Help needed - Bioloid and Bluesmirf send weird characters.

[BillB]

Hi,

I have recently bought 2 bluesmirf modules and installed one on a Robonova and another on a Bioloid. In both cases I followed PEV's excellent hack instructions. The Robonova install went great and works wonderfully well.

However the Bioloid install is another story. I can connect to the Bluesmirf using the Hyperterminal and send AT commands to the Bluesmif to configure the Baudrate, and that means that I can connect to the Buesmirf at least. However strange things happen when I try to send data to the CM5 or recive data.

When I send any data from the CM5 to via the Bluesmirf (by putting the CM5 in manage/play mode). I receive absolute garbage. See screenshot below:



I was expecting something along the lines of:
[CM-5 Version 1.14]
<->PC:57142 BPS, <->Dynamixel:1000000 BPS
ID:001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011 012 013 014 015 016 017
018 100
019(0X13) Dynamixels Found.

I have tried PEV's BioBlue software but it does not seem to work properly. It connects and initialises the link OK but nothing else works - the RX LED flickers so I assume that he signal has been successfully routed through the Bluesmirf to the CM5.

So then I did a little debugging and it turns out that although the RX LED flickers the Remocon BCP command simply does not detect that a message/command has arrived - perhaps because it too has arrived as obscure ANSI characters and any checksum invalidates the incomming message.

I have concluded that the somewhere along the line CM5 message has been scrambled/corrupted - I am fast running out of ideas on how to sove this problem.

Has anyone else had this problem? I have fiddled with all the options (changing character sets, baud rates etc.) but with no luck.

Help!

BillB

[Pev]

Hi Bill,

That certainly is a weird set of characters you get. I am going to ask the obvious things that I am sure you have already done but just incase:

1. The com port on your host PC is set to 57600, 8, 1, none?

2. You have set the bluesmirf to 57600 baud?
the Bluesmirf process for this is: connect to the bluesmirf : send +++ get ok back then the command is ATSW20,236,0,0,1

3. Have you checked the rx and tx lines are the correct way round on the bluesmirf?

Let me know how you get on with the above and I'll keep thinking

Pev

[Orac]

Looks like you may have made first contact with Aliens.

Tell them to stay clear as we have a robotic army standing by

[BillB]

Problem Solved! - the Aliens have gone

The problem appears to have been that the when I tried to set the Bluesmirf baud rate using the "+++" mode - the changes were not being saved to the BlueSmirf module. I solved the problem by twisting the RX and TX wires togther when I set the baud. And that did the trick!

According to the sparkfun forums some commands are only recognized if they originate from the wired side of the device, not the wireless so wrapping TX and RX together fed those commands back into the wired side even though they originated via bluetooth.

For more information see http://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?t=5399&highlight=smirf

Thanks the tip Pev - it got me thinking whether the baud rate had actually been changed.

BillB