
Nonetheless, the camera will be a very key sensor for robotics going forward. Once we find a camera, we will be leveraging the RoboRealm software a lot more.

Making decisions:

Once you have collected all of the sensory inputs, and have translated them to a meaningful value, you need to make decisions on what action to perform (if any).

This is actually the fun part of software development, because you are adding intelligence to your robot. Obviously as a beginner, you could start out with simple behaviors to allow your robot to follow a line, navigate through a maze, etc. Eventually, you can add higher intelligence to allow you robot to plan out a path to take, recognize objects (via vision), and perform useful tasks.

Before I get too deep into this subject, lets’ summarize what the Serializer does for you, and how to interface to it.

Utilizing the Serializer:

As you have read, the Serializer interfaces the most common robotic sensors on the market (under Devices/Sensors tab), and converts the signals returned from the sensors into a meaningful value (such as distance, temperature, etc.).

So, how do you get that information from the Serializer and/or control it? Well, there are a few ways:

1.) Your application uses the Serializer Protocol, which is defined in the Serializer User Guide, to query these values and/or control motors/servos via a serial connection

2.) You use our Serializer .NET library to implement the protocol for you, and you just use the simple to use .NET object interface to query sensors and/or control motors/servos

3.) You use our Serializer Microsoft Robotics Studio(MSRS) Services to query sensors and/or control motors/servos - Advanced

4.) You use our upcoming C++ library (written by James Y. Wilson) to query sensors and/or control motors/servos

Point 1 requires you to open a serial port, and send the various commands (e.g. ‘pwm, ‘sensor’, ‘pping’), defined in the Serializer Protocol to the Serializer to query sensor values and/or control motors/servos. You can also open up a ‘Hyperterm’ session, and send the same commands to the Serializer for debugging purposes.

Points 2 thru 4 implement the protocol for you, and handles all of the communications behind the scenes. What does this mean? Well, it means we made it even EASIER for you to control your robot via the Serializer! J You don’t have to worry about the communications portion of the software, which implies coming up w/ a useful scheme for querying the sensors, whilst not blocking other code that needs executing.

Regarding the .NET Library, we have examples for every supported component embedded in the MSDN help, under each component topic (called ‘Example Source Code’). You can download the library, as well as download instructions for installing the library on the Serializer page, under the Docs/How-To/Library tab.

You will also need to install the .NET 2.0 Framework on your computer.

To use the Serializer Services for MSRS, you can go here for info. This is pretty advanced, and I would suggest starting w/ the .NET library first.

Programming Environment:

If you plan on developing an application under Linux, then you’re sort of on your own. We will be adding support for Linux/FreeBSD/OSX apps later this year.

While we don’t offer support, it is still pretty simple to interface the Serializer under Linux, as you only need to open a serial port, and send commands/handle responses (e.g. point 1 above).

However, if you plan on developing an application under Windows, then you’re in luck.

You can download one/or both of the Visual Studio Express Editions for free:

· Visual C# Express Edition

· Visual Basic Express Edition

Currently, our examples are in C#, so I would suggest starting out programming with C#.

Serial Connection:

There are four ways to physically connect your Serializer to your PC/Laptop/PC104 to communicate with it:

1.) RS-232 serial connection/cable

2.) USB connection/cable

3.) Bluetooth/wireless

4.) XBEE/wireless

No matter which physical connection you choose, your application sees these devices as serial ports, and thus you can simply send the same command to all four interfaces w/o a code change (except for changing the COM port that the OS has assigned to that specific serial port).

