Need help with ActivityBot

jake4832 · 2014-12-21 16:26

I recently purchased the ActivityBot. I installed the USBdrivers, Learn folder, and SimpleIDE software. I then built and plugged in my robot. I tried to do the first "Hello Message" activity, but when I did "Run with Terminal", the terminal displayed nothing. I made sure the robot was turned on, the batteries worked, and the software was all installed, Still nothing. Another thing is the p26 and p27 LED lights are flashing on and off one at a time and won't stop. Please help me.

Matt Gilliland · 2014-12-22 11:30

Hi Jake4832 - Welcome to the Forums!

Give Chris Savage (in our Tech Support Department) a call...he's really sharp and will help you get your AB up and going in no-time.

Our Tech Support number is: 888-997-8267.

-MattG

Chris Savage · 2014-12-22 12:03

Did you get a build error (in the status window at the bottom of the screen)? If so please post the messages as it will indicate if the program failed to compile or download and why.

Andy Lindsay (Parallax) · 2014-12-23 06:49

Even if you don't get a build error after you Run with Terminal, send the build status. Click Help - Build Error Rescue, and click the copy button. Then paste into an email. It's a good idea to also paste in your code.

Chris Savage · 2014-12-23 07:57

nationalsecurityguard wrote: »

You should content at support and inform them your issue.

This forum is for support.

Members are welcome to post issues here and we can assist them here. Others may benefit from the dialogue.

Tmoney · 2014-12-26 14:07

jake4832 wrote: »

I recently purchased the ActivityBot. I installed the USBdrivers, Learn folder, and SimpleIDE software. I then built and plugged in my robot. I tried to do the first "Hello Message" activity, but when I did "Run with Terminal", the terminal displayed nothing. I made sure the robot was turned on, the batteries worked, and the software was all installed, Still nothing. Another thing is the p26 and p27 LED lights are flashing on and off one at a time and won't stop. Please help me.

Same exact problem here as well.I 'm in the UK and will call the states tomorrow (27th) but I was curious if there is an equivalent support contact in the UK. I'm running Mac 10.6.8.

Publison · 2014-12-26 14:11

Tmoney wrote: »

Same exact problem here as well.I 'm in the UK and will call the states tomorrow (27th) but I was curious if there is an equivalent support contact in the UK. I'm running Mac 10.6.8.

Tech support will not be open until Dec.29th due to the holidays.

jazzed · 2014-12-26 14:24

Andy Lindsay (Parallax) wrote: »

Even if you don't get a build error after you Run with Terminal, send the build status. Click Help - Build Error Rescue, and click the copy button. Then paste into an email. It's a good idea to also paste in your code.

Please copy/paste "Build Error Rescue" output here on the forum after clicking "Run with Terminal."

That is your best chance of getting help at the moment.

--Steve

Tmoney · 2014-12-27 01:38

Project Directory: /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/My Projects/

SimpleIDE Version 0.9.66
/Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/
/Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/ Updated on: 2014-12-19

propeller-elf-gcc -v
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc error ... (1)

propeller-elf-gcc -I . -L . -I /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools -L /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools/cmm/ -I /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/TextDevices/libsimpletext -L /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/TextDevices/libsimpletext/cmm/ -I /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c -L /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c/cmm/ -o cmm/Welcome.elf -Os -mcmm -m32bit-doubles -fno-exceptions -std=c99 Welcome.c -lm -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lsimplei2c -lm -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lm -lsimpletools -lm
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc error ... (1)

propeller-load -s cmm/Welcome.elf
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-load error ... (1)

propeller-elf-objdump -h cmm/Welcome.elf
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-objdump error ... (1)

Done. Build Succeeded!

propeller-load -Dreset=dtr -I /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/propeller-load/ -b ACTIVITYBOARD cmm/Welcome.elf -r -p /dev/cu.usbserial-DAXJKF35
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-load error ... (1)

jazzed · 2014-12-27 01:52

Ok.

Well, that installation appears to be broken.

Do you have a /Applications/SimpleIDE.app ?
If so, does this file exist? /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc
You may need to "Show Contents" on the folder.

You have OS version 10.6.8? We test with 10.7 Lion and higher. It is unclear to me if 10.6.x will work or not.

