Opening the Eddie program in VPL for editing.

jdolecki · 2012-10-11 12:02

I want to edit the Eddie program in VPL but i don't know how so I have a couple of questions.

Were do I find the Eddie program file in MSRS? Is there more than 1 file I have to edit?

Were do I have to place a new program written in VPL so I can load it at the dss prompt.

thanks

NWCCTV · 2012-10-11 15:59

Which version of MSRS are you using? I do not believe the older versions have eddie support. That said, if you Google eddie msrs you may find what you are looking for.

Edit: Did you add the Service? http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/prod/robo/eddie/28992-ParallaxServiceRDS4InstallGuide-v1.1.pdf

All eddie downloads here: http://www.parallax.com/eddie

Once you add the service I am pretty sure you will need to do a Build all again. Then it should come up in the VPL left column.

jdolecki · 2012-10-11 16:33

Thanks for the response I have all that already running on my bot. And i already can run the Eddie program with my usb controller.

I want to write/ edit the eddie service in VPL to learn then reload it and run it.

MY question is were do I find the Eddie File to open it?

NWCCTV · 2012-10-11 17:00

I just downloaded and unzipped the parallax files. Normally everything goes in your c:\username\msrs4\samples directory. You can search for eddie.manifest for a location of the manifest files. They should be in the c:\username\msrs4\samples\config directory. If you want the Visual Studio project file search for this:parallax2011referenceplatformIoController.csproj.

Edit: There is no space in the csproj. For some reason on my screen anyways it looks like there is a space between cs and proj.

Edit: The manifest directory is what you would want to use to run from a dss prompt. Change to the directory in the DSS command prompt and you should be able to run from there.

jdolecki · 2012-10-14 13:28

It tells me the project cant be loaded.

My Xbox controller buttons are backwards and I want to correct them.

NWCCTV · 2012-10-15 10:57

Does it say why it can not be loaded? Which version of Visual Studio are you using? You could try to open one of the .cs files but normally it will tell you they are linked to a project. I find it odd that it will not open.

Edit: Try the file directly below that one. Open with Visual C# 2010. It will then open all the files related to that project. THis seems a little strange in that normally the .csproj file is the one that needs to be opened.

TLC · 2012-10-15 14:37

Which "Eddie" program do you want to edit? Are you talking about starting a DSS command prompt and typing "eddie" at the prompt?

If so, you are running a batch file that starts a DSS listener and a manifest that starts and orchestrates several services including MARK service(I believe, not at my computer), the ParallaxIOcontroller service, Kinect service, and serial service -- possibly more. The bad news is that all are written in C#. The good news is that all source code is provided in the install and you can download C# Express for free from Microsoft.

Todd

TLC · 2012-10-15 14:45

Sorry, I read the thread a little more carefully. The actual service that communicates with the Eddie control board (known as the "Brick" service in RDS) is located in the RDS4 directory:
samples --> Platforms --> ReferencePlatform 2011 --> Parallax2011ReferencePlatformIOController Open the project and it will include all supporting files for generic services (Battery, drive, encoders etc.).

But as I mentioned, these are strictly C#. You can modify the ReferencePlatform application and when you re-compile it it will become available as a service in VPL. I'd change the name so you don't blow away the one that works

Todd

jdolecki · 2012-10-16 16:40

Thanks that opened, to bad i have no clue to what it means.

I will study it and try to make so sense of it.

Were do I find the parameter for the X-Box controller and the speeds for forward and backwards?

thanks

TLC · 2012-10-17 06:53

The XInputGamePad C# files are in the samples --> UX directory. As far as the parameters the manifest pairs the controller with the robot dashboard code that is in the ReferencePlatform2011 directory that contained the Eddie controller brick service. When you are trying to figure out what is going on with RDS C# code a good place to start is in the class that has "types" in the name. Looking in Solution Explorer for the dashboard project there is a file called RobotDashboardTypes.cs. This file describes the parameters used by the service, including its state, which are things that can be queried by other services. Scanning through the class you will find the DataMembers TranslateScaleFactor and RotateScaleFactor. You can then use VS to locate the references to these two and see how it works.

Todd

TLC · 2012-10-17 08:18

So I did a little exploring through the code. What you may be looking for is in RobotDashboard.cs. There is a constant called MotorPowerSaleFactor (and it IS mispelled Sale and not Scale) which has the description:

This scale factor is applied to power settings which must be in the
/// range -1 to +1. However, the game controller and trackball have a
/// range of -1000 to +1000.

You might try to change that and re-compile.

Todd

NWCCTV · 2012-10-17 20:01

I would highly advise saving a copy of the file in a seperate directory. I have messed around a bit with the dashboard code and ended up having to reinstall due to some minor mistakes I made in the code. Just in case!!!

TLC · 2012-10-18 12:36

Great advice. Just to be parinoid, I have a routine that backs my /samples folder to a off-site location.

Opening the Eddie program in VPL for editing.

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