The life of a command:

So, let’s say you decide to use the Serializer .NET library…How exactly does that work? Well, I’m going hide most of the details, but give you enough to fully understand what happens in the life of a command:

Let’s say you create a GP2D120 object using the .NET Library. Once you do, you’ll want to set a few properties regarding the Analog input line that it is connected to on the Serializer, as well as the frequency for which you want to query the sensor. Here’s a sample application to create a Sharp GP2D120 sensor connected to Analog Pin 1, and query it every 50msec. The app also specifies a threshold of 0.5, which means that you don’t want the .NET library to notify you that the value of the sensor has changed, unless it has changed by a value of more that 0.5. The app also signs up to hear an event, called ‘DistanceChanged’, which will occur if the value changes by more than the specified threshold amount.

using RoboticsConnection.Serializer;

using RoboticsConnection.Serializer.Ids;

using RoboticsConnection.Serializer.Sensors;

using RoboticsConnection.Serializer.Components;

using RoboticsConnection.Serializer.Controllers;

using System;

namespace test

{

class Program

{

static Serializer serializer;

static GP2D120 irSensor;

static void Main(string[] args)

{

serializer = new Serializer();

irSensor = new GP2D120(serializer);

irSensor.Pin = AnalogPinId.Pin1;

irSensor.UpdateFrequency = 50;

irSensor.DistanceChangedThreshold = 0.5;

irSensor.DistanceChanged += new SerializerComponentEventHandler(irSensor_DistanceChanged);

serializer.Run();

}

static void irSensor_DistanceChanged(SerializerComponent sender)

{

Console.WriteLine("new gp2d120 distance: {0}", irSensor.Distance);

}

You will also see that there is a method called irSensor_DistanceChanged(), which is basically an event handler, to catch the DistanceChanged event as it occurs.

Once the event occurs, this method will be executed, and in this instance, we’re just printing the distance that the sensor is reading. Of course, you could make decisions to slow down the motors, turn the robot, or whatever.

So, if you run this application, and have the GP2D120 sensor connected to the Serializer (and it is powered up), you will be able to move your hand in front of the sensor, and see the line “new gp2d120 distance: XXX” printed to the screen.

How does this happen???

Well, to begin with, when you create a GP2D120 object in the .NET library, the .NET library knows that it needs to send a ‘sensor <id>’ command to the Serializer via the serial port specified, where the <id> is the specified Analog input pin id (since the GP2D120 has an analog interface).

Once you invoke Serializer.Run() (or you can call Serializer.PumpEvents() from a while loop), the library is sending that command down to the Serializer at the frequency we specified above, and it waits to hear the response. Once it receives the response from the Serializer, it stores the translated sensor value into the GP2D120s Distance property, which you are free to use at any point. It also stores the raw analog value in the Value property, in case you want to do something with it.

Thus, your .NET application doesn’t have to block (although it can) to wait on the round-trip query to/from the Serializer for sensors.

The same exact thing happens for all sensors and components within the .NET library. Thus, all communication to/from the Serializer is handled for you, and you’re just left to read the properties of the .NET objects you’ve created. It just doesn’t get any easier than this…

This frees your app up to perform useful work, such as navigation, mapping, etc.

Summary:

So, after all of this rambling, to use your Serializer, just:

1.) Download and install the .NET 2.0 Framework

2.) Download and install Visual C# Express Edition

3.) Download and follow the Serializer .NET Library QuickStart Guide

4.) Peruse through our examples in the Serializer .NET Library Documentation

5.) Modify our existing sample apps to make your own.

So, hopefully, this has explained the usefulness of the Serializer, and given you a good starting point for getting an application up and running.

I’m sure I’ve missed something, and I’ll be glad to answer any questions that you may have.

Best Regards,

how can I reset the bootloader to default?

drope_1 — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:29:23 GMT

hi, I'm Pedro Paredes From Colombia, I bought 3 serializers 2.0, 2 years ago, since now everything went right with my serializers, if it loose the firmware, I reprogramed it with the Hyperterminal, but 3 days ago one of the serializers didn't work anymore, and the blink leds were off, I tried to reprogram the firmware but the word "load" doesn't appear, the window of hyperterminal show the word "No", I proved diferent things and I´m shure that te PIC is not damaged, so I came to the forum and I was looking for an answer because I thing that the bootloader need to be reprogamed, please someone have the same problem or can Help me with this?? I need reprogram the bootloader of the serializer 2.0 here in colombia, thanks for reading

P.D. sorry for my bad english

Intermittent timeouts and nacks when using servo command

EricZ — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 02:18:10 GMT

When using the servo command to position a servo, roughly every 3rd or 4th time I send a command I'll time out waiting for the response, sometimes I'll then receive a NACK, and most of the time the 3rd time will work. I get the same issue with SetIO, but only every once in a while. 75% of the time things work fine.