--Steve

Tmoney wrote: »

Project Directory: /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/My Projects/

SimpleIDE Version 0.9.66
/Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/
/Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/ Updated on: 2014-12-19

propeller-elf-gcc -v
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc error ... (1)

propeller-elf-gcc -I . -L . -I /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools -L /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools/cmm/ -I /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/TextDevices/libsimpletext -L /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/TextDevices/libsimpletext/cmm/ -I /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c -L /Users/admin/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c/cmm/ -o cmm/Welcome.elf -Os -mcmm -m32bit-doubles -fno-exceptions -std=c99 Welcome.c -lm -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lsimplei2c -lm -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lm -lsimpletools -lm
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc error ... (1)

propeller-load -s cmm/Welcome.elf
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-load error ... (1)

propeller-elf-objdump -h cmm/Welcome.elf
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-objdump error ... (1)

Done. Build Succeeded!

propeller-load -Dreset=dtr -I /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/propeller-load/ -b ACTIVITYBOARD cmm/Welcome.elf -r -p /dev/cu.usbserial-DAXJKF35
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-load error ... (1)

Tmoney · 2014-12-27 03:15

here is what i found . A terminal file in propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc

Last login: Fri Dec 26 21:27:50 on console
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc ; exit;
admins-macbook:~ admin$ /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc ; exit;
Illegal instruction
logout

[Process completed]

jazzed · 2014-12-27 08:57

Is your Mac an x86 64 bit computer? That's the only processor we support.

Tmoney wrote: »

here is what i found . A terminal file in propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc

Last login: Fri Dec 26 21:27:50 on console
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc ; exit;
admins-macbook:~ admin$ /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/propeller-elf-gcc ; exit;
Illegal instruction
logout

[Process completed]

Tmoney · 2014-12-27 10:30

my processor is an INtel Core 2 Duo which I believe is 64 bit. I went ahead and bought an OS upgrade to 10.8, but it's not available for download yet.

Tony 4d · 2014-12-28 22:32

Have you upgraded your OS yet? Does this help....

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/158543-SIDE-Mac-new-install-Prop-not-found-on-com?highlight=Activity+bot

Tmoney · 2014-12-31 13:03

No Luck! I tried to upgrade to 10.8 but apparently my mac is to old so I could only upgrade to 10.7. UNfortunately same error. The device port window does innate a new port when the activity bot is plugged in and turned on. u it is not a "Comm" port it is "/dev/cu.usbserial-DAXJKF35"

Tmoney · 2014-12-31 13:23

My computer does recognise the USB port as activity board : here are the details

Propeller Activity Brd:

Product ID: 0x6015
Vendor ID: 0x0403 (Future Technology Devices International Limited)
Version: 10.00
Serial Number: DAXJKF35
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Parallax Inc
Location ID: 0x1d100000 / 2
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 500

Still get error message (in previous message) when trying to run terminal

Andy Lindsay (Parallax) · 2014-12-31 16:37

Tmoney wrote: »

... it is not a "Comm" port it is "/dev/cu.usbserial-DAXJKF35"

That is what COM ports look like in the Mac version of SimpleIDE. As long as you installed the FTDI driver, that part appears to be working.

Are you saying that you still see the same error from post #10, or is it different now. If it's the same, reinstalling the software might be worth a try if you have not already done so after the upgrade.

You might also check whether you have a Core Duo or a Core 2 Duo. I'm seeing in various discussions that the Core Duo is 32 bit, while the Core 2 Duo was the first 64 bit.

Tmoney · 2015-01-01 01:22

Andy Lindsay (Parallax) wrote: »

That is what COM ports look like in the Mac version of SimpleIDE. As long as you installed the FTDI driver, that part appears to be working.

Are you saying that you still see the same error from post #10, or is it different now. If it's the same, reinstalling the software might be worth a try if you have not already done so after the upgrade.

You might also check whether you have a Core Duo or a Core 2 Duo. I'm seeing in various discussions that the Core Duo is 32 bit, while the Core 2 Duo was the first 64 bit.

Thats good news about the Com port. I have reinstalled the software several times and my processor is definitely a core 2 duo. Fortunately I know it is nothing to do with the BOT because it works fine on my wife's Windows 8 computer. Running out of options and getting very frustrated. Im going to give tech support a call when they are open next and see if they can help. Otherwise it looks like I'll be using my wife's computer when it's available.

