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Resolved Resolved by DJ Sures!

ARC Software New Version

Arc ver 2021.03.02 is freezing. Need to use previous version. Has anyone else reported problems?


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PRO
Canada
#12  
WOW nice meccaonoid mod. Mine just sits in the corner gathering dust.  Did you upgrade the servos in his arms?
PRO
Australia
#14  
All the Meccanoid's servos were replaced with EZRobot HDD servos. That's why I called it EZMecc.
#15  
afcorson,
   Really like your EZMecc build, very nice.
I have a Meccanoid and was wondering how you made the body panels, and if you purchased the head.
Maybe I would upgrade it with new servos, EZB, and let the grandkids enjoy it.
Anything you want to share about it would be welcome.
Thank you,
Steve S
PRO
Australia
#16  
I made the main body panels from balsa wood.  The legs are shaped from Meccano leg pieces with artist's matt board adhered to the sides.
The chest is screwed on to the existing Meccanoid chest and shaped accordingly. The head I vacuumed formed from a mold I made. It could have been less scary but it turned out OK. This Meccanoid stands at 5 feet - the extra length in the legs, feet and arms is from using parts from a spare Meccanoid.
I fitted a mouth servo, movement sensor, ultrasonic sensor and camera and the grippers are from an EZRobot JD humanoid.
EZ robot HDD servos are the same size but you have to file the inside of the tiny plastic sleeve from the Meccano servo horns so they can be screwed on to the EZ robot servos. The feet required a lot of messing around to fit the EZ robot continuous rotation servos.
You can see from the picture below how tall it is compared to the 4' Meccanoids. Obviously I made heads for of all my Meccanoids as I prefer to have some sort of mouth even if it just lights up. Happy to help with more photos or info.


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PRO
Synthiam
#17  
You have a Marvin robot? Ferris Bueller, you're my hero!
PRO
Canada
#18  
Wow what a great collection.  I love the mix and match idea to build taller Meccanoids and encasing then.  The Marvin robot is great. I would love to see a demo.  Is he just as irritable as the real one. Brain the size of a planet and you have me working at a museum.
PRO
Australia
#19  
I used Marvin dialogue from the TV and radio series. There has been little opportunity to do much with my robots since Covid-19,  but I did make a music video with them.  Here's the link to it if you want to see them working (incl Marvin) ...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5B-sd6zRzI
#20  
afcorson,
  Thank you for responding and sharing info on your EZMecco.  Your video is amazing, complete with the drive up arrival.
I was also thinking of foam board, to minimize extra weight.  Will also look into the balsa wood options.  It appears more rigid, and less wobbly then a standard mechanoid.  The photo shows well your modifications, having them side by side.  I have servos ordered, and this gives me something else to work on besides my navigation robot.  My grandkids will really enjoy this.  No hurry but, if you have any photos of the rear of the robot, and the claw that would be great.  I also have two extra JD claws, and was thinking of utilizing the meccanoid fingers some how.
Thanks,
Steve S
PRO
Canada
#21  
Hey hey great work indeed,keep it up!:)
#22  
@afcorson, Wow, that video was, well, a lot of hard work. It was nicely cartooned and the music was nice. It's interesting to see that our collage kids and future scientists are being thought this kind of brain training and logic.
PRO
USA
#23   — Edited
Wow great robots - thanks for sharing

Any videos of them moving?
PRO
Australia
#24  
The current version of ARC is freezing again. I removed the variable monitor control and this worked well until last week.
Now it freezes all the time and is unusable.  The attached screen dump shows the process running under ARC. Is this normal?
I haven't yet determined any pattern for the locking up, but I have to kill the ARC process every time it locks up. Is anyone else having this problem?
I have made no changes to the robot or program. I'll do more testing over the next few days. 



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PRO
Australia
#25  
Here is the error log...

