Debug values for USO

Hello,

I am new here and I am experimenting with the x-sim software and interfacing it to a micro controller to find out how easy and possible it is to make a motion controller system. I currently have a race base cockpit but after seeing tronicgr's motion videos I have been inspired to investigate building my own. I am using an Arduino board for my micro controller and currently have some LEDs lighting up based on the X value being received from the x-sim software using the USO interface. The first time I got that working I was very happy. My suggestion for improvement is that it would be nice to have 2 debug windows that display the stream of data being send of the USO and any data that the micro controller sends back. It would certainly make things a lot easier to debug if things are working or not. Once I get a rc servo based model motion platform working I will have to decide if I should got ahead and build the full sized thing. It certainly wouldn't be possible without the x-sim software.

Regards,
Alistair

Hi Alistair,

Welcome!

If you asked me, i'd propose you to build a frame with motors controlled by Tronicgr' AMC 1.5 interface, as it works well. If your frame will be set up and running, you could work out an additional one still, in case you will be thinking that you could design a better controller.

Have a look at the SimforceGT. You could alter your racebase with some jacks and Tronicgr' controller.

Regards
Christian

To see how easy it was to get things working it was easier to use a micro controller that I already had available with some servos I have to create a mini motion platform. I was only 40 lines of code to get the Arduino to initialise the servo and serial connection and read the data from the USO and set a servo to the right position. It might end up being easier to use my code and a motor driver board to do an initial motion controller platform and then add in Tronicgr's once he has all the bugs out of it. I would like to be able to set parameters to the code in the init USO data like speed of change in the pitch and roll and maximum rotation for +ve and -ve for each of those too. That way the controller can be easier altered without having to burn a new program to the micro controller. I am not sure if Tronicgr supports something like that and it would be very easy for him to add. Now that I have mini prototype going I have to make the difficult decision as to spend lots of $$ to build my own frame or let the dream go for a bit longer.

Hi Cubane

I'm working on it right now. Just must think the easiest way for a typical user interface for this purpose. What I'm going to implement first is a user selectable proportional acceleration constant that can be different for each axis. Then this selection can be saved in AVR's flash memory to be used directly next time its powered up!

The maximum rotation can be limited from the software or by mechanically limiting the course of the feedback potentiometers to your needs...

Thanks to the feedback from various people around the world, that attempted to also build my interface, I now have cleared all the problems (and difficulties of the construction) and I'm trying to compile a guide that can be used from anyone (even from a heart doctor... ;-) )

I've seen the Arduino before. It's also an AVR device, but with bootloader to program it without the need of external circuit... Atmega168 I think?

Regards, Thanos

Yes that is right and it also only takes a USB cable to connect to it which is useful as not all computers these days have a serial port output. I like the idea of saving the user data in the EEPROM then you can have an application on the PC which just sets the variables. It would be very easy to knock something like that up in C# in a short amount of time.

Hello Cubane,

I too have been playing with the Arduino since its the only interface I have as of yet. I have to wait for sometimes untill I can get my hands on the stuff I need to build the AMC and H-bridge...Man when I saw those videos I can only imagine how wonderful it will be. AMC and the drive is so smooth and powerful.
Anyway, since I have to wait for a while (which I can't) I have been experimenting with the Arduino in many ways. I haven't been that succesfull in reading the speed values from USO so far. Can you please show me the code for that. I only managed to read ascii characters 'x' and 'y'. But I wanted to get the speed values like for the RC servo you know.. from 0 to 255; Any help here would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Hi all!
Could someone using Arduino share his serial parser code for testing purposes?

As indicated elsewhere in thread, USO is a one way only device. I added a 20x4 LCD that I use to view debug information.

My code that parses data off USB via Arduino is here:

http://sites.google.com/site/publicstuf ... force-belt

Specifcally:

http://sites.google.com/site/publicstuf ... elt-sketch

John

@Poppius, i can read data from USO with this code below... thanks --> (c) 2008 C. A. Church - www.dronecolony.com

void loop() {
// aguardando dados via comunicacao serial
//check_input();
//Recebe dados via serial COM
while(Serial.available() > 0)
{
kind_of_data = Serial.read(); //string from USO --> L~a01~ A~a02~ 8bit resolution\decimal output
if (kind_of_data == 'L' ) Read_Lateral();
ok = 0;
if (kind_of_data == 'A' ) Read_Aceleracao();
ok2 = 0;

}
}

void Read_Lateral(){
delay(1);
int Lateral100 = Serial.read()- '0';
delay(1);
int Lateral10 = Serial.read()- '0';
delay(1);
int Lateral1 = Serial.read()- '0';

//Verifica se e centena dezena ou decimal... =]
if (Lateral1 < 0) { lateral = Lateral10 + 10*Lateral100; }
if (Lateral1 < 0 && Lateral10 < 0) { lateral = Lateral100; }
if (Lateral100 < 0) { lateral = 127; }
if (Lateral1 >=0 && Lateral10 >= 0 && Lateral100 >= 0) { lateral = 100*Lateral100+10*Lateral10+Lateral1; }

// Verifica se o valor anterior é o mesmo ou mudou..
if (MAX != map(lateral,0,255,10,710)) { MAX = map(lateral,0,255,10,710); }
if (MIN != map(lateral,0,255,10,710)) { MIN = map(lateral,0,255,10,710); }

cur_reading = analogRead(0);

//Seta os limetes para que o motor pare de funcionar..
if (cur_reading > MAX && map(lateral,0,255,10,710) != MAX_ant) {go_left();} else
if (cur_reading < MAX && map(lateral,0,255,10,710) != MAX_ant) {go_right();}

//Atualiza leitura anterior com a atual...
MAX_ant = MAX;
MIN_ant = MIN;

// Serial.println(cur_reading);
}

i think this code will help you, to give you some idea..
sorry for my english gramatical errors..

I installed a Serial-Interface-Sniffer to montior what gets send via USO.
Too bad one can't read Serial writes from the controller back to the Profiler cause the Profile doesn't read any, which would be needed.

Sniffer used: http://www.heise.de/software/download/f ... itor/26030