Hello Sandy,

Thank you for your excellent work. I am working on building a polargraph for independent study in Architecture school. My problem is that after I choose my correct serial port, I get the text saying that there has been a successful connection in the debugging window. Unfortunately, I am not getting a successful green connection in the processing polargraph interface. Strangely, it was working earlier when I updated the firmware. Now it seems to have stopped.

Furthermore, when I enable the command queue, the commands do not seem to disappear until there are none left.

Any ideas as to what I may be doing wrong would be greatly appreciated! I have attempted to unplug the arduino + shield to reset the device.

Thank you again for your excellent work!
Erik

Thank you for your reply Sandy,

I have sorted it out by installing v2 of the firmware. I think I did that yesterday, but changed the baud rate on the serial port of arduino IDE and it seems to be working. EDIT: I do not get a connection unless I update the firmware every time after closing Processing and using Arduino. Do you happen to know why? It works to update everytime, but seems unnecessary. I have checked and have all of the libraries installed that you have listed.

My major problem now, is that after I have set my machine dimensions as well as paper size, steps, etc... When I enable some points by, 'move pen to point', to test the adafruit stepper motors, I am simple getting a small warble of about 5 degrees back and forth until all of the commands are executed. I would think that the motors would be making full rotations.

Do you have any suggestions? Thank you again, I very much appreciate your help. Thank you.
Erik

My specs are:

Arduino Uno
AdaFruit MotorShield v2
AdaFruit Nema17
Windows7

I appreciate the response Sandy,

I realize now that polargraph controller works every time that the firmware is updated with either firmware v1 or v2 from xloader. Still after I open arduino it fails again and I have to repeat.

Other than that, I have uploaded the machine specs and now the motors won't move at all. I'll give it a shot with firmware v2 again. It is puzzling that the motors work fine in Arduino.

Thanks again for your help.
Best,
erik

Thanks again Sandy. Sorry for my lack of clarity.
I am opening a serial monitor in Arduino, I am using a stepper sketch provided by AdaFruit called, 'StepperTest' to test the motors.

I am following this process: http://www.polargraph.co.uk/setup/polargraphsd-controller-application/ as well as your instructables process.

I am connected on com10 and have uploaded my machine specs to the controller. I then manually enter, 'move to' and enable the program and it does not move.

Thank you again and I hope I have been clearer.
I appreciate the help.

Erik

Sandy,

Thank you for you efforts in troubleshooting my issues. I have done everything in your response email. I load the sketch in the Arduino IDE and watch the stepper move, then I upload the firmware with Xloader and see action on the serial monitor. Then I close the Arduino IDE and open Processing and upload my machine specs.

The serial monitor is closed as it closes when I shut down Arduino, so I don't see how it could remain open. Also, Arduino and Processing occupy the same serial port.

Maybe a solution would be to be the electronics from you. I am an architecture student so I have a 3D printer and have been making all of the parts. If I purchase a kit from you it will definitely work right? I had wanted to try on my own before I made the purchase, but there is some issue. Maybe my soldering, who knows.

Thanks again,
Erik

Hi Bolo,
Yes, I have tried multiple cable and ports. I must be doing something wrong with the install of the firmware, arduino, processing chain. It's difficult to troubleshoot. I am able to upload sketches with 'polargraph ready', I just don't get any movement.
Thank you for your reply.
Erik

Hey Sandy,

I have managed to get everything working except for the servo. When I click pen lift and pen drop, I am not getting any servo movement. The steppers are working fine it seems though. I had previously not gone into the Arduino code and enabled everything properly. Also the console is displaying no errors and everything seems to be set other than the servo. Any ideas? Here is the setup I have either commented or uncommented.

// 1. Specify what kind of controller board you are using
// ======================================================
// UNO or MEGA. Uncomment the line for the kind of board you have.
//#ifndef MICROCONTROLLER
#define MICROCONTROLLER MC_UNO
//#define MICROCONTROLLER MC_MEGA
//#endif


// 2. Add some libraries if you have a MEGA
// ========================================
// Uncomment the SPI and SD lines below if you have a MEGA.  
// http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=173584.0
//#include <SPI.h>
//#include <SD.h>


// 3. Specify what kind of motor driver you are using
// ==================================================
// Only ONE set of lines below should be uncommented.

//   i. Adafruit Motorshield v1. The original, and still the best.
//   -------------------------------------------------------------
//#define ADAFRUIT_MOTORSHIELD_V1
//#include <AFMotor.h>

//   ii. Adafruit Motorshield v2. It's all squealy.
//   ----------------------------------------------
#define ADAFRUIT_MOTORSHIELD_V2
#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_MotorShield.h>
#include "utility/Adafruit_PWMServoDriver.h"

//   iii. Using discrete stepper drivers? (eg EasyDriver, stepstick, Pololu gear)
//   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
//   Don't forget to define your pins in 'configuration.ino'.
//#define SERIAL_STEPPER_DRIVERS 

//   iv. Using a signal amplifier like a UNL2003? 
//   --------------------------------------------
//   Don't forget to define your pins in 'configuration.ino'.
//   #define UNL2003_DRIVER


// 4.  Turn on some debugging code if you want horror
// =================================================
//#define DEBUG
//#define DEBUG_COMMS
//#define DEBUG_PENLIFT
//#define DEBUG_PIXEL


// 5.  Disable program features if you need to free up space
// ========================================================
#define PIXEL_DRAWING
#define PENLIFT
#define VECTOR_LINES



/*  ===========================================================  
    These variables are common to all polargraph server builds

Thanks bolo!

I switched the servo input and it works. I still had a problem uploading the arduino sketch as it was missing the "utility/Adafruit_PWMServoDriver.h" or whatever the exact phrase is. I simply removed the prefix of 'utility' and it was able to find the library. I am not sure why that prefix was added. Furthermore, with the updated Adafruit Motor V2 library, the servo .h file has been renamed to Adafruit_MS_PWMServoDriver.h rather than the former. I suppose it will work with either, but I'll stick with this hack for now.

Thanks again, now to finally test a drawing.
Fingers crossed.

Erik

The polargraph firmware uses the regular arduino servo library, no extra stuff is needed.