roborealm set-up - trouble shooting

[plingboot]

A couple of years back I had blob tracking working, but for reasons unknown, I don't seem to be able to get it working again.

My set-up:
• MSR-H01
• original p.Brain SMB / p.Brain-ds24
• firmware v1.21 - updated yesterday (though terminal shows it as just 1.2)
• esd200 module
• PS2 remote module wired to CN19 with power from 3.3v on CN17
• C120 webcam connected via usb

Bluetooth is working 'after a fashion' so initially i'd just like to get roborealm working with the RS232 tether.
The tether is connected via a prolific serial-usb convertor with fresh drivers installed

I have PIP=0
JP1 on CN18 = locomotion and configuration via the teather (??)

I assume that:
if i want to send PIP commands via bluetooth, but configure via tether CN18 = no jumpers
if i want to connect to a terminal app and send PIP commands via bluetooth CN18 = JP2

I can configure the hexengine using a terminal app, via the tether connection - so that's working
I can see the camera feed in roborealm - so that's working (see pics)
I can see that roborealm is tracking the green 'thing' on screen (see pics)
I can see that roboream appears to be connected to the hexengine - code scrolling in black (see pics)
I can see the power and walk states change in the roborealm window when i press the appropriate keys

But, nothing is actually happening…

I can see some 'odd' characters in the VBscript window - PIPBody and PIPPan - not sure if that's an issue? (see pics)

Also getting lots of green and red lines of code in the serial connection (see pics)

I'm sure i'm just missing something obvious, so any help would be appreciated.

Happy to supply more info if required…
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[TemplarGFX]

When everything is setup correctly, you should see this inside the serial application until you power up

Connected!
00001: 7e 03 48 01 81 35 7e 07 42 01 01 01 01 01 01 b7
00002: 7e 03 48 01 81 35 7e 07 42 01 01 01 01 01 01 b7
00003: 7e 03 48 01 81 35 7e 07 42 01 01 01 01 01 01 b7
00004: 7e 03 48 01 81 35 7e 07 42 01 01 01 01 01 01 b7
00005: 7e 03 48 01 81 35 7e 07 42 01 01 01 01 01 01 b7
....

they should all be green until you power up

I have seen what you show above in your serial window when I have forgotten to set the hexapod back to PIP CONTROL after changing settings.

try connecting with terraterm, and then typing PIP CONTROL. then disconnect and try roborealm again

[plingboot]

success… with the basic blob tracking - using the tether to config via teraterm and bluetooth to connect with roborealm.

It looks like XP connects to the bluetooth without too much fuss, changed the baud rate in roborealm to 9600, but still nothing.

Changed PIP=0 to PIP=1, tried again and bingo hexapod wakes and follows coloured blob.

I'll post a video in a bit, but at the moment the heads suffering from a touch of discombobulation - the camera tracks the blob, but when the blob is still the head moves around, bit like it's drunk.

on the spot locomotion is also a bit tied and with walking/following it refuses to back up when the blob is too close, but at least we're up and running now.

[plingboot]

Stopped working again… and took a good chunk of fiddling around to figure out that i have to:

• go into teraterm -> PIP CONTROL
• quit teraterm
• open roborealm, select the correct bluetooth port and speed - which i thought was 9600, but us actually 19200 by default
• then hit [ctrl][9] and stuff happens

I've had a 'fiddle' with AVM navigator and managed to teach it a few objects/faces, but not the first idea how to turn that into tracking commands…

Anyway here's a short clip of the hexapod doing the discombobulation thing with a static blob - it's tracking the green tip of my stability ball pump.

[TemplarGFX]

you need to greatly decrease pan and tilt sensativity!

' TUNE THESE FOR FASTER RESPONSE OR TO REDUCE OSCILATION.
' INCREASE VALUE TO DECREASE SENSITIVITY.
cPAN_SENS = 700
cTILT_SENS = 1500

increase these numbers until the oscilation stops, but not so much that it has trouble following you

[Matt Denton]

Stopped working again… and took a good chunk of fiddling around to figure out that i have to:

• go into teraterm -> PIP CONTROL
• quit teraterm
• open roborealm, select the correct bluetooth port and speed - which i thought was 9600, but us actually 19200 by default
• then hit [ctrl][9] and stuff happens

Ok:

• First off you have the origonal ds24-HexEngine and SMB hardware, this differs from TemplarFX's set-up as I beleive he has the µ24-HexEngine hardware. L
• Lets assume you have CN18 in the default configueration with all jumpers off. this means the RJ232 link is for terminal configuration and the ESD200 link is for locomotion PIP commands.

1) If you are sending commands over the RJ232 link, you will need to first enter PIP CONTROL mode, so yes, either connect via a terminal and enter "PIP CONTROL" then exit and connect via robo realm, or simply send the command at the start of the robo-realm script, e.g. once the port is connected send the command "PIP CONTROL" followed by carriage return. You must also make sure the robo-realm baud rate matches that of your HexEngine terminal baud rate, which by default is 115200.

2) If you are sending commands over the ESD200 locomotion port, then it should be in PIP CONTROL mode upon boot, so there should be no need to go into the terminal and set "PIP CONTROL".

3) If you are using a bluetooth link from robo-realm, then the local baud rate should not be an issue. E.G. the baud rate of the host computer does not have to match the baud rate of the ESD200 on the HexEngine. This is the case with bluetooth dongles and inbult USB bluetooth devices which use virtual com port drivers (VCP). However, if you are using a bluetooth device connected to a serial port on your host machine, then you will need to make sure the pre-programmed baud rate of the bluetooth device matches that of your host port.

you need to greatly decrease pan and tilt sensativity!

' TUNE THESE FOR FASTER RESPONSE OR TO REDUCE OSCILATION.
' INCREASE VALUE TO DECREASE SENSITIVITY.
cPAN_SENS = 700
cTILT_SENS = 1500

increase these numbers until the oscilation stops, but not so much that it has trouble following you

Exactly, the response is directly effected by processing speed, video latency etc, so you need to tune this out for each set-up!

[TemplarGFX]

I found my webcam has a function called low level light boost. if you turn this off the camera framerate doubles. this seems to be fine to turn off in face tracking scenarios as skin at least stands out in most situations so a little extra noise isnt a problem. turning this off will give roborealm a twice as much processing per second and so more accurate commands to the hexengine. if tracking faces is all you plan to do, I would turn this off and then retweek the sensitivity settings

[plingboot]

Here's another clip…

Had a play with the variables, cPAN-SENS =3800 and cTILT_SENS = 4500

I have an 'issue' with my mac-parallels-XP set-up which seems to mean that the bluetooth connection is on COM15 and COM16, but teraterm only allows me to got upto COM11 - so not being a windows person i've no idea whether i can change this to allow all coms via bluetooth.

If not i need to learn how to add the PIP CONTROL command to the VBS script.

Speaking of which, could anyone offer advice for the following - i've got AVM Navigator trained with some objects, but have no idea how to use it's tracking with the existing VBS script…

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[TemplarGFX]

looking really good there plinboot!

To get terraterm to see more than 12 comports you need to edit the terraterm.ini file and change this line :

MaxComPort=24


I have only ever used AVM for navigation, so my script for it is not going to help as far as tracking is concerned. You will need to read the detected objects array out of AVM into the VBS script then use its position instead of the coordinates given by the COG module.

[Matt Denton]

Yeah that's looking much better!