Regarding Serial Port for roboBASIC software

[cbhanukiran]

Hi everyone .... I am doing my Masters in Computers...and I am new to the Robotics. I have decided to do my project in this exiting area. So I just bought ROBONOVA-I robot and started fiddling with it. Here I have some questions regarding it. I would be deeply grateful if any body could help me out here. Thanks in advance.

1. My laptop with Serial Port is quite old. Is there any way in which I can control ROBONOVA using USB port on a laptop (which does not have a serial port) ?

2. Can I use a Java / C++ program with Serial Port libraries and communicate with ROBONOVA- I (bypassing roboBASIC software) ?

3. What is the difference between executing a roboBASIC program (.bas file) and a roboSCRIPT file (.rst file) on the roboBASIC software ?

Thank you once again for your valuable time.

[i-Bot]

1. It is most common to use a USB to serial converter from laptop, since most do not have serial ports. USB to serial looks just like com port to software. A few converters have been found not to work, but I never had a problem( I always use really cheap ones !)
2. Yes, you can bypass the Robobasic software, but you will need to implement the protocol used by the Robonova. There are posts here describing this.
3. In terms of execution there is no difference, they are both converted to the same byte code format and interpreted by the firmware in the RoboNova after download.

[cbhanukiran]

Thanks a lot. I bought a usb-serial converter of BAFO made. It seems to working pretty well.