Tony 4d · 2015-01-02 07:01

Tmoney wrote: »

Thats good news about the Com port. I have reinstalled the software several times and my processor is definitely a core 2 duo. Fortunately I know it is nothing to do with the BOT because it works fine on my wife's
Windows 8 computer. Running out of options and getting very frustrated. Im going to give tech support a call when they are open next and see if they can help. Otherwise it looks like I'll be using my wife's computer when it's available.

Please let us know how you make out? I'm very interested in this.

jazzed · 2015-01-02 10:04

Hi

I was curious to see if V1.0.1 RC1 worked on my Mac.

I don't build Mac distributions anymore. Dennis and Jeff do that now. Jeff signs the packages for Parallax.

There was no problem with the RC1 distribution. Here is my Welcome.c Build Error Rescue for reference.

Project Directory: /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/My Projects/


SimpleIDE Version 1.0.1
/Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/
/Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/ Updated on: 2015-01-02


propeller-elf-gcc -v GCC 4.6.1 (propellergcc_v1_0_0_2423)
propeller-elf-gcc -I . -L . -I /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools -L /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools/cmm/ -I /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/TextDevices/libsimpletext -L /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/TextDevices/libsimpletext/cmm/ -I /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c -L /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c/cmm/ -o cmm/Welcome.elf -Os -mcmm -m32bit-doubles -fno-exceptions -std=c99 Welcome.c -lm -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lsimplei2c -lm -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lm -lsimpletools -lm
propeller-load -s cmm/Welcome.elf
propeller-elf-objdump -h cmm/Welcome.elf
Done. Build Succeeded!


propeller-load -Dreset=dtr -I /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/propeller-load/ -b ACTIVITYBOARD cmm/Welcome.elf -r -p /dev/cu.usbserial-DAX1M24MPropeller Version 1 on /dev/cu.usbserial-DAX1M24M
Loading cmm/Welcome.elf to hub memory
8140 bytes sent


Verifying RAM ... 
OK

Tony 4d · 2015-01-02 11:32

jazzed wrote: »

Hi

I was curious to see if V1.0.1 RC1 worked on my Mac.

I don't build Mac distributions anymore. Dennis and Jeff do that now. Jeff signs the packages for Parallax.

There was no problem with the RC1 distribution. Here is my Welcome.c Build Error Rescue for reference.

Project Directory: /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/My Projects/


SimpleIDE Version 1.0.1
/Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/
/Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/ Updated on: 2015-01-02


propeller-elf-gcc -v GCC 4.6.1 (propellergcc_v1_0_0_2423)
propeller-elf-gcc -I . -L . -I /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools -L /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Utility/libsimpletools/cmm/ -I /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/TextDevices/libsimpletext -L /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/TextDevices/libsimpletext/cmm/ -I /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c -L /Users/steve/Documents/SimpleIDE/Learn/Simple Libraries/Protocol/libsimplei2c/cmm/ -o cmm/Welcome.elf -Os -mcmm -m32bit-doubles -fno-exceptions -std=c99 Welcome.c -lm -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lsimplei2c -lm -lsimpletools -lsimpletext -lm -lsimpletools -lm
propeller-load -s cmm/Welcome.elf
propeller-elf-objdump -h cmm/Welcome.elf
Done. Build Succeeded!


propeller-load -Dreset=dtr -I /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/propeller-load/ -b ACTIVITYBOARD cmm/Welcome.elf -r -p /dev/cu.usbserial-DAX1M24MPropeller Version 1 on /dev/cu.usbserial-DAX1M24M
Loading cmm/Welcome.elf to hub memory
8140 bytes sent


Verifying RAM ... 
OK

Was this ran in 10.6.8?

Tony 4d · 2015-01-04 09:22

Tony 4d wrote: »

Was this ran in 10.6.8?

Ok, I seem to be having the exact same issue! Need answers please.

Jeff Martin · 2015-01-05 13:14

Tony 4d wrote: »

Ok, I seem to be having the exact same issue! Need answers please.

I don't think we ever intended to support 10.6.8; the oldest version we supported is 10.7.

I've been doing some testing on 10.7 and have now experienced the same problem reported here. It appears that something is wrong in the GCC compiler utilities of this build, but I'm not sure what yet. I think all this works in 10.8, but I haven't verified this yet today.

UPDATE: Our Learn site indicates 10.8 is the oldest version supported. (see below) I didn't remember this point myself, or I'd have pointed it out earlier.

