Bioloid Premium Kit Question

[bluecat]

hi,

I noticed that with the premium kit you recieve a gyro,
and as i went through the robotis site i came across :
- Balance Sensor (AX-S20) ( i saw unclebob betatest post on the forums)

so my questions are :
1. Is it going to be sold sepratly soon?
2. do you think that a new kit from bioloid is a possibility anytime soon?
(premium is rather new... maby just a small upgrade ?)

I want to buy the premium kit in 2-3 weeks, and i am thinking about holding out a little longer if a new kit is really in the making, anyone have an opinion?
- balancing is really important for me and if the gyros are noisy does anyone have a replacement suggestion? (one that could work with roboplus)

[Fritzoid]

Bluecat,

You a certainly not alone in wanting some kind of balancer, but don't hold your breath waiting for the AX-S20 to become available any time soon. What UncleBob received is more of a discontinued older model than an early prototype of some yet-to-be-released unit. All we really have right now is rumors.

I've managed to wire my gyro unit to one of the HUV Bioloid I/O boards which can then be interfaced to the CM-510. It's not pretty but it gets the job done. Another hope is the Jon Hylands can get his IMU board working with the CM-510 in the near future. That would be more-or-less equivalent to an AX-S20.

I suggest you go ahead an buy the robot now. By the time you get up to speed with the hardware and software things could change.

[bluecat]

Thank you Fritzoid!

[billyzelsnack]

Another hope is the Jon Hylands can get his IMU board working with the CM-510 in the near future.

I think this might be a Robotis software issue rather than an issue with his board.

[Fritzoid]

There's no problem with the Robotis firmware (almost by definition). The issue has to do with how the HUV firmware handles the long sync_write commands that the Bioloid uses. I've reprogrammed my I/O board and gotten around the problem.

[JonHylands]

Fritzoid,

Are you sure you're talking about the same issue? I know the issue you had, and I wasn't aware this was strictly a CM-510 issue - I thought it was a general SYNC_WRITE issue.

From the reports I've had, my boards don't seem to work at all with the CM-510.

- Jon

[bluecat]

Hi Jon,

I was just about to pm you, then i saw your reply

do you have plans to make the IMU board compatible with the cm-510 any time soon ?

[Fritzoid]

Jon wrote:

From the reports I've had, my boards don't seem to work at all with the CM-510.

I haven't heard that before. I thought the hardware was more-or-less the same as the I/O and FSR boards, which work fine with the CM-510.

If it's any help, I found that my code wouldn't work at all using 8N1 do to the uncalibrated clock on the 168. Using 2 stop bits was necessary to get reliable results.

[Raymond]

Hi Jon,

The Bioloid IO Board does not work at all with the CM510/700? How about a simple read command of an address? It seems odd as your boards are using the standard Dynamixel bus, unless some very sensitive timing issue. That sux if this is the case and look forward to a solution either from Robotis firmware upgrades or from you Jon as your boards opened up a world of flexibility to include sensors at will rather than wait forever for robot companies to release a sensor or 2.

Cheers

Mark

[Fritzoid]

Hi Raymond,

Just to clarify, it's the IMU board that does not seem to operate with the CM-510. I am currently using the Bioloid I/O and the Foot Sensor boards on my Bioloid Premium with the CM-510. While both of these devices required a firmware upgrade to operate properly with the new Robotis software, I can attest to the fact that they work OK now.

[JonHylands]

I guess I'm going to have to get my hands on a CM-510 then, and do some testing. I've never even used a CM-5 before, so it will be interesting.

Raymond/Mark - which of my boards do you have, that aren't working for you?

- Jon

[Raymond]

Hi Jon,

I have the CM700 and was about to hook up the IO Board to test when I saw your comment about none of your boards working with the CM510's hence my question what exactly wasnt working. I will give it a try to confirm if it works or not, which I'm hoping it will. I have all your boards lol, but mostly enjoy using the IO Board to hook up 3rd party sensors to my CM5 and CM2+ controllers. Will try it out this coming weekend and report back as I have to see how much has changed with the macro commands in the CM700.

Cheers

Mark