For Propeller + Biloid interest group

[inaki]

I am going to publish my Propeller interface for Bioloid this week. I have been tempted to complete it with lots of goodies (high level stuff mostly) but eventually I have decided to publish in first place the low level routines so anyone interested in this platform can start to work asap.

I hope there are people out there willing to work on this amazing platform Propeller&Bioloid. Mostly because I can't do all the work myself!

I have left space for immediate improvement. I will be happy to share my thoughts with anyone interested.

While I was writing/testing the interface I figured out tons of things to do with this platform. But for now lets start with the basics.

Stay tuned.

[HarryBotter]

You're offering another tantalizing option on moving beyong the CM-5 constraints. If I'd had the time I would likely have jumped into one of the options being discussed on this forum already, I've just ordered a couple of books on Squeak to get a better understanding of Jon's PC GUI.

Have you worked out an actual board configuration with the Propeller yet or are you just working on communication with a breadboard or something similar?

Thanks, Harry

[inaki]

It seems you don't know much about Propeller, am I wrong ? Propeller offers a lot of features in the chip itself. You don't need any prototype board or such. You can achieve instant communications with Bioloid using just the Propeller naked chip, a 5Mhz XTAL, a power regulator and two resistors.

[JonHylands]

Harry's question is a fair one - are you saying you're soldering the data line from the bioloid bus to one of the I/O pins on the chip directly? And the crystal?

The propeller chip is a chip:

http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=P8X32A-D40

Are you using this chip in a solderless breadboard, or did you buy the proto board that Parallax sells, or did you make your own board?

- Jon

[HarryBotter]

I've read a bit about the Propeller and have considered it for another project but have never programmed in Spin. I was merely interested in how far you've gotten in physically adapting the chip to a Bioloid kit. I think Jon stated it better than I did.

I'll just wait until you've posted your progress, I'm sure all my questions will be answered.

Thanks, Harry

[pepperm]

I think this is very exciting and have been mulling the combination of Dynamixels and the propeller chip (I have a few of both) over for some time.

I can see that the propeller would be good at comms with the Dynamixels (a single cog could be devoted to just this function) but am not sure how it would cope with something like the storage of motions. The propeller doesn't have much memory, but that may not be a problem.

Anyway, have you got anything I can try on my propeller please?

Mark

[inaki]

HarryBotter, sorry, I misunderstood your point.

I have been working with a naked Propeller, with the necessary minimum parts, then with a Demo Board, to get the video, mouse and keyboard, mostly for debugging purposes.

I think making a Propeller board specific for controlling the Bioloid would be pretty easy to do, although there are many ways to do it. I am not at this stage now. BTW, what do you think would be a good configuration?.

Currently I am in the process of polishing the low level software. I realized that it would take more time than expected to achieve all my goals in this software so I decided to release what I have now. I have been encouraged to do so by a couple of guys from this forum.

Also I have been working on support for BCP and some stuff the CM5 has, like the battery charger for example. The ideal would be to support BCP programing and motions, however, with regards to BCP I wonder how many people intersted in Propeller would program still in BCP ? Don't know. Does it worth the trouble ? Motions should be supported but as pepperm says some storage space is necessary. Perhaps an SD card ?

Hardware configuration is secondary for me at this time although I will be happy to adopt the ideas you all may have.

For now, just some software and a basic hardware setup to start testing Propeller-Bioloid communications. It has been funny for me so I expect it will be for anyone interested in these two platforms.

Regards
Inaki.

[HarryBotter]

Hi inaki,

No apology necessary, sometimes its a struggle to understand what is meant in an email.

In terms of physical configuration it would be nice to have the board where the CM-5 sits, along with a LiPO battery to get the CG down a touch. On the board I's like to see some balancing hardware, either gyros, accelerometers or both . Also necessary is provision for some form of RF communication. Vision would also be nice so WiFi might be the way to go. If I had a board with all that on it it would keep me busy until I got interested in something else.

