RoboSavvy Forum

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-28T21:34:07+01:00

So for a ping we are limited to 250ms which sort of kills any realtime control. For the ability to program and do normal catch and play stuff that should be ok at least we can be wireless.

Statistics: Posted by Bullit — Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:34 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-28T17:58:09+01:00

yes, I invert the serial cable ports and put them into a bluetooth radio (sparkfun bluesmirf)

Watch progress in serial port monitor. slow slow....slow.. zzzzz.

I have another Olimex board + 24c512 EEProm. which thinks it is a Robonova! direct connect to Bluesmirf,. Same problem on response time.

Statistics: Posted by i-Bot — Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:58 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-28T17:25:45+01:00

So if you connect tx and rx of the sparkfun and time single characters from and to the pc you get 250ms? I'll have to try that myself. It seems extremely long. I have some promi rs232 modules I can try it on also. That will remove the USB component. Were going to need much better response time then that to make this useful.

Statistics: Posted by Bullit — Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:25 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-28T15:49:17+01:00

I have been looking more at my slow bluetooth.

There is a significant delay on every byte sent and echoed of around 250mSec.

This happens on two different Bluetooth USB connecting to a Sparkfun Blueradio. The radio is on the PC port, not on ERX/ETX

Does anyone know of a config. to speed this up ?

Statistics: Posted by i-Bot — Mon Aug 28, 2006 3:49 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-28T13:33:24+01:00

RoboBasic?

who needs it!

I've been an embedded programmer for 30 years.
This board is not that tough.
I've been reading up on the atmeag128. Cool chip. Fast instruction pipe,
lots of accumulators. Great indirect addressing. Plenty RAM and Flash.
What more could anyone want? As a PIC and 8051 programmer, this chip is a big step up.

So a few questions:
Should I use the GCC compiler?
Which I/O is most important to get working first?
Communications(Serial, I2C SPI).
Servo communication.
A/D conversion?
Boot loader.

None of these should be that difficult.

Dan

Statistics: Posted by DanAlbert — Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:33 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-28T09:23:41+01:00

The reset pin is on the pad "RST" adjacent to pin 31 of the ATMega128 and next to C2. I sucked out the solder and added a single pin header.

The other JTAG pins are available on the AD4 AD5 AD6 AD7 header.

THIS ERASE PROCESS WILL PREVENT THE C-3024 FROM WORKING COMPLETELY WITH ROBOBASIC IN FUTURE !

If Hitec gave us the serial bootloader information, this would not be true.

Maybe you can avoid erasing the boot block 0xf000 to 0xffff

I bought a spare C-3024 to experiment with and actually replaced CPU. I now have a JTAG cable, instead of SPI, so will try that too.

Statistics: Posted by i-Bot — Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:23 am

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-28T01:33:48+01:00

Robobasic.com has dead links. (Let's bury it)

I'm thinking maybe to just start rewriting something in C.
If we make it an "open" project we can enlist the help of others.

I've done a lot of PIC, ARM and 8051 programming.
This is the first AVR.

I assume I must first erase the chip to clear the fuses, right?
I also need to connect my JTAG to the reset line. Don't tell me the morons at
Hitec tried to protect us by not bringing out the reset pin?

Dan

Statistics: Posted by DanAlbert — Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:33 am

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-27T23:42:59+01:00

That works for me.
DanAlbert, make sure you have robobasic 2.5e
Now if I only understood it all. Its tough weeding through disassembled code.
Thanks I-Bot.

Statistics: Posted by Bullit — Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:42 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-27T21:29:55+01:00

Hmm,
OK I opened up rbv2.exe (i guess that's what you meant?).
Indeed at 0024290c was the beginning of some code. (or something)
However it ends at 24b10f.

I've put data that was there into a separate file.

A few questions.
Do I have the right file?
Is there a good disassembler to use on this kind of file?
(Some that I saw want a intel Hex style.)