Any suggestions? Can you tell me why setio would ever time out or nack? It seems like it is just sending a PWM signal to the servo, so I'm not sure why there' ever be much of a delay.

I've got the timeout set to 5 seconds and I'm doing direct serial port communication (not using any of your .net libraries, etc.)

Robot Arena.

robotics.by — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:47:38 GMT

Hi guys.
We develop in a Republic of Belarus a custom Robot Arena for Traxster II Robot.
Please add some photos and show to all your Arena too. If you have it.

range of "sensor" return values

demmeln — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:34:32 GMT

I am reading sensor values from the AD converter over the serial protocol with the "sensor" command. In the manual it says that its an 8bit AD converter. However the range of the return values is at least greater than 8 bit (for our IR sensor typically between 30 and 600). When is the range of possible return values from the "sensor" command? I did not find any documentation about this.
Cheers,
Nikolaus

RFID-average speed measurement

azreen — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:42:34 GMT

hi there,

anyone of you here know about how to apply the programme of the average speed for the car at the RFID?

scenario:

i need to detect the speed of a car which is about 100km/h.
i am using a Tamiya motor with tag

so, any of you know the coding as well how to interface it to GUI since i am using visual basic 2010.

looking forward for your reply.....

does vel and mogo velocity units match?

pahan — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:43:28 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to use your serializer 3.0 board for my robot prototype. I'm having some trouble figuring out how the protocol works to use for my existing speed control logic. Ideally I want to get to something in ticks/second.

I understand now that the vel command returns in ticks per loop, where the loop time comes from the L parameter of the vpid command being 1.6*L milliseconds.

Let's say for now my vpid command looks like this: vpid 10:0:0:31 to make the loop run every 50ms. With this my maximum velocity after a pwm 1:100 2:100 command is also 125 ticks from the vel command.

But if I go and issue a mogo command such as mogo 1:50 2:50 is here the 50 velocity here in same units of ticks per loop, or some other type of unit? It does not seem to be in same type of units because it does not match,
if I issue that command and again check the vel command the numbers are completely different.

I'd really appreciate you help with this.

pahan

Serializer to Sabertooth Motor Controller serial connection

swabygw — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:40:43 GMT

I have the v3 .NET Serializer and a Sabertooth 2x25 motor controller and I’d like to implement a solution that will stop the motors when the Serializer loses communication connection.

I didn’t see such a feature on the Serializer, but the Sabertooth has a feature that will shut off the motor drivers if no signal is received in a specified amount of time (milliseconds). The only issue is that I must send a command to the Serializer a command to transmit the correct serial configuration to the Sabertooth…and I can’t figure out what the physical connection (which pins) should be on the Serializer to make a serial connection to the Sabertooth (the Sabertooth transmission-receive setup is very easy – it’s the Serializer part I can’t figure out). Or, is there a timeout feature on the Serializer?

Any ideas?

Help with USB and Serilizer 3

yogi — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:23:22 GMT

Just a quick question. Just got my boards, Serilizer and USB mod; while test fitting in the mounting area, I realize that I have a problem with the USB cable(space restrictions). Can I mount the USB converter off of the Serilizer and take the connections(Rx, Tx, CTS, RTS and Gnd) to the TTL header?