I'm wonder about wanting to support the BCP, that's actually one of the reasons I stopped playing around with the robot. Once you get into a longer program the whole thing becomes unmanageable. A text based language with print capabilities would be so much more useful for more experienced users. I imagine that the present BCP is great for beginners.

As I said in my previous email if I'd had the time I would have jumped into one of the projects going on already. There is some phenominal work going on here and I'm anxious to become part of it. The knowlege base of the forum is at a very high level and I'm sure progress will really take off soon.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you've done.

Cheers, Harry

[lnielsen]

Harry,

I should be receiving my 3 ProtoProp boards today http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=32212. One I am going to use to play with their HYDRA code (a 1980's video game system) and the other two will become Bioloid controllers. There is an add-on module due soon called the PropCam which will provide vision and I will be adding a Gyro of some type. No PC boards to make, only adding a few components and headers onto the prototyping board.

By the time I out grow the current Propeller, Parallax should have version 2 out which will be around 16x faster and have twice the I/O.

Yes, this is definitely the way to go to take this to the next level!

[HarryBotter]

Thanks, those sure weren't available last time I checked. Guess I should get on the Paralax site more often.

The whole thing just got more intriguing.

[inaki]

To my taste the proto boards are too large. I pefer the Propstick on my own board. It seems Propeller protoboards have been designed to replace BOE boards so they have some features that I don't need.

I was waiting too to see the Propcam module released but, according to latest news, it seems the project will be delayed for some time.

With regards to new Prop model, with more I/O lines, does Parallax have a release date ?

[lnielsen]

Here is the thread discussing the next version of the Propeller http://forums.parallax.com/forums/defau ... 5&m=156993 (warning it is VERY long). Currently they are planning this for next year but I don't know how solid that is. I figure I can keep busy with the current Propeller until then.

Yes, the PropStick is MUCH smaller and may be all you need if you are doing everything via the serial bus but the ProtoBoard is cheaper and you have VGA/Mouse/Keyboard for easy control or troubleshooting. I will be using the servo headers to connect to the AX-12 strings (wired together for a single bus). I also intend to add a wireless PlayStation2 controller as a remote along with a gyro chip.

My Bioloid kit is now on order and I am playing with the HYDRA stuff on the Propeller gaining experience there. I can't wait to get started!

Inaki took care of the basic communications, any suggestions on other Propeller objects wanted? Any thoughts on the best robotic API out there? I was thinking of writing one object that would calculate center of gravity based on the robot's geometry and the servo angle readings.

My first robot will be the robotic arm to experiment with.

[Zoid]

Whatever happened to this project? Did the thread get picked up elsewhere? I'm very interested in CM-5 replacements, and particularly the Propeller.

[lnielsen]

Inaki hasn't posted here since March or April and no one seem to know where he posted his code. I have a copy of his code that he sent me personally. I am rewriting it because he used the full duplex object as his base and the Bioloid doesn't need anything that complex. I am planning to interface this to the fpforth so I can use Forth for both scripting and interactive control. The Forth is working well but the author has not released details on how to call objects running on other COGs yet. I have some information on my project website.

Do you already have a Propeller board? I am using the Propeller Proto Board and I added two Molex connectors in the servo header area. The PropSTICK USB is a much smaller solution but you need to add +5V and the interfacing resistors on an additional board. Another cool solution is the new uOLED-96-PROP which provides a 1" OLED display. The four spare IO pins would be enough to add Bioloid communication, a wireless PS2 controller and possibly a 2-axis accelerometer.

[quickster47]

lnielsen,

I just received my initial Propeller order from Parallax. Spent about $400 on Prop stuff so I can get my feet good and wet. I had been looking at and reading about SPIN but think I might also check out the FORTH you mentioned and see how that fits.

I really like the idea of using the Propeller for controlling the Robotis Bioloid and hope this thread will stay alive with some good ideas and information.

I have also ordered the Bioloid vision module that hamid_m developed and has made available from RoboSavvy.

Carl