RoboticsConnection User Forum / RoboticsConnection Software Support / Serializer Services for Robotics Studio

From where I can get the Serializer controller in MSRS

mema — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:00:12 GMT

I download the Free Serializer Services for Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS) but it’s the Services only without the main Serializer controller

From where I can get the Serializer controller in MSRS

Tutorials Available? And Serializer.NET vs. RoboticsStudio

cjohns — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:20:09 GMT

I am interested in learning more about how to use Serializer with RoboticsStudio. Are there any "how-to" tutorials, labs, or example code available, specific to using Serializer and attached sensors/servos/motors with RoboticsStudio? (I have seen the Microsoft labs and tutorials, but nothing specific to Serializer).

Is there a way to communicate with non-supported I2C devices in RoboticsStudio, akin to the I2CDevice class in Serializer.NET? (I didn't see one while poking around the Visual Programming Language environment).

What are the benefits (if any?) of programming with RoboticsStudio, vs. with C# and Serializer.NET?

Serializer problem with MSRS

Theo — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:39:12 GMT

Hi,

I recently purchased the Serializer and I tried to start the MSRS Services using Devantech's TPA81 sensor.

Although the Serializer core services were working fine, after loading the TPA81 Service, the results of the sensor's thermopile array were as follows:

255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255

Even by pressing the Update button didn't work. The I2C Address was set to 208 and the Threshold value was set to 500.

Even with the Hyperterm communication, the results of the TPA81 are the same.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Theo Xanthopoulos

Autolaunching an MSRS Service from Windows CE

jsummerour — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:57:46 GMT

I spent almost 4 hours on the phone today with a good friend (James Y. Wilson - Windows CE Expert) trying to get a new Robotics Studio service we wrote to start up automatically when Windows CE boots up. The service is the AutonomousFollowing service, which allows one of our new robots (aka Stinger) to follow a line and watch for objects in front of it. It's part of our demo at Maker Faire on May 19-20th, 2007.

Anyway, we attempted to use the AutoLaunch facility with no luck. Eventually, Jim had the bright idea of creating a shortcut to the cf.dsshost.exe application (which starts an MSRS DSS node), copy and paste it into the '\Windows\StartUp' folder, and modify the properties to add the command line parameters for the service (such as the ports and manifest location). We struggled with it for a while, getting the right command line set up correctly, but eventually it worked.

The final command for the shortcut looks like this:

"\Program Files\AutonomousFollowing\bin\cf.dsshost.exe" /p:50000 /t:50001 /m:..\samples\platforms\roboticsconnection\msrsdemo\autonomousfollowing\autonomousfollwing.manifest.xml

Is that long enough for you??? :) When naming your service, you might want to take the time to choose a much shorter name. LoL

Once I pasted the shortcut to '\Windows\StartUp', I simply right clicked on the file, and then clicked on 'Properties', then modified the Target under the 'Shortcut' tab.

There's also a good explanations for creating shortcuts for WinCE apps here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/embedded/aa731295.aspx

Also, about the time we got the application to automatically launch, Paul Roberts from the MSRS team replied back to an earlier email with the following:

We haven’t used AutoLaunch to start a DSS Node. To avoid having to modify the registry we created a tool called MsrsAutoStart.exe which we use to start the node. This also waits 15 seconds before starting the program in its command line, this a) allows the system time to stabilize if necessary and b) allows an interactive user to choose not to run the node.

We then create a shortcut to MsrsAutoStart with a command line for the node and place the shortcut in the /Windows/Startup directory.

For details on how to create a shortcut file there is an article on msdn [1]

If all the MSRS files are in \Program Files\MSRS\bin then the command line would look like…

“\Program Files\MSRS\bin\MsrsAutoStart.exe” “\Program Files\MSRS\bin\cf.dsshost.exe” –p:50000 –t:50001 –m:sumoplayer.hardware.manifest.xml

Like the rest of the MSRS code, MsrsAutoStart is a .Net CF application and if .Net CF is not installed on the machine then it will fail silently.

Hope this Helps

Paul

So, after struggling so long to get the app to launch (due to my own ignorance of how Win CE works), I decided to post the solution for others to use.

By the way, THANKS FOR YOUR HELP JIM!!!

Serializer Services now ported to CF

jsummerour — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:56:32 GMT

We just finished porting the Serializer Services to work under the Compact Framework for WinCE and MSRS CTP 1.5.

We'll be releasing those services over the next few weeks. If anyone needs a BETA release, just drop us a line, and we'll email them to you.

Also, please see the following posts regarding using MSRS with WinCE:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1551429&SiteID=1

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1536326&SiteID=1

Serializer Services Solution Error under Visual Studio Express Editions

jsummerour — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:04:12 GMT

Please note that our Serializer, SerializerLite, and other service solutions contain projects built for the .NET compact framework (for use on Windows CE devices).

If you are using any of the Microsoft Visual Studio Express editions to build our services, you will see an error when you open the solution similar to this:

---------------------------
Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
---------------------------
The project file 'C:\Microsoft Robotics Studio (1.5)\samples\Platforms\RoboticsConnection\SerializerServices\cf.SerializerServices.csproj' cannot be opened.

The project type is not supported by this installation.
---------------------------
OK Cancel Help
---------------------------

The Visual Studio Express editions do not support the Compact Framework projects. However, you can simply exclude these projects from the solution, and happily build and run the serivces on the desktop.

Best Regards,