Eddie and Xbox 360 wireless controller

Rick Brooks · 2011-12-24 08:58

Eddie made the first drive around the house using the Xbox 360 wireless controller. It is fantastic!

One little problem did come up. When you gave it a turn right command, it turned left, and a turn left command resulted in a right turn. The immediate fix was to hold the controller upside down, which is OK for an initial run.

So, lets start out with the basics. With the PST, GO 20 0 makes the left wheel turn like it should and the left encoder counts up. GO 0 20 makes the right wheel turn like it should and the right encoder counts up. Everything is good so far.

Back to the Parallax 2011 Reference Platform console application and a right turn from the Xbox controller results in the track ball icon indication a right turn and the X reading goes from 0 up to 1000. A left turn from the Xbox controller results in the track ball icon indication of a left turn and the X reading goes from 0 down to -1000. Everything is good so far.

So I tried the Parallax 2011 Reference Platform console application without the Xbox controller, but using the track ball icon.

With the motors turned on, the track ball icon was moved to the right. The x reading went up to 1000, the right wheel turned forward, the left wheel turned reverse, the right encoder counted up, and the left encoder counted down. With the right wheel going forward and the left wheel going reverse, that is a left hand turn. Something is wrong. For a track ball icon movement to the left, the opposite happened, there was a right turn.

I figured that there was an easy fix. There was probably a command somewhere in the C# programs that sent GO rightwheel leftwheel instead of GO leftwheel rightwheel.

I did find a Drive.cs program that line 182 reads: byte[] cmdpacket = board.CreatePacket<sbyte>(board.SetTravelPowerString, rightDrivePower, leftDrivePower); Is that it?

Rick Brooks

Rick Brooks · 2012-01-15 08:40

I did try changing Drive.cs line 182 to:
“byte[] cmdpacket = board.CreatePacket<sbyte>(board.SetTravelPowerString, leftDrivePower, rightDrivePower);”
That fixed the problem. Note that the Parallax IO Controller service for Eddie must be rebuilt to implement the change. See the instructions for rebuilding the service.

On the Robot Dashboard, Tools, Options, I changed the X and Y Dead Zone to 20, Translate Scale Factor to 1, and Rotate Scale Factor to 0.3. That made Eddie much easier to drive with the wireless Xbox controller. These changes can be made default by modifying the robotdashboard.config file. There is a minor delay between the command and response, but it is not objectionable.

I have added a bunch of red and blue LED strips to Eddie and wired them into the AUX Switched Power Ports. Using Parallax Serial Terminal, I can turn the LEDs on and off, but the BLINK command gives an error. Is there a problem with BLINK?

Rick Brooks

Rick Brooks · 2012-01-15 10:38

"BLINK" (from the Eddie Command Set PDF) does not work, but "BLNK" (from Eddie Firmware) works. Note that it can only blink one pin at a time.

Rick Brooks

Rick Brooks · 2012-01-16 15:10

I added a few lines of code to the Eddie firmware so the BLNK for pin 16 will work on Counter B and BLNK for any other pin will work on Counter A. Now I can blink two sets of lights at two different frequencies.

Rick Brooks

Duane Degn · 2012-01-17 15:39

Rick,

I'm guessing there aren't many of us around here who have used Eddie.

When you say your added to the firmware, did you use the Propeller Tool to do this? If you're using Spin to program, I may be able to help you with blinking multiple LEDs (at multiple frequencies).

Could you either attach the code you are using (preferably as an "Archive" (look under the "File" menu of the Propeller Tool)) or post the code (if it isn't very long) inside code tags. To use code tags follow this link.

