communications problems

[brindy]

Hi all,

This old chestnut again, I'm afraid. I am trying to download code to my RN-I. So far I have had to wait until I got a Serial-USB cable but now I have one, I'm not having much luck.

I can issue commands to my RN-I with the roboRemocon and I can play around with the servos using the real time control, and Controller Information reports back ok, and I can set zero points and all that, but just no luck downloading code.

I recharged by RN-I to make sure it wasn't low battery.

Sometimes I get error code -4, sometimes -5.

Could anyone tell me what the various port settings are supposed to be, please? I have been playing around trying to get them to work.

If anyone has any ideas why I can't download code, I would be greatful to hear them.

Thanks in advance.

[i-Bot]

The port setting should be set automatically by the Robobasic program. This opens the port at the right speed and settings for each transaction.

The only special feature of the download is that it kicks the serial speed up from 9600 to 115K. This is sometimes an issue for the port hardware and also sometimes shows up electrical problems, since the C3024 only uses TTL levels to drive the RS232.

[brindy]

i'll let you in to a little secret, i actually have 2 RN-Is (one of them was brand-new bought pre-built and the other was a kit build bought cheap off ebay with tilt sensor, gyos and head servo), it fails to download code to both of them.

i suspect it's the usb-serial cable i'm using, i'll try get a different one from maplins tomorrow.

thanks anyway

[hivemind]

I had the exact same issue when the serial port on the RN-1 was broken (the pins simply didnt fit properly) - sometimes I would get error code -4, and other time -5. Eventually I replaced the serial port and it worked fine again.

Hopefully you have a problem that is easier to fix though, as a broken port turned out to be a bit of a pain.

-Hive

[brindy]

Hopefully you have a problem that is easier to fix though, as a broken port turned out to be a bit of a pain.

hope so! it's funny i don't have a single PC with a serial port now!

they seem to be going the way of the floppy disk!

[brindy]

as suspected, it was the usb-serial cable. i got a cable from maplins and now i can download just fine

however, it cost £20 compared to the £5 one i got off ebay, ah well! you get what you pay for i suppose.

got a feeling i'll have a lot more questions before long!