TNX,

Yogi

Hermes Brand Products with Top Quality

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Interfacing the Serializer with Android Phones

JamesLiu — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:24:56 GMT

For a research project requiring image processing, I am using an Android phone as a camera and micro controller for my robot. I'm just wondering if it's possible to interface it with an Android phone without any problems. Additionally, would there be any problems because of the difference in programming languages? Android uses a modified Java library to run it's apps, but the Serializer uses C++ or the .NET Framework.

Lastly, I was going to order the parts online, but it says that the part I wish to get are out of stock, and oddly the availability dates are well past their time. i.e. the Serializer's current availability date is 01/01/2010.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Multiple Serializers

danny — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:29:28 GMT

Hi,

Can we connect multiple serializers and then make them as a Master and slave.

Thanks,

Daniel

completely new!

KC9RXB — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:11:42 GMT

I am very new to on board computers with robotics. To start i would like to build a robot that has a Netbook PC on it connected to a serializer board, webcam, and a XBEE module to remotely control the robot from my desktop PC that will have a XBEE. any suggestions on how to do this? please help

Model boats

pwesson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:30:57 GMT

It might end in tears - a lot of tears - but it is a challenge what I'm enjoying. :w00t:

DC Motors (in a model boat)

pwesson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:50:21 GMT

Building a Robotic Boat for local lake.

Would the Serializer 3.0 be able to control the following DC motor?

It's 12Volts and 3.5 Amps < 4.0

http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/decaperm_12v.html

Out of interest. The boat will be a yacht - electronc compass + GPS.

Paul

Serializer 3.0 Application Freezing

Burnie — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:23:08 GMT

Hello,

I am using the Stinger configured with the Serializer WL V3.0.

I am simply trying to test the connection by using your example program, PIDMotorControlExample, in Microsoft Visual Studio C# 2010. The connection is established using both the USB and XBee wireless devices. The voltage is read and the connection status is "Connected", in nice green font. everything seems to be going well each time, yet every time I "Drive Distance", the application freezes.

Serializer motor controllers overheating

swabygw — Tue, 17 May 2011 10:39:29 GMT

I have two pairs of RS-550 motors attached to the Serializer and it seems to be overheating the motor controllers on the board and eventually stops working properly. Looking at the specs on the 550 motors, it looks like the current draw is more than the 4 amp limitation on the Serializer which is causing the problems. So, I wanted to get opinions on whether the 10-amp dual H-bridge might solve this problem. It looks that way, but I can't tell if this H-bridge would be sufficient for the RS-550 motors, which looks like it operates normally at 10.9 amps (and I have two pairs). If the 10-amp dual H-bridge won't work, any recommendations for a different controller would be appreciated. Thanks, in advance.

RS-550 specs: http://banebots.com/pc/MOTOR-BRUSH/M5-RS550-12

servo motor controller issue

cntdrkl — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:14:19 GMT

Hi,
I have an older serializer board v1 (RS-232 interface). Latest firmware is 1.5.2

I have some issue with the digital i/o for controlling servo :
when I attach 2 or more rc servo, if I move first servo to far end (left or right), the second servo change position/angle about 5-6 stop (out of 198)
this condition becomes worst in continuous rotation servo because the movement of other servo affects the position of the continuous servo, thus it will spin without control

I saw another post with the same problem like I do, it's like the servo signal is bleeding to the other servo.

Another problem is when I move servo1 and servo2 to far end (opposite direction), the serializer board just freeze, until I reset it.

I tried using external power supply for powering the servo, thought the servo is lacking power supply, but it still has the same issue.

I wonder if it is hardware issue or firmware issue of the serializer board.

This is my first post, really appreaciate for any help / suggestion.

Thanks,
Eddy

Speed and Bipolar motors

IainDowns — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:20:03 GMT

I'm just starting to play with the Serializer controller.

For the moment I'm just controlling servos and a bipolar stepper motor.

I've taken the servo sample (.net) and added a few bits to make the stepper step.