attachment.php?attachmentid=78421&d=1297987572

Rick Brooks · 2012-01-17 17:25

Duane,
I agree, there must not be many using Eddie.
The code that I changed was just adding to the "BLINK" command in the Eddie firmware. Here it is:

  elseif strcomp(@InputBuffer, string("BLNK"))        ' Command: Blink the specified pin at a specified rate
      Parameter[0] := ParseHex(NextParameter)           ' Pin number
      Parameter[1] := ParseHex(NextParameter)           ' Frequency
      CheckLastParameter


      if Parameter[0] == 16
        Parameter[2] := |< Parameter[0]                   ' Create a pin mask from the pin number
        if Parameter[2] & OUTPUTABLE                      ' Only use this command on a pin that can be an output
          if Parameter[1]                                 
            if Parameter[2] & PingMask                    ' If the pin used to be a PING))) sensor pin
              ResetPingDriver(PingMask &= !Parameter[0])  ' Restart the PING))) sensor processor with the pin removed from the mask
            GPIOMask &= !Parameter[2]                     ' Flag the pin as a GPIO pin
            outa[Parameter[0]]~                           ' The I/O pin must be set as a low input
            dira[Parameter[0]]~~
            ctrb := constant(%00101 << 26) + Parameter[0] ' Set counter A to toggle the I/O pin
            frqb := constant($8000_0000 / _clkfreq / 10) * Parameter[1] ' Calculate the toggle period            
          else
            ctrb~                                         ' A frequency of 0 turns of the counter
      else


        Parameter[2] := |< Parameter[0]                   ' Create a pin mask from the pin number
        if Parameter[2] & OUTPUTABLE                      ' Only use this command on a pin that can be an output
          if Parameter[1]                                 
            if Parameter[2] & PingMask                    ' If the pin used to be a PING))) sensor pin
              ResetPingDriver(PingMask &= !Parameter[0])  ' Restart the PING))) sensor processor with the pin removed from the mask
            GPIOMask &= !Parameter[2]                     ' Flag the pin as a GPIO pin
            outa[Parameter[0]]~                           ' The I/O pin must be set as a low input
            dira[Parameter[0]]~~
            ctra := constant(%00101 << 26) + Parameter[0] ' Set counter A to toggle the I/O pin
            frqa := constant($8000_0000 / _clkfreq / 10) * Parameter[1] ' Calculate the toggle period            
          else
            ctra~                                         ' A frequency of 0 turns of the counter

The rest of the program is not changed. Any time that you send a "BLNK" command to pin 16 it uses the B counter. Any other pin still uses the A counter.
The next step is to get the Xbox buttons to control the LEDs on/off and blinking rate. I have no idea where to look to do that, yet.
Last night I ran Eddie from a remote desktop. There were very, very long delays between the commands (desktop or Xbox) and the response. Also, the video update was very slow.
Rick Brooks

Duane Degn · 2012-01-18 13:36

Rick,

The forum ate my first post. I'll try again but I'll likely just post a part at a time and then edit the post.

This codde should let you use multiple LEDs.

You'll want to change the object section to:

Obj                             
                                
  Term          : "FullDuplexSerial"
  Encoders      : "FullDuplexSerial"
  ADC           : "MCP3208.spin"                        ' Works with MCP3008, but two LSBs may be incorrect
  Ping          : "ReadPulseWidths.spin"
  Motors        : "Eddie Motor Driver"
 [COLOR=#ff0000] Led           : "FlashLeds"[/COLOR]

You'll also want to add to the main method:

Pub Main
  Term.Start(RX, TX, BAUDMODE, BAUDRATE)                ' Start a UART for the command port
  ADC.Start(ADC_DIO, ADC_CLK, ADC_CS, $FF)              ' Continuously run ADC conversions
  Ping.Start(@PingResults)                              ' Continuously read pulse widths on PING))) pins
  [COLOR=#ff0000]Led.Start
[/COLOR]cognew(PDLoop, @Stack)                                ' Run the position controller in another core

You can leave the "BLNK" section as is and just add a "BLINK" section:

