Power probs

[Dimitris]

Hi guys!
After a long time I finally got some spare time to play around with the Bioloid... and it doesn't work! I plug in the power cable and with or without the battery I can't seem to connect to it via any prog. The power button is not flashing as if to say recharging, it only flashes once when you turn the power on and makes a beep. It also flashes once if you press 'mode'. Another prob is that last time I used it I put on a C program via WinAVR and now I can't seem to put back the CM-5 firmware via the Behaviour COntrol Program. The power supply light is on so that must be working. Oh and nothing happens whatsoever if the power cable is not plugged in.
Anyone have similar prob? What to do, what to do???

[Pev]

Oh and nothing happens whatsoever if the power cable is not plugged in.

That ones is probably the fuse inside the CM5 unit. If the fuse is blown the battery is never connected to the CM5. There is a video on the Bioloid CD/with the download software that shows how to change it

Pev

[constantfiend]

Hello, i have just spent the day building the bioloid and although i have no previous robotics experience i sure im not just being a muppet but i too am having the same problem and this unit is fresh out the box. I have changed the fuse in the cm5 but this has made no difference. If I turn the cm5 on without the power cable attached the lights come on and all appears to work normally. When you connect the power cable all the lights go out, nothing flashes or does anything at all. when you turn the cm5 on with the power cable attached as per instructions the only light that does anything is the one on transfomer which dims and then pulses. Can anyone help or suggest any solutoins? Have you resolved your power probs?

[Dimitris]

I forgot to mention I checked the fuse and it seems fine. Besides, the led's on the servos light up when the power is turned on (cable plugged in only). Should I change the fuse just in case anyway?

[StuartL]

I think the two of you may have separate problems.

For Dimitris and his C program: I suspect you've corrupted the standard bioloid firmware. On the CD is the *.hex file which you can flash into the robot. Do so following the instructions in the manual. If it's still dead and won't charge even when you press the up (U) key you've killed the flash in it and you may have to return it. There is probably the possibility of convincing your local friendly electronics guru to copy the flash from a working unit but you may as well return it if you can't reflash.

For constantfiend: You may have a hardware failure in the charging circuit. Check and double check your symptoms, post the results here (including the results of the charging instructions in the manual) and if it's still broken you'll have to return the CM-5 for replacement. If you've voided the warranty you're screwed.

[roycepipkins]

Disconnect the bus when you test. I managed to tear some jumper insulation at RoboGames and was getting intermittent weirdness.

[Dimitris]

The cm5 used to work fine as I could login via robot terminal , run c code etc. Then I had the robot on the shelf for a few months and when I tried using it again, nothing! Maybe I should have taken the battery out.

[constantfiend]

Thanks for the advice. I have now managed to get the battery to charge. I hvae to disconnect the cm-5 unit from everything and then it works as per the instructoins but if it's connected to anyting else it doesn't. I can live with this but have been advised it should charge when connected.

[limor]

A common problem is that when the battery is low, the CM5 acts in very strange ways. What should usually work is to disconnect the CM5 from the servos and disconnect the battery. Turn on the CM5 powered by the charger. Using the robot-terminal and serial cable.. press the # key on the PC keyboard while pressing the red (mode) button on the CM5. this should bring up the bootloader prompt. If you get this far then it means that the CM5 is ok. Then load the 114 or 115 firmware and finally plug in the battery and go through the charging sequence (as instructed in the manual and videos that come on the CD and here: http://robosavvy.com/site/docs/Bioloid/ )

Another route is to charge the CM5 using another NiMh charger. You can get them on ebay for cheap.

[roycepipkins]

Here's a simple problem that might sneak up on you:

If you plug the power cable into the CM5 and the power supply is not plugged in, the CM5 will not operate at all. I imagine it would behave the same if the power supply failed.

Make sure you are getting 12Volts out of your power supply. Even if the power supply LED lights up, there could still be a problem.

Also, I have never seen my power supply LED dim and pulse. It has always been steady on. My guess is that pulsing is indicating some sort of an error condition for the device.

[Dimitris]

Hey guys, thnx for the advice, but I tried it all. My power supply doens't pulse, it's just always on and I think I prob mentioned that the cm5 led flashes once when the start switch is put on, and also flashes when 'mode' is depressed (battery disconnected). Also a few chips get quite warm but don't think that's a major prob.
Terminal just won't connect, despite trying different baud rates and com ports. Strange because at easter biloid worked fine but has been on the shelf now for a while. :'(

[limor]

are you using a usb-to-serial adapter ?
thats another source of trouble..

[Dimitris]

Nope, straight serial

[Dimitris]

AAAAArg! After waiting a month for a new cm-5, it turns out my old one was fine and the problem was my main pc which refuses to connect to the cm-5's from any port! My laptop seems to be fine using com1, and I remember when my pc had an different motherboard it connected fine on com2. But now nothing on all ports. Terminal and (BCP) Behaviour prog just says cm5 could not be connected. You may be asking why don't I just use my laptop? Well, because it's an old ibm T20 and BCP says there's a problem with directx and it cannot render the 3d stuff even though I'm sure it's got the power!

Any clues?

[Dewey]

On your PC if you Display your Hardware (Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Hardware/DeviceManager expand Ports with mouse) what Com Ports does windows think are there? If you see nothing its probably a hardware fault, otherwise possibly windows.

As a test bypassing the Robotis software and CM5, try downloading a free terminal emulator program. Use the Robotis serial cable and short the tip to the next segment this connects send to receive. Run the terminal emulation you have down loaded with the Robotis cable plugged in. What you type should appear on on the screen (since you are looped back). If this don't work it looks like the serial port hardware has gone puff.

Dewey