I'm a college student who is currently working on a project which envolves a trakster with a old serializer v1.1.
My main goal is to study closed loop control systems capable of adding functionlities to a robot such as the traxster.
I am, however, having some difficulties connecting from the computer to the traxster.
I purchased a standard RS232 cable but it seems that this cable is not correct since the robot is not responding to any command (even though I'm sure that the commands are being sent correctly)
Could you give me any indication regarding the correct type of rs232 cable or any other tip to get a reliable communication with the robot?
I appreciate all the help you can give.
I would appreciate a fast response, since I have a deadline regarding this project.

Best regards.

1) make sure you have a real serial cable and not a null-modem cable. If you have a multimeter you can check that pin 3 goes to pin 2 on the other end. If pin 3 goes to pin 3 then it is a null modem, 2 and 3 should be swapped. If you do have a null modem cable you can either get an adapter or get a new cable.

2) once you know you have the correct cable make sure you have the right com port. Open hyperterminal and connect the cable to the pc. On the other end of the cable (where the serializer would be) you can short pins 2 and 3 together, that will give you a loop back and anything you type should be echoed back to you.If you see it coming back you have the right com port. Take off the jumper and connect the serizlizer and reboot the serializer. You should see some text come out. If you do the type "fw" and press enter, you should get the firmware version.

3) make sure you ave the com port set correctly. The default for the serializer is 19200 8,n,1.

if it has been changed somehow you will have to check every baud rate from 2400, 9600, 19200, 38400, 56700, and 19200.

Hope this helps

Ringo Davis