What I'm seeing is that the maximum speed is 100 and that corresponds to roughly 300 steps per second (is that really the maximum?). However, as I reduce the speed the effect is most certainly non-linear (90% seems nearer 50%) and also sometimes the speed change doesn't take and sometimes there seems to be a dip in the speed (e.g. going from 89,88,87 - 88 will be slower than the other two).

There seem to be an awful lot of exceptions raised in the output window. most relating to an invalid string parse, I think. This may be interfering with the stepper control as it seems to have to retry from time to time.

My code more or less does

stepper.Speed = X;

stepper.Step();

I haven't updated the firmware, since the last firmware updated is dated 2009 and I bought the board a year later. Surely they are all up to date by now?

Hanging thread on exit

baxelrod — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:39:54 GMT

There is a hanging thread on exit of the SensorQueryWinFormExample. To fix, you should add a handler to the FormClosing event and properly stop communication with the serializer. New code highlighted below:

[code]
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
InitializeSerializer();

[highlight]this.FormClosing += new FormClosingEventHandler(Form1_FormClosing);[/highlight]
}

[highlight]private void Form1_FormClosing(Object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
serializer.StopCommunication();
}[/highlight]
[/code]

Problem with my order

sv_nirvana69 — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:42:16 GMT

This is Ryan Brockman I placed an order with your company, and only recieved 2 of the 3 items i payed for. Please contact me quickly, I need the other item for a very important project. call me (210)602-2694

Waiting until a servo is finished

Devin — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:13:02 GMT

Setting the position for the servo sets the desired position, and as I understand it, the PWM signal is sent to the servo to move it. Therefore, querying the position will only return what you set it to. I want to be able to wait for the servo to finish moving and then move on in my code. I have tried using the Gpio class to query the pin on which the servo is connected to throw set or cleared events, but this does not seem to work. Is there a magical way to do this or should I just stick with an arbitrary sleep command for servo movement?

Can no longer communicate (USB) with Serializer board

defwheezer — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:12:19 GMT

Have been using two Serializer 3.0 robot controller boards and they have worked nicely. However, recently one of the boards stopped communicating with my PC. Usually when I power up the board, the green LED lights up and the red one flashes. Now there is no flashing red LED on power up (green LED still lights up) and the app does not show the voltage and firmware info when I "connect" via USB port. The other board I have works just fine still under exactly the same conditions (if I use the same physical USB port, power supply, etc) so all my power and USB connections seem to not be the culprits. Is there anything I can try to "revive" the unresponsive board?? I tried disconnected all the sensor and motor wires from the board (leaving only the power) and it still is unresponsive.

Please help! :crying:

Serializer WL 3 communicate problem

capitan blood — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:24:30 GMT

Good day all!

Some time ago I bought a Serializer WL v3.0 this USB connector
I downloaded a .Net library for it (from this source: http://www.roboticsconnection.com/multimedia/libraries/Installer_v3.0.0.0.msi) and the manual (source: http://www.roboticsconnection.com/multimedia/docs/Serializer_3.0_UserGuide.pdf)
Then I plugged the controller to usb and two leds lighted on the controller: the first one – green light permanently, and the second one – blinked red.
I wrote a small program, which was to blink leds (as in the example).
And then I run it - nothing happened.
I downloaded another example (source: http://www.roboticsconnection.com/t-RoboticApplications.aspx) and run AnalogSensorExample sample. In the bottom section of the window (after my pushing “Connect” button and status changing to “connected”) I saw:
-serializer Firmware version:
-serializer .net library version: 1.2.6.0
-serializer battery voltage:

I also tried to plug power supply (+7.5V), but nothing changed.

I tried to update firmware and downloaded tinyBootloader. But when I pushed “Check PIC” button I saw message
“Connected to \\.\COM4 at 19200
Searching for PIC ...Not found,
ERROR!”

My setting for USB COM port:
Baud Rate: 19200
Data Bits: 8
Stop Bits: 1
Parity: None
Flow Control: None

Operation System : Win XP Sp3

Could You help me, please, with this trouble?