EZB 0:
EZB 1:
EZB 2:
EZB 3:
EZB 4:
Windows version: Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19042.0
Screen Resolution: 1536x864 (96x96 dpi)
ARC (Teams) Version: 2021.03.02.00
Speech Recognition Culture: en-GB
Loaded speech recognition successfully
Attempting connection on 192.168.1.1:23
Connected to 192.168.1.1:23
Reports EZB v4 OS With Comm 2
Firmware 'EZ-B v4.x/2 Native Firmware' on 'EZ-Robot EZ-B v4.x/2' supports the following capabilities:
- ADC with 12 bit Resolution
- Can stream Audio v4 codec
- Reports battery voltage
- Reports CPU temperature
- Read/Write Digital I/O Ports
- Hardware UART TX/RX with DMA buffer and adjustable baud rate
- I2C Master
- LIPO battery protection & shutdown
- PWM Duty on digital ports
- PWM servos on digital ports
- PWM servos on digital ports can release their position
- servo speed for PWM servos on digital ports
- Has NVRam configuration and can be restored to default settings
- Transmit Uart TX on all digital ports
- Adjustable I2C clock speed
- Configurable UART TX digital port baud timing
- Ultrasonic Ping distance sensor support
- 12 Byte Unique Identifier
- Can stream video v4 codec
- Native UART Connectivity from ARC
- Native WiFi Connectivity from ARC
- Broadcasts to ARC's PnP network scanner

EZ-B v4.x/2 Native Firmware ID: 48-50-0-0-120-255-59-59-59-38-38-38
Setting battery monitor voltage: 6.5
Setting battery protection: True
**WARNING: The low battery warning monitor value is set LOWER than the recommended default of 7v. Your voltage monitor set for 6.5v. If using the LiPo batteries, for battery longevity and your safety we highly recommend that you change the low battery monitor back to 7v. This setting can be found in the Connection Control Config Menu.
Setting i2c rate: 300000
EZ-B voltage is 7.678518792
EZ-B temperature is 24.81367440630666168C
Connected
Comm Err: System.IO.IOException: Unable to read data from the transport connection: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond. ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.Receive(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size, SocketFlags socketFlags)
at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream.Read(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 size)
at EZ_B.EZB.uNCRWAcYFg(Int32 , Byte[] cmdData)
BbytesToExpect: 2

Received: 0 0
Disconnected
PRO
Synthiam
#26   — Edited
That error is from disconnected wifi - the "freezing" might be due to a process or script that is repeating and either flooding the data channel or waiting for a data response. I'm leaning toward the power consumption issue on the EZB and it browning out rather than flooding the datachannel.

Check for a good wifi channel that doesn't have any interference. Secondly, if you have the ability, hardwire the ezb to the pc.

Lastly, ensure the EZB isn't "Browning out" due to power supply limitations. Consider if your servos are powered directly off the EZ-B v4 and if they require a better connection than the little ezb traces? How many amps is the robot drawing?
PRO
Synthiam
#27   — Edited
Give this a quick read: https://synthiam.com/Support/troubleshooting/EZB%20Disconnecting

See if your robot checks the boxes for having adequate power.

As an FYI, ARC is primarily tested with a few virtual machines that run through a bunch of unit tests. But, the big test is that ARC is running 4 robots 24/7 connected to Exosphere. They are performing multiple camera tracking, NMS, etc.. And they're live so people use them throughout the day. Generally, you can dismiss ARC core as causing issues. I find it's best to work backward from the robot in this order...

1) How many amps is the robot drawing? 

2) How many amps is the power supply rated for?

3) Is the EZB connection over WiFi? Check for the Wi-Fi channel saturation? Use THIS TOOL to check and use a less saturated channel. If possible, consider hard-wiring the EZB to the PC.

4) Are there any i2c devices connected to the EZB? (i.e. RGB Eyes, Compass, Accelerometer) If so, ensure the wiring and connectors are secure. I2C devices with poor wiring/connections can lock up many microcontrollers

If those items above do not resolve the issue, the next step would be to consider looking at the ARC project.
PRO
Australia
#28  
I think I am getting better at diagnosing my robot problems. First thing I looked at was the LED RGB board which was not lighting up in the usual manner. And sure enough, the wiring was faulty caused by the head be wrenched sideways with too much button pushing by visiting student groups. When the wiring to the RGB board was re-secured, the robot worked perfectly (touch wood). I am so glad this was all it was, otherwise I could have wasted many hours. Thanks for your efforts though.
PRO
Synthiam
#29  
Great to hear! Were you able to implement the enable/disable buttons in the interface builder?
PRO
Australia
#30  
Not effectively. I use my $ScriptRunning variable to skip to the end of the code if a button is pressed when one is still running. I couldn't work out a way of disabling buttons other than this method.