Mini Driver Bridge out?

[hiropro4]

I have the Pi Camera bot, bought it will all the preloaded bells, even the USB power. Best out of the box experience ever! Until it stopped working. My first symptom was after driving a few seconds, the web server stopped responding. With a keyboard and display hooked up, I learned that the PI was fine, just the WIFI gone. Network restart, restarting the service, nothing. Reboot would bring it up fine.

Then the motors stopped working. Tried it with motor_test.py, only got the servo action. Testing with meter, no voltage on either motor output.

At this point, I figured the driver firmware was gone. Followed your suggestion from another post and tried to download blink.


DEBUG:tornado.general:sockjs.tornado will use json module
INFO:root:Starting web server...
WARNING:root:Got message with invalid checksum
INFO:root:Read 0XACED 0.38
INFO:root:Expected 0XACED 0.38
INFO:tornado.access:200 GET /logs.html (192.168.42.20) 52.57ms
INFO:tornado.access:200 GET /js/sockjs-0.3.min.js (192.168.42.20) 44.44ms
INFO:tornado.access:200 GET /js/jquery.js (192.168.42.20) 368.43ms
WARNING:tornado.access:404 GET /favicon.ico (192.168.42.20) 24.34ms
INFO:tornado.access:200 GET /robot_control/info (192.168.42.20) 2.84ms
WARNING:tornado.access:404 GET /favicon.ico (192.168.42.20) 3.53ms


Attached is screenshot of the message
Basically, AVRDUDE not responding. It does start comms, and I do get blinking blue lights on mini.



Then I got…



Main Log
DEBUG:tornado.general:sockjs.tornado will use json module
INFO:root:Starting web server...
INFO:root:Read 0XACED 0.38
INFO:root:Expected 0XACED 0.38
INFO:tornado.access:200 GET /robot_control/info (192.168.42.20) 7.16ms


Should be good, right? Now the tilt servo stopped working. Only the camera and pan work. So it looks like a dead or dieing Duga mini board to me....

ideas?

[Alan]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums.

Glad to hear that you had a good out of the box experience with the robot kit. Very sorry to hear that things have gone downhill a bit since then.

I saw that you started another post saying that your camera and mini driver seemed to be dead at the moment? Can you please confirm that those are the parts you're having trouble with?

For the Pi Camera, I'd first of all check just to make sure that the cable is properly seated, but then if it looks dead, and doesn't respond to the standard raspberry pi programs raspistill and raspicam, can you please post it back to

Dawn Robotics Ltd
Bristol Robotics Laboratory
Frenchay Campus
Bristol
BS16 1QY

with as much of the original packaging as you still have and I'll arrange a replacement and refund your postage.

For the mini driver, it may be that the bootloader on the mini driver has got corrupted, which can be fixed (although it's a bit tricky). Do you have an Arduino to hand? As if so I can point you to some instructions for fixing the bootloader. It's also possible to fix using a Pi with some wires and 1K resistors if you have any available.

As to what actually caused this, I'm not sure, but it may possibly be a power issue. The LEDs on the powerbank can be a bit misleading at times so I'd recommend leaving it to charge overnight to make sure that it's full.

Apologies again that you're having these problems, and with multiple components, hopefully we can get you back up and running quickly.

Regards

Alan

[Alan]

Hi,

One other thing I've just thought of. It doesn't look like it from the picture I saw on your blog, but can you please confirm that you're not using the UBEC with the USB powerbank? (just want to check everything). As the UBEC will only be of use if running of AAs.

Cheers

Alan

[Alan]

Ah,

I've continued to be nosy, browsing your blog linked from your other post and realised that you're in Texas, a bit further away than most of our customers.

In that case posting stuff back is probably going to add in far too much delay and expense to things, so I think we're best trying to see what we can fix and debug from afar, and then I can arrange a refund for anything that can't be fixed.

Regards

Alan

[hiropro4]

Not using ubeq. I have all the toys to burn bootloader, but held off for specific instructions, lest I make it worse.

[Alan]

Ah cool, that's great.

In that case I'd proceed with flashing it using an ISP programmer or Arduino, whichever is easier for you. The Mini Driver corresponds to an 'Arduino NG or older w/ ATMega8' if you were unsure.

If you're feeling adventurous then you could follow the instructions here to flash the mini driver with a Raspberry Pi although it's important to use level shifting of some kind on the lines between the Pi and the Mini Driver.

Also, any news on if you've been able to get the Pi camera to work? It might be worthwhile trying it with a different camera cable.

Regards

Alan

[hiropro4]

The camera does not work. Led lights up, then I get callback 0x4f525245

I tested the cable you sent me with another camera, and it works. So I'm leaning towards the camera itself.

Now, off to burn bootloader....

[hiropro4]

Burned loader w usb tiny, and all is well. Guess all thats left is figuring out what to do about the camera. My mini bot is happy now!

Any Idea why the mini swallowed a rock?

[Alan]

Hi there,

I've just sent a refund to your PayPal account for the cost of the Pi camera. Hope that's ok. Very sorry you got a duff one.

With regards to the Mini Driver, I'm not sure. Any Arduino can in theory get its bootloader corrupted but it seems to be happening more often than I'd like with the Mini Driver. Best guess at the moment is if the voltage drops low for a while (3 to 4.5V) then the mini driver may be executing invalid instructions and corrupting its bootloader (although this is just a guess).

At the moment it seems to happen quite rarely, so I've been guiding people to a fix if thery're confident enough technically, and sending out occassional replacement mini drivers if a diy fix isn't possible. For the last 3-4 months I've been snowed under trying to finish off my PhD writeup (so close now...) but once it's handed in I've got a few ideas that I want to try to fix the problem properly. Possible candidates at the moment include attaching a programming cable between the Pi and the Mini Driver (could be fiddly) and replacing the bootloader on the mini driver.

Regards

Alan