Serializer WL V2.0

GreenTea — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 01:29:08 GMT

Hi all,

I just started using the Serializer WL V2.0 and i want to find out what does the 'B' & 'A' stand for in the encoder port1/2?

Another question that i have is if the serializer is just an interface to run the motor and communicate with the microprocessor, can i do away with the serializer and use the microprocessor to control a robot instead? (Doing a robot project like the Traxster)

Thanks in advance,
GreenTea :)

getenc returns odd values in fw 1.5.2

pirobot — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:55:00 GMT

Hi Jason,

I didn't catch this problem when I first wrote my Python Serializer library, but I now see that there is a problem with any firmware function that returns an array of values. The most important for me is getenc which I use most often in the form 'getenc 1 2' and I should get back the two encoder counts. Even when running this command at just 1 time per second, I often get back an empty array (no values) and there is a delay before the empty result is returned. I see this in both Windows and Linux. It is even more pronounced when I run the command at 20 times per second which is what I need to operate my robot.

Can you test the getenc command yourself and see if you sometimes get empty values back? Same thing goes for the 'sensor' command.

Thanks!
patrick

PID Constants without floting point

pranavtrehun007 — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:38:36 GMT

Hi,

The serializer does not support floating point. Does it mean that the PID constants cannot be floating numbers and have to be integer values only.

Also please post your results if you have used the serializer's PID on another robot( i.e other than stinger and traxster)

Could we have an "auto-stop" in the Serializer firmware?

pirobot — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:36:58 GMT

Hi Jason,

I don't know if this can be implemented but...I was wondering if the Serializer firmware could be update to include a safety auto stop of the drive motors if the Serializer loses its data connection. I ask because there have been a number of occasions where my Serializer loses its Bluetooth connection to my PC right in the middle of moving across the room (usually at high speeds). At that moment I have to do a swan dive after the robot to keep it from running into something.

So the idea would be, if the data connection is lost, do a "stop" command in firmware to stop the drive motors automatically.

What do you think?

--patrick

Serializer power question

cloud_skyblue — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:34:06 GMT

Hi all,

This is a very basic question, but I was wondering if there is a standard "protocol" for power on/off and connecting/disconnecting the serializer board? I read the guide but it doesn't seem to be very specific about it. Is there a specific order for these procedures? Also, while running the program in Visual C#, is inserting a serializer.stopcommunication() preferable than simply stopping debug?

Thanks in advance!

Question about serializer and xbee.

flokos — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:30:24 GMT

Hello everyone I m new here and I just got serializer.
But i have a question.
Can XBee Pro 900 RPSMA modules work with serializer ?

help with the serializer once again (can an R/C controller be used?)

wammeze — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:07:32 GMT

now, ive just bought a serializer, remote controller, and an xbee module. i was just wondering, is there any way i could use my radio controller with the xbee controller to control my serializer, or was it a huge waste of money to get the remote controller in the first place? the competition im in requires me to use a radio controller to control a robot with an arm. and if there is any suggestions on what to do, please make it a little simpler, because i am only in grade 10 and have just undertaken the challenge to make a movable robot.
thanks in advance!

Would like to buy discontinued RS-232 Serializer Module

lawrence — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:47:47 GMT

Hi:

These have been discontinued.

Does anyone have one they would like to sell?

I would offer $25.00 and could pay with PayPal.

Please email me at:

lawrencl@alternativeenergynow.org

if you have one you would sell.

Thanks,

Lawrence

RS-232 Module

lawrencl — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:00:05 GMT

Hi:

Is the RS-232 module still available for the Serializer?

It doesn't not appear to be in the online store.

Thanks,

Lawrence

PID parameters for .NET with QME-01 Encoder

Bablos — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:25:43 GMT

I'm trying to connect the serializer 3.0 with an external 10 Amp Dual H-Bridge and Lynxmotion motors GHM-16 and encoders QME-01 with 4.75" Wheels.

I can't find the right parameters for the PID and the drivetrain configuration.

