problem with dagu mini driver stopped working

[Alan]

Hi Ray,

Sorry for misunderstanding about whether you'd put the bootloader on. I did find it hard to believe that you would be doing the more advanced thing (i.e. using the Uno as an ISP to write programs directly) but then not putting the bootloader on.

We could try debugging further by running avrdude from the command line (the program that the IDE is using behind the scenes to flash bootloaders etc) but I think it's probably easier to assume for now that the mini driver you have is duff, and I'll send out a replacement mini driver as promised on Monday.

So please, take a break for now, and if you're interested later on in the week I can point you towards the avrdude commands for flashing from the command line (if you haven't looked at it already) to see if we can revive your mini driver so you can have 2.

Regards

Alan

[relast]

Hi Alan

Yes - I think it would be best to get the robot up and running now. Thanks for the support and for sending out a new driver, I'll let you know how I get on and whether I manage to fix the old one later.

Regards

Ray

[Alan]

Hi Ray,

We've sent out a replacment mini driver today, so it should be with you in the next couple of days. I've tested it this morning on one of our dev kits and the firmware uploaded without any problem, so it's currently programmed, ready to go.

When testing on your robot, could you please begin by powering the Pi with your 2A supply, and also connecting some AA batteries up to the mini driver? The AA batteries will just be to power the motors on the mini driver, and so just 4xAA batteries rechargeable, or non-rechargeable should be fine.

If that works then the next thing would be to try running the robot completely off batteries. My recommendation would be to use 6 good rechargeable AA batteries.

Any questions or problems, please let me know.

Regards

Alan

[relast]

Hi Alan

The new mini driver arrived today - thanks for this. I have assembled everything again and... hooray - a working robot!

I'll have a go at the old mini driver when I get time.

Thanks for the support,

Ray

[Alan]

Great stuff, thanks for letting me know.

Regards

Alan

[danijazz]

I've just got the exact same problem as the original post. I have connected the mini driver to my pc and tried to upload the blink sketch as suggested and it has failed. Like you say it looks like the bootloader has got corrupted and unfortunately I don't have another arduino nor a programmer.

[Alan]

Hi there,

Do you have a Raspberry Pi? If so, you can reflash the bootloader using instructions here. If you don't have access to suitable wires with encoders, then if you can send your order number to helpdesk@dawnrobotics.co.uk then I can send some out to you.

Regards

Alan

[danijazz]

I've got a raspberry pi and wires but not encoders. But I'm not sure where the encoders are used as I can't see this mentioned in the instructions. I don't have resistors either but should be able to get hold of some. Other than 1k is there any other spec I need to look out for. Sorry if these questions are really basic.

[danijazz]

I went ahead and flashed the bootloader. This came back with successful message. The firmware seems to be uploading correctly but still not working as it should. Seems to be the connection between the Raspberry pi and the dagu mini driver - ttyUSB0 doesn't seem to exist. Any ideas?

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "robot_control_test.py", line 41, in <module>
connected = miniDriver.connect()
File "/home/pi/raspberry_pi_camera_bot/mini_driver.py", line 673, in connect
self.connection = Connection( self.SERIAL_PORT_NAME, self.BAUD_RATE )
File "/home/pi/raspberry_pi_camera_bot/mini_driver.py", line 462, in __init__
self.serialPort = serial.Serial( serialPortName, baudRate, timeout=0 )
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/serial/serialutil.py", line 260, in __init__
self.open()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/serial/serialposix.py", line 276, in open
raise SerialException("could not open port %s: %s" % (self._port, msg))
serial.serialutil.SerialException: could not open port /dev/ttyUSB0: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/dev/ttyUSB0'
Exception AttributeError: "Connection instance has no attribute 'serialReadProcess'" in <bound method Connection.__del__ of <mini_driver.Connection instance at 0x76cb1b98>> ignored

[danijazz]

Well I tried everything. Changed the pi / sd card. I connected the arduino directly to the PC and managed to upload the sketch. Reconnected everything and got some success. The motors were working but not the pan and tilt and even stranger the motors would react on the pan/tilt joystick. Then realized that older pi was using a different version of the firmware. Tried to upload the newer version and wouldn't upload and stopped working again. Moved back to the newer pi version 2 and was back with the /dev/ttyUSB0 not existing. After a lot of ffaffing lsusb and dmesg connected the dagu mini driver to the PC and tried to upload. No Com3. Anyway to cut a very long story short it was the cable between the pi and the dagu mini driver. The first time I had connected to the PC I had used a different one. But then I had reconnected the pi with the faulty cable. I hope I've not been boring but I thought it might help someone else who finds themselves in a similar situation.