"Verify that your Mac is running OSX 10.8 or newer."

dgately · 2015-01-06 00:59

Tony 4d & TMoney,

Can you execute the following commands in the Terminal app and report the results, please?

  $ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi

  $ uname -a

These will show if the kernel and EFI are running as 32 or 64 bit.

dgately

Tony 4d · 2015-01-06 06:42

dgately wrote: »
Tony 4d & TMoney,

Can you execute the following commands in the Terminal app and report the results, please?
  $ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi

  $ uname -a
These will show if the kernel and EFI are running as 32 or 64 bit.

dgately

This is the message I got when I copy and pasted your code into the terminl.

Screen shot 2015-01-06 at 9.34.41 AM.png

This says it's running in 64 bit.

dgately · 2015-01-06 07:10

:-)

Don't type in the "$" (that's just the command-line prompt)... Sorry!

dgately

Tony 4d · 2015-01-06 09:38

dgately wrote: »

:-)

Don't type in the "$" (that's just the command-line prompt)... Sorry!

dgately

Yes, it seems to be 64 bit.

dgately · 2015-01-06 10:37

'uname -a' will tell you if the kernel is actually running in 32 or 64 bit mode. 10.6.8 defaulted to 32 bit on boot-up, except for the very latest CPUs at the time 10.6.8 was released. On 10.6.8, you can actually boot into 64 or 32 bit kernel modes by holding down either the 3 & 2 keys (for 32 bit) or the 6 & 4 keys (for 64 bit) during boot-up, as far as I remember. Please check that the kernel is also in 64 bit mode and re-try if it was not.

Should look something like this for a 64 bit kernel (from my 10.10.2 system)...

$ uname -a
Darwin myCPU.local 14.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 14.0.0: Fri Sep 19 00:26:44 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2782.1.97~2/RELEASE_[B]X86_64 x86_64[/B]

I don't have any Macs that can run less than 10.8.n at this time, else I would run the test as well. If you are not able to update your CPU to 10.8, maybe you could use an older development version of SimpleIDE (09.45 comes to mind) which did run on earlier Mac OS X versions... Not sure where one can obtain the older development versions, though :-|

dgately

Tony 4d · 2015-01-06 11:23

dgately wrote: »
'uname -a' will tell you if the kernel is actually running in 32 or 64 bit mode. 10.6.8 defaulted to 32 bit on boot-up, except for the very latest CPUs at the time 10.6.8 was released. On 10.6.8, you can actually boot into 64 or 32 bit kernel modes by holding down either the 3 & 2 keys (for 32 bit) or the 6 & 4 keys (for 64 bit) during boot-up, as far as I remember. Please check that the kernel is also in 64 bit mode and re-try if it was not.
Should look something like this for a 64 bit kernel (from my 10.10.2 system)...

$ uname -a
Darwin myCPU.local 14.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 14.0.0: Fri Sep 19 00:26:44 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2782.1.97~2/RELEASE_[B]X86_64 x86_64[/B]
I don't have any Macs that can run less than 10.8.n at this time, else I would run the test as well. If you are not able to update your CPU to 10.8, maybe you could use an older development version of SimpleIDE (09.45 comes to mind) which did run on earlier Mac OS X versions... Not sure where one can obtain the older development versions, though :-|

dgately

Comes up not actually saying 64, or 32, but the about extensions sure shows it being 64.

dgately · 2015-01-06 11:30

Tony 4d wrote: »

Comes up not actually saying 64, or 32, but the about extensions sure shows it being 64.

This shows that your kernel is running in 32 bit mode (i.e. "i386" and NOT "_X86_64 x86_64" as in my example above.)... So, try to restart holding down the 6 & 4 keys to see if that changes the result of "name -a".

If it then reports "_X86_64 x86_64", try to run SimpleIDE again in that mode.

dgately

Tony 4d · 2015-01-06 12:10

dgately wrote: »

Tony 4d wrote: »

Comes up not actually saying 64, or 32, but the about extensions sure shows it being 64.

This shows that your kernel is running in 32 bit mode (i.e. "i386" and NOT "_X86_64 x86_64" as in my example above.)... So, try to restart holding down the 6 & 4 keys to see if that changes the result of "name -a".

If it then reports "_X86_64 x86_64", try to run SimpleIDE again in that mode.

dgately

Same thing. Did you see the next image from the about this system. it shows a 64 bit.

Need help with ActivityBot

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