elseif strcomp(@InputBuffer, string("BLNK"))        ' Command: Blink the specified pin at a specified rate
      Parameter[0] := ParseHex(NextParameter)           ' Pin number
      Parameter[1] := ParseHex(NextParameter)           ' Frequency
      CheckLastParameter
      Parameter[2] := |< Parameter[0]                   ' Create a pin mask from the pin number
      if Parameter[2] & OUTPUTABLE                      ' Only use this command on a pin that can be an output
        if Parameter[1]                                 
          if Parameter[2] & PingMask                    ' If the pin used to be a PING))) sensor pin
            ResetPingDriver(PingMask &= !Parameter[0])  ' Restart the PING))) sensor processor with the pin removed from the mask
          GPIOMask &= !Parameter[2]                     ' Flag the pin as a GPIO pin
          outa[Parameter[0]]~                           ' The I/O pin must be set as a low input
          dira[Parameter[0]]~~
          ctra := constant(101 << 26) + Parameter[0] ' Set counter A to toggle the I/O pin
          frqa := constant($8000_0000 / _clkfreq / 10) * Parameter[1] ' Calculate the toggle period            
        else
          ctra~                                         ' A frequency of 0 turns of the counter
    [COLOR=#ff0000]elseif strcomp(@InputBuffer, string("BLINK"))        ' Command: Blink the specified pin at a specified rate
      Parameter[0] := ParseHex(NextParameter)           ' Pin number
      Parameter[1] := ParseHex(NextParameter)           ' Frequency
      CheckLastParameter
      if Parameter[1]
        Parameter[1] := 5000 / Parameter[1]
        Led.AddLed(Parameter[0], Parameter[1], Parameter[1], 0)
      else
        Led.OffLed(Parameter[0]) [/COLOR]
    elseif strcomp(@InputBuffer, string("VERB"))        ' Command: Set verbose mode

You're right about the documentation using "BLINK" and not "BLNK".

In order to stop and LED from blinking, you'll need to assign it a frequency of zero.

This new code uses up another cog on the Propeller. I notice there are two FullDuplexSerial objects. If you run out of cogs you can use a serial object that allows multiple ports within one cog.

Edit: I changed "FlashLed.spin" to release the pin (make it an input). The original version I posted set the pin as an input from the wrong cog. This version will allow the pin to be used as an input if not being used as an LED.

Rick Brooks · 2012-01-18 18:33

Duane,

Thanks for posting the code. I'll have to try it this weekend. I was trying to avoid using an extra cog for the LED blinkers. I count 6 cogs being used by the firmware already and there are other things that I may want to do, like adding a kill switch.

Tonight I did notice another situation. Using the Wireless Xbox controller, the buttons control a few functions. One of them toggles the motor enable/disable function and another turns on the stop function. I was running Eddie and tried the motor disable. The only thing that the button did was to disable my control of the motors. It did not stop the motors! Fortunately, Eddie was in a tight spin at the time and I could enable the motors and stop them before a collision.

Rick

Duane Degn · 2012-01-19 08:01

Rick,

I changed the files in post #7. The new code releases the pins used to flash LEDs once the flashing ends so they can be used for other purposes. If you downloaded the code I posted yesterday, I'd suggest you use the new code instead of the old code.

Sorry about your problems with the controller. I have no idea what is going on. I don't know if I mentioned earlier or not, I don't have an Eddie robot myself.

Jessica Uelmen · 2012-01-20 16:15

Rick,

Thanks for your feedback on the Eddie platform, I'm excited to read about someone who is actively developing on it!

Your comments on the wireless control did perplex me, so I reached out to Microsoft for some guidance. The button controls should be as follows:

A - Toggles Enable/Disable Drive
B - Stop Motors
X - Re-Enable Motors After Stop

Was this the response you were seeing? Obviously we don't want any runaway Eddies!

Cheers,
Jessica

Rick Brooks · 2012-01-21 19:24

Jessica

Jessica Uelmen wrote: »

A - Toggles Enable/Disable Drive
B - Stop Motors
X - Re-Enable Motors After Stop

That is exactly how the system works. The problem is that neither "Stop", nor "Disable Drive" stops the motors if they are running.

This is what happens:

If the motors are running and "A" is pushed, the Disable Drive is activated in the control panel. The motors keep running until the joystick is moved. Then the motors stop.

If the motors are running and "B" is pushed, the Stop is activated in the control panel. The motors keep on running. The only way to stop Eddie in this situation (besides the power switch) is to push "X" to re-enable motors after stop and then move the joystick to send a new speed command. The motors will then resume joystick control.

Rick

TLC · 2012-02-07 09:09

I'm seeing the same things, both the R/L swap as well as the motor disable issue. I'm going to change the Eddie firmware to fix the Right/Left problem and am going to look at the service related to the motor disable.

Eddie and Xbox 360 wireless controller

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