I'm using yours PIDMotorControlExample in C#.

Serializer and Bluetooth

lawrencl — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:11:05 GMT

Is Bluetooth still supported with the Serializer?

Are Bluetooth modules still available?

Did USBee replace Bluetooth?

Thanks,

Lawrence

Serializer 2.0 w/ Bipolar stepper motor

electronguy — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:25:12 GMT

Greetings,

I have my Serializer WL 3.0 on my Traxster II robot (working great), and decided to use my Serializer WL 2.0 board with a stepper motor (to spin a disco ball).

Everything seems to be working okay, *except* a strange issue that I'm seeing when I initially change direction. I noticed the following erratic behavior after putting a white/black disc on top of my stepper motor to verify the 'step' and 'sweep' functions (FW 2.1): I'd "zero" the disc and issue a step command to rotate the disc 100 steps * 3.6 deg./step=1 revolution. This works great. The trouble comes when I go to reverse the direction. I noticed that I wasn't quite reaching my original mark (short by about two steps).

To troubleshoot, I issued a "step 0:1:1" command to control the motor at the slowest speed for one step in the indicated direction--everything's fine. Repeat for a few steps in a row and each step provides a proper increment of the shaft. Now, I issue a "step 1:1:1" command to reverse the direction of the step. THE CRAZY thing is that the motor will continue (with each subsequent "step 1:1:1" command) fro TWO steps in the prior direction (e.g., CW) before reversing direction.

If I follow up with "step 0:1:1" after performing "step 1:1:1" I get a similar result--two steps in the "old" direction before switching to the new direction.

I haven't tried this on the Serializer 3.0 board--I have the stepper motor on the Serializer 2.0 board.

Finally, I've tried just about every combination of wiring to the motor with similar, or worse, results. I believe I have my motor wired properly.

Thanks for any insights,
--Scott Thompson

1 motor is not turning forward

eduardofamendes — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:53:30 GMT

Hi,

I have a Serializer WL 2.0 with firmware version 1.5.2 and one of my motor is not working. It runs back, but not forward. The other one works fine. The red led of this motor is not blinking also. After a while the power supply start fluctuates rapidly.

Any suggestions on what to do?

Thanks,

Eduardo Mendes

Firmware programmation problem

goupil — Thu, 20 May 2010 13:00:28 GMT

Hi,

We try to program the firmware of the serializer version 2.0 with the 1.5.2 firmware. We had problems at the beginning, because it stopped at "0000000". I have to add a character delay of 1 ms to be able to program (I tried with 100ms, 10ms and 1 ms and it's ok in the 3 cases).

We use hyperterm and it works great until the line "0030000C" Skip.

After that I have on the last line ;PIC18F452 and nothing after this.

And I can't have the last 3 lines OK, ACKSerializer, Copyright.

I had no other way to finish than doing a disconnection, and tried to reboot the serializer. The red led is on (no flashing) and the green leds are off. So, may be it's because the serializer is waiting for reprogramming ?

I hope you will find an answer, because I have no other ideas now to find a solution and my students are waiting for me.

Of course, I test the power (the power source is 12V, and able to provide at least 1A), the polarity is good (it works before programming), I tried with 2 differents PC and tried also to remove the last line of the hex file (;PIC18F452) to see if it's the problem, and tried to reset with the reset button.

Thanks.

Windows XP SP2, firmware v1.5.2 for serializer 2.0

Serializer 3.0 - changing voltage from 5v to 3.3v

dannyjrodriguez — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:20:25 GMT

I have a device that connects via I2C that requires a max of 3.3v. However, the serializer outputs 5v. Any ideas on the best way to lower the voltage?

Would a voltage divider work with a few resistors or do i need to get a voltage regulator from 5v to 3.3v?

I have both readily available but wanted your opinions before going ahead.

In my toolbox i have 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 resistors as well as many 5v to 3.3v 1A voltage regulators.

Please advise.