Eddie Control Board USB 3.0 Issues?

TLC

So I upgraded my laptop to an HP Pavilion I7 that has both USB 2.0 and 3.0 controllers. The 2.0 seems to work OK, but with RDS4 I pretty much need to devote that to the Kinect (because, as a data point it doesn't like my 3.0 ports. Possibly forensic evidence, the drivers load but the video and depth streams are corrupted). When I plug Eddie into the 3.0 port all sorts of BAD things happen.

1. A horrible 60 Hz square wave type of sound comes out of the speakers.
2. The laptop bluescreens.
3. On reboot I get one of two scenarios:
A. I get a Windows restore screen and things are pretty much OK
B. The machine won't even boot and I have to recover to a restore point.

I loaded the FTDI drivers.
I checked the drivers on the USB controller and they are (apparently) working and up to date.

Anyone seen issues with USB 3.0?

Todd C.

artwait

Hey Todd,

I've been running Eddie on a USB 3.0 port without problems. I've also run the Kinect on USB 3, and haven't had issues (at least, not that I've noticed)....

Art

RobotWorkshop

You may want to try using a USB 2.0 HUB. You can either use that on the USB 2.0 port to get a couple extra ports or place it on the USB 3.0 port and then plug the EDDIE board into the HUB. As long are you're not using the USB to power your device you can use a non-powered passive hub. I usually add a hub on my robots since I have multiple Propeller boards and then only need a single USB cable to connect them to the PC.

You can also use a powered HUB but most of those are meant to run from a 5V supply. Either get one meant for automotive use with a 12V adapter or get a DC/DC 12V to 5V converter with enough capacity to power the HUB and then power it from the batteries on the robot.

Robert

TLC

Art,
Thanks for confirming that 3.0 isn't the problem. The flaky way the Kinect was working was leading me to the problem being the laptop USB controller, although on the other hand it wasn't the answer I was looking for, if you know what I mean.

Robert,
I may try and isolate the problem with your hub idea. The one that I have is powered, but since Eddie has a 5 volt supply I can make a cable to power it. I will probably check current flows between the neg to make sure there aren't any problems with potential differences.

Todd

Mike4421

@ TLC...... my guess is to try to rebuild the services with ALL your gear connected to the USB 3.0 connection...... USB 3.0 has HOST to HOST capabilities and speed like IEEE 1394 firewire, this also means the new USB 3.0 cable and if your using old hardware that doesn't support it it might give you problems.

TLC

After checking cables (I did have one flaky one, confusing the troubleshooting, thanks Mike), USB drivers (all current and working properly) and compatibility with other laptops with USB 3.0 ports I came to the conclusion that it was a hardware problem. I created a system image of the machine (already had simple backups of all important files) I then went to the control panel to uninstall some key software. As I was scanning the installed software I noticed “Fresco Logic xHCI(USB3) Controller FL1009″ and “Fresco Logic xHCI(USB3) Host Controller” apps. I am still learning about the nuances of USB 3.0 and it never occurred to me that there might be software operating between the drivers and my apps. So I blew away the two apps and downloaded and installed the latest from Fresco Logic. After the install the program changed to “Fresco Logic USB3.0 Host Controller” only. I rebooted for luck and my problem was (almost) solved. I say almost because the Kinect will still not operate correctly on that port, but it works fine in the 2.0 port and now I can use the 3.0 for the Eddie control board and the XBox wireless controller.

smithdavidp

Thank you for posting this. My Eddie is in route and my HP won't be shipped until 15 May. I was curious as to how I was going to use that USB 3. I have already figured out that one of the USB 2 ports will have to live with a USB router installed in it. Can you give me any insight as to how the PC communicates with the Prop. Does the Microsoft ware look for and identify the Micro Controller or do you have to give the PC instructions to connect to the Prop. Can more than 1 Prop be connected at a time? I just thought I would ask someone that is running the same (or close to it) hardware as I will be running.

TLC

Greetings,

Probably the wrong way to start things out, but as I mentioned in the post above, I had a lot of problems with my HP and the drivers for the USB 3.0 port. I thought the update of the driver control software fixed it but it started blue-screening again. I finally took it back and purchased a Samsung Chronos 7, which I am very happy with and have had no problems.

That being said, the way I have my Eddie configured is the Kinect is connected to one of the two USB 3.0 ports. Since the Kinect doesn't like to share USB controllers I have everything else connected to the USB 2.0 controller. My laptop only has two USB 2.0 ports so I put a 12 volt powered hub on one of these. This worked out well since Eddie has 12 volts available, I simply made a cable to power the hub from the control board. I have the control board, powered USB speakers, webcam and wireless Xbox controller all connected to the hub with no issues. I even have the camera configured for HD and haven't seen a problem.

Microsoft RDS does look for the comm port associated with the control board, but not exactly sure what the protocol is. I would really like to get some USB sniffer software to watch the commands as they are exchanged, it would be valuable info. So, based on that, you could probably connect another Prop board from the USB but I'm not exactly sure how you would configure their USB/serial driver to use two comm ports. Probably a better solution would be to feed the second Prop board from the Eddie controller board using one of the high speed interfaces in the OBEX. I think Beau has one there. Do you need another Prop for the additional I/O pine?

Todd

smithdavidp

Finished putting my Eddie Platform together today. I am seeing some free (open) I/O pins so the second Prop may not be needed. The Kinect has an acellerameter built in so all I have to do is install the compass to one of the free pins. I was very suprised to find that there are quite a few A/D ports still open so I am thinking I will purchase one of the new Ping / IR holders and install it in the rear. PC is still at HP but in all fairness to them I did spec it out for my needs. The biggest problem with HP is all of the extra software they install before they send it to you. I specifically asked them for only the Win 7, the Windows Home and school Office version, and the WinZip 15 software to be installed and nothing more. Of course they explaned that it couldn't be done. When I get the machine I will wipe it clean and start from a clean slate. Then I'll install the necessities and then start learning from there. I have purchased 2 other PC's (Desktop) and they had so much trash installed that I spent a week, on each machine, clearing out the memory hogs. Back to the second prop though.......I just wanted the Prop BOE so I had access to the bread board to experiment. But I believe I can run any extras on my Prop Boe - Bot and then build the circuit on the eddie with project boards. The notebook has a mic, in addition to the Kinect mics, and a camera.. I am still thinking about attaching one extra camera. Thanks for replying I appericiate it.

TLC

Haven't looked at the 1.0 version of the Kinect SDK, but in the Beta version I don't think you have access to the accelerometer. You might want to check that out.

Todd

smithdavidp

You may be correct. I do believe that, in the beginners section of the manual, it says you can install a Compas, and GPS, and have the Robot know its exact position at all times. As far as the HP USB ports go it looks like they are having USB problems with all of their "of the shelf" notebooks and any outside USB devices. My guess is that HP has their own, modified, drivers installed. People are complaining about Blue Screen problems and having to unplug USB hubs before they can turn their machines off, or on. And the USB devices were purchased through HP. When, and if, I get my notebook I will be installing everything from scratch which includes the drivers. Microsoft Generics will work just fine I hope.