Could you forward me what you have so far? dan@sjrobotics.org

Thanks

Statistics: Posted by DanAlbert — Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:29 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-27T20:23:21+01:00

1)To extract the existing code is fairly easy.

Use hexedit to display the Robobasic .exe

select the C3024 code ( 0024290c to 0024ED1B) to a file and run Bin2hex to make a hex file.

This can be loaded to AVR studio to down loan to a virgin ATMega, also to view the dissassembled code.

I used disavr2 to disassemble too, but this does seem to wrap addresses. However it is better since addresses are not relative.

I have commented the initalisation, serial command decode, and the Intermediate code interpretter, though not fixed all the addresses.

I still have problems with the serial interface over bluetooth, even at constant 115K. It is slow. I need to figure this out.

2) The existing code is pretty clever in the servo and timer level. the group moves, gyro support etc is accessible through data memory, as well as the serial commands. Hence why we want to reuse it through serial control.
If you can offer a replacement this is good, but do not underestimate the current capability (group moves, gyro support)

3) The weakness of the current protocol is that it is byte by byte ping pong. not very efficient over wireless ! Also the C3024 spend a lot of time waiting on serial replies.

Statistics: Posted by i-Bot — Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:23 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-27T18:18:43+01:00

Hi guys,

I wanna play too.

I hate RoboBasic witha passion.

I have an AVR JTAG ICE and am pretty good with assembly code.

Lets start cracking.

Please post any info so we don't overlap our efforts.

I plan to try the following:
1. extract the existing code. (just in case I want to reload it)
2. write a general C program to set up the hardware as it is currently wired.
3. write a serial communications protocol to talk to the board.

I'll start posting my results as soon as I get them.

Dan

Statistics: Posted by DanAlbert — Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:18 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-20T13:37:20+01:00

If you do remove the existing firmware, you can also replace it in the future, since the image is contained in the Robobasic executable. The thing you loose is the bootloader, and maybe the chance to get firmware updates in future .

If you extract the Atmega code from the executable, bin2hex it, then you can view it and download it from AVR studio.

I have been unable to get access to the existing boot loader on the C3024 which sits at location 0xF000

Statistics: Posted by i-Bot — Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:37 pm

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-19T10:50:02+01:00

fleek wrote:
.

I have had some successful results moving one group of servos and timing it such that the end points end at almost the same time. I have also measured the timing difference between the stock board movements vs my own firmware, I can see an speed increase of 1 - 1.5 times.

I dont know if I'm way off, of what you are seeking, but if you look at the SSC-32 servo controller from lynxmotion.com it will time all 32 servoes to end at the exact time! It has many features and you can connect different micro controllers to it etc.

Some time ago I bought a SD21 controller (http://www.robot-electronics.co.uk/) and the wireless I2C connection so I can run the program directly from my laptop controlling all 21 servoes simultainusly - the timing I have to calculate my self but is straight forward.
The good thing about the SD21 is that you can attach a BasicX or Basic stamp processor directly on top of it!

Well maybe this is not what your project is about but I have in mind to rebuilt the RN - especially the legs where I want the knee part to be with 2 servoes similar to the Robo One - this will speed up the movement of the leg to double speed.
Also I would love to make RN stand up by putting his feet under his body first and then stem up like a normal person - the way he gets up now looks silly and could damage the servoes.

anyway keep up your good work - eager to see your controller board

Statistics: Posted by Viking — Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:50 am

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-19T03:49:16+01:00

See what just arrived at the mailbox - 5 x 2-axis tilt sensors.

Will be incorporating in my new firmware.

Statistics: Posted by fleek — Sat Aug 19, 2006 3:49 am

Development of new controller board for Robonova

2006-08-19T03:38:17+01:00

On another note, we may be able to hack the current MR3024 controller board to load a different firmware. By forcing a erase of all the firmware code on the board and setting the correct fuses for JTAG or ISP, we can load our own homebrewed firmware. Thus we may not need a new board after all.

Statistics: Posted by fleek — Sat Aug 19, 2006 3:38 am