Dynamixel monitor for Mac OS X

[cba]

I looked around for a Mac program to control Dynamixels and since I did not find any I hacked together a simple monitor program that connects to the dynamixel bus through a USB2Dynamixel. It is rather limited right now, but is probably still useful for looking at the control tables and to move the servos.



It is available here:
http://www.lucs.lu.se/Downloads/DynamixelMonitor.zip

Let me know if you find it useful.

[UncleBob]

Thanks for sharing. I give it a try.

[froody]

Awesome! I was thinking of writing something like this myself, thanks heaps!

It would be cool if this could play motion files and use serial/zigbee as a transport protocol. I might add that if you aren't planning on doing so already.

[froody]

I got basic motion file support happening (browsing and executing), if anyone wants it I can send you the diff, otherwise it should be up on some proper source hosting in the next couple of days

[joohaeng]

I got basic motion file support happening (browsing and executing), if anyone wants it I can send you the diff, otherwise it should be up on some proper source hosting in the next couple of days

Thanks for sharing. It works great.

I am using three DX-117 with USB2Dynamixel. The driver SW v.2.2.14 was downloaded from FTDI. The platform is MBP Snow Leopard 10.6.4.

I am also interested in trying motion file support.

/JH

[garycmartin]

Many thanks, I just built a Humanoid A and don't yet have a windows VM on my Mac to use any of the Robotis provided software for debugging/testing. After about 5-6hrs building and checking, I switched it on only to hear the repeating Do Re Me "some of the cables are not properly in place" tones. Arrrgh! After more visual checking that all was wired correctly in order, I installed the driver 2.2.14 from FTDI; plugged in the Dynamixel2USB; used one of the spare Dynamixel cables to connect into the 510 controller; powered it up and set it to MANAGE mode; ran your Dynamixel Monitor application and edited the preferences to give it the right /dev/tty.usbserialXXXXX name. It found a different set of IDs each time I disconnected/connected, and any viewed data values for a servo jumped all over the place – ouch... I then started testing smaller chains of servos one by one and narrowed it down to the left leg, testing each servo in that leg I noticed one cable where a wire had partially pushed back out of its plug, probably when it was inserted into the servo. After re-seateing that one wire using long nosed pliers, all is now well, and my Humanoid A is happily walking about

One minor bug I did notice with Dynamixel Monitor application that initially had me confused: If you use the disconnect button after testing some set of servos and then change the servos plugged in (say from one arm chain to another), when you use the connect button to re-connect, it shows the correct list of IDs but if you click any, the ID in the main detail window will be stuck on the first servo ID you click on, and you can only modify that one servo. The trick to avoid this glitch is to quit the Dynamixel Monitor application each time you change the servos physically connected to the bus and then run it again – each servo then can be manipulated and examined individually.

Many thanks again!

[slavikshen]

This is awesome.

I am almost exhausted with connecting the dynamixel to mac.

It still report checksum error in my mac.

Anyway, it is a good start for me.

[slavikshen]

This sample is really helpful.

I have just brought a Mac with new Mavericks OS.

The ROS and other tools all failed for their dependent libraries are not ready for 10.9.

At least I have my XCode, I can setup an env to begin with.

Thanks.

[UncleBob]

I am playing with the dynamixel monitor again. To get the usb2dyanmixel connect working for mac you need to download the driver from http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm (choose the mac version).

Then in your mac open terminal - cd \dev , ls
look for something like this tty.usbserial-Abcd1343 (copy that)
then open Dynamixel Monitor 's preferences, paste it into the device name e.g. /dev/tty.usbserial-Abcdef
Press connect.

That's it.

I test it with CM530. It cannot get a connection maybe the protocol is different to the CM500.
I also test it with the CM700. It connects and I can see the figures jumping around however I cannot enable torque.

I would be nice to have something like roboplus motion & the boomerang terminal for mac too.

[slavikshen]

I have made a small app to control my robot based on the dynamixel monitor code.

https://github.com/slavikshen/DynamixelMonitor.git

Some demo videos

http://instagram.com/p/hKpteMQp5g/
http://instagram.com/p/hIakZeQp1H/

It support javascript and a very simple motion recorder. It works with a usb connection to Mac and the power sources build in CM-5 (both battery and AC adapter). But I don't know how to write program into the CM-5. And I have flashed my CM-5 firmware into a mess. @_@

[UncleBob]

Looks good. Haven't compiled things in OSX for 2 years now. Need to do some revision.

Do you have a compiled version handly ?

Thanks.

[UncleBob]

Just downloaded Xcode 4.
Got error and so downloaded MGSFragaria from here https://github.com/mugginsoft/Fragaria
Compiled and copied MGSFragaria.framework to /System/Library/Frameworks

But still getting error when compiling DynamixelMonitor.xcodeproj

'Lexical or Preprocessor issue MGSFragaria/MGSFragaria.h' file not found

will keep updating.

[UncleBob]

so I solved this by changing

#import <MGSFragraria/MGSFragaria.h>

to

#import "/System/Library/Frameworks/MGSFragaria.framework/Headers/MGSFragaria.h"

next error.

VDKQueue.h file not found

[UncleBob]

ok downloaded this https://github.com/bdkjones/vdkqueue and put it into DynamixelMonitor-master/VDKqueue

then still cannot compile

Need to copy the downloaded Fragraria file to DynamixelMonitor-master/Fragaria

then it compiles ok.

However need to update my OSX to Maverick now before it can run.

[slavikshen]

I am sorry for the trouble.

As I have referenced other two git modules, Fragaria and VDKQueue, it requires "git submodule init" before running the code.

Slaviks-MacBook-Pro:DynamixelMonitor slavik$ cat .gitmodules
[submodule "Fragaria"]
path = Fragaria
url = https://github.com/mugginsoft/Fragaria.git
[submodule "VDKQueue"]
path = VDKQueue
url = https://github.com/bdkjones/VDKQueue.git