and then I try to prevent EDDIE from moving with my hands, it seems to abort travelling and return ERROR.
After that, all TRVL, TURN and SPD commands keep returning ERROR until the board is reset.
Can somebody help me figure out whether this problem is due to hardware or software.
EDDIE's battery is always fully charged.
The TRVL, TURN and SPD commands all depend on the encoders to execute. If at any time the encoders don't respond, the firmware assumes that there is a critical error and will not resume operation until the firmware is reset.
So, trying to prevent Eddie from moving when executing the TRVL command would result in an encoder error, and the firmware does need to be reset before normal operation can continue.
Thanks for your kind reply.
Is there a way to disable this function, de-sensitise it or allow auto recovery from it?
This is because the firmware does hit "encoder error" during normal autonomous moving around of my Eddie (without bumping into any obstacles)
Having to reset the board each time it happens is not pleasant.
"We will be releasing an update to RDS 4 shortly (it is in final testing) that will provide services for the Reference Platform. Parallax will provide the "hardware abstraction layer" that interfaces between the Firmware and the high-level RDS services. This intermediate service uses contracts (programming interfaces) that we have defined for use with RDS and the Reference Platform services. This allows other vendors to produce Reference Platform robots and take advantage of the high-level services as well."
Trevor Taylor
This quote from Trevor indicates that Parallax has yet one more deliverable for the Eddie software. The hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is definitely separate from the firmware and runs on the host PC under RDS 4.
RDS 4 Beta 2 shipped last week (7th December). Sorry for not replying here sooner. The RDS package does not include the HAL which will be available from the Parallax web site.
The idea behind the Reference Platform design, a.k.a. MARK (Mobile Autonomous Robot using Kinect), is that multiple vendors can potentially build MARK robots. Eddie is the first such implementation. So the HAL really belongs with the hardware, not in the RDS package itself.
Just FYI, we have been working through the firmware issues listed in this thread with Parallax. We are currently the largest customer for Eddies with about 50 of them delivered to date, so we feel the pain too. The latest firmware drop that we are using seems to be stable and I think it addresses all of those issues.
Just FYI, we have been working through the firmware issues listed in this thread with Parallax. We are currently the largest customer for Eddies with about 50 of them delivered to date, so we feel the pain too. The latest firmware drop that we are using seems to be stable and I think it addresses all of those issues.
Comments
Can somebody help me figure out whether this problem is due to hardware or software.
EDDIE's battery is always fully charged.
The TRVL, TURN and SPD commands all depend on the encoders to execute. If at any time the encoders don't respond, the firmware assumes that there is a critical error and will not resume operation until the firmware is reset.
So, trying to prevent Eddie from moving when executing the TRVL command would result in an encoder error, and the firmware does need to be reset before normal operation can continue.
Let us know if you run into any other problems.
Cheers,
Jessica
Thanks for your kind reply.
Is there a way to disable this function, de-sensitise it or allow auto recovery from it?
This is because the firmware does hit "encoder error" during normal autonomous moving around of my Eddie (without bumping into any obstacles)
Having to reset the board each time it happens is not pleasant.
No way to disable the feature at this time, but we'll release an update very soon that should ignore intermittent encoder errors.
-- Jessica
The other quirk is, sometimes PING sensor value is returned as zero. (000 hex)
Trevor Taylor
This quote from Trevor indicates that Parallax has yet one more deliverable for the Eddie software. The hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is definitely separate from the firmware and runs on the host PC under RDS 4.
Is there a deliverable date on this piece?
Tom
RDS 4 Beta 2 shipped last week (7th December). Sorry for not replying here sooner. The RDS package does not include the HAL which will be available from the Parallax web site.
The idea behind the Reference Platform design, a.k.a. MARK (Mobile Autonomous Robot using Kinect), is that multiple vendors can potentially build MARK robots. Eddie is the first such implementation. So the HAL really belongs with the hardware, not in the RDS package itself.
Just FYI, we have been working through the firmware issues listed in this thread with Parallax. We are currently the largest customer for Eddies with about 50 of them delivered to date, so we feel the pain too. The latest firmware drop that we are using seems to be stable and I think it addresses all of those issues.
Trevor
(Microsoft Robotics Group)
Hi Trevor,
When do we get to test the latest firmware drop?