Microsoft Robotic Studios and BOEBOT not working, need help, please

eccmaster

Hello

I am a teacher in a technical high school. My student bought the MRS BOEBOT Kit. We followed the instructions to the T ("BT Boebot Robot controlled by MRS" #28118?). We have not been abel to get it too work. We tried 3 different computers and 2 different BT adapters. At the dashboard part of the instruction all we get is the the wheels turning in opposite directions. Has anybody got this to work at all. We are able to connect to the EB500 because the LED is on but we are not able to control the wheels at all. Thanks in advance

Andy Lindsay (Parallax)

The LED should blink once (and the piezospeaker beeps once) when the Boe-Bot code starts. Then, when MSRS connects via Bluetooth, the LEDs should blink twice at the same time the piezospeaker beeps twice. Then, the servo motors should start, but the command they should be getting is "stay still", until you start controlling it with the dashboard.

Did you center both servos per the instructions in Robotics with the Boe-Bot v2.2, Chapter 2, Activity #4?

Are you using v1.4 of the instructions PDF?

Are you using Microsoft Robotics Studio (1.0)?

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Andy Lindsay

Education Department
Parallax, Inc.

Alfredo

Hi. I would like to follow up on this thread in regards to what Mr. eccmaster·says. I am a student at a High School in Mexico and bought the eb500 adapter to use MSRS on my Boe-Bot a few weeks ago. At that time I was using version 1.0 of MSRS and was able to run all the tutorials (including the·Boe-Bot remotecontrol - dashboard tutorial)·successfully up to a range of over 50ft using a Kensington Bluetooth EDR Dongle.

A few days ago however, I updated to version 1.5 CTP of MSRS. I have tried many times to get the first tutorial to work, but with no response. The Boe-Bot does indeed acknowledge a connection with the computer and I get the two beeps and the led on P15 along with the green led on the eb500 light up properly. The wheels on the robot begin to slighly vibrate indicating that they are receiving pulses from the Basic Stamp. The problem arises when I try to use the Simple Dashboard service to move the Boe-Bot. After entering the parameters 'localhost' & '50001', connecting and double clicking the /drivedifferentialtwowheel service I press drive and try to control the Boe-Bot with the cursor and nothing happens. It appears as if the service does not link up properly. I have double checked the ports and the _autonmode settings to be right. I would like to add that the second tutorial, the one in which the Boe-Bot roams semiautonomously does work completely well and does a fantastic job at it too. I have done my best to try to rule out any possible mistakes that I could have commited and think that there might be a problem with version 1.5 of MSRS.

I strongly recommend Mr. eccmaster to try the Semiautonomous Navigation Test even if the remote control Boe-Bot does not work to see if the Boe-Bot is responding and completing message cicles with the computer. Also,··it never hurts to have fresh alcaline batteries·because apparently some messages are garbled if the eb500 module doesn´t have a good power source. I´ll finish saying that this kit in conjunction with MSRS is an excellent platform and that it´s really great that Parallax made this agreement with Microsoft. Hopefully these problems are some things that we are missing and will soon be fixed.

eccmaster

I am running MSRS 1.5 .The servos where centered and the PDF file is version 1.4

Paul Baker

Andy spoke of there being an issue with 1.5, revert back to using 1.0 until the issue is tracked down and fixed.

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Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer

Parallax, Inc.

Post Edited (Paul Baker (Parallax)) : 5/17/2007 1:38:16 AM GMT

Alfredo

Thank you for the quick reply. The information is appreciated.