NEW PSC Question

Abe G

Hello,

Inasmuch as I detest repeated questions, I am quite frustrated with our Quadcrawler Robot, PSC, and Javelin BOE

I have worked quite a bit with the Javelin stamp and felt comfortable with it up until now with an expansion board called the Lobot..
We got the quadcrawler, and replaced the BASIC Board with the Java BOE as I wanted to do some "test and tune"

I downloaded all applicable information off of the Yahoo, site, and have read over the forums many times, doing all applicable searched.

Perhaps , it how I have wired it, etc..

Serial cable form PSC connected to ground and power, separate connection to the power supply, the serial in cable is connected to P0 of the stamp...

I have tried the "one Pin Test" program...

Is there something I am missing?
Red and Green light come on the PSC, the terminal indicates connection, but nothing happens ....


If there is a "Plug and Play sequence",,,that would be great.,,

Thanks,


Abe

Peter Verkaik

See if any of these threads provide a solution.

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=730275
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=591385
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=544938

regards peter

Chris Savage

Abe,

You said, "Serial cable form PSC connected to ground and power, separate connection to the power supply, the serial in cable is connected to P0 of the stamp..."

This doesn't clarify if the power supply for the logic of the PSC shares a ground with the Javelin Board. Also, power to the logic of the PSC and power to the servos must come from different power sources.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Engineering

Abe G

Thanks to all who replied!

Okay, as far as the other threads, I have read through them all.

Let me first say I am powering the PSC auxiliary input through the regulated voltage of the BOE....that may be bad, but I am only powering one servo...the BOE on my sons robot has been powering 2 servos for a year or so now while running a ping and other sensors..how could it not be sufficient?

When I run the program Testing 2, I repeated the following code snipet several times as shown to make sureht enumeber to my terminal is the same. Every time I get 1-4 digit gibberishes numbers

··· DC16 dc = new DC16(serialTx, serialRx, 3);

·· System.out.println(dc.GetFirmwareVersion());
·· System.out.println(dc.GetFirmwareVersion());
·· System.out.println(dc.GetFirmwareVersion());
·· System.out.println(dc.GetFirmwareVersion());
·· System.out.println(dc.GetFirmwareVersion());
·· System.out.println(dc.GetFirmwareVersion());



So having it print out six times, I am sure I am seeing the FirmwareVersion. I am also using the latest availabel class files.



HERE ARE THE RESULTS OF THE PSC_onepin_test Program



When I run the PSC_onepin_test program and I do not connect the serial comm cable but connect the power vss and aux power input, it does not kick out a firmware version as some have alluded that it should, but the terminal window comes up, and the getchar command works, and the servo responds by saying its moving to different positions every time, and writes a new line for each command looking something like but not specifically this: "c 1800,0 ", although nothing happens. Also the larger number is different for each position as it should be

When I hook up the serial cable, I run the program, I get the terminal, it takes my input character but acts as if it does not recognize it, it prints it in a "print" not "println" format and does not show the servo to be moving and does not read out a position



Ideas?



All, I truly appreciate your help, and yes, I realize I dont know as much as I could. I do not mean to be stubborn about the two power sources, its just a question I dont quite see at the time, also, if one of you could be so kind as to email any large responses as ALL forums are blocked rather well at my work..

Abe - g_u_88201@yahoo.com, agurule@bps.k12.nm.us




Post Edited (Abe G) : 4/7/2009 3:48:14 AM GMT

Peter Verkaik

Before anything else, provide us exactly which board you are using.

Your latest post talks about the DC16 board, which is completely
different from the PSC board.
If you have a PSC board, you don't use the DC16 class, but you must use
the psc.java class
If you have the DC16 board (relay board) then you use the DC16 class.
The DC16 can also be connected using one or two pins but I have no test
programs for this board.

regards peter

Abe G

Okay that was my bad...I am not using the DC16...now I find it interesting that the firmware query worked at all...



I am using the standard PSC no-usb