While the plastic injection molds are being verified and the PCB's are being assembled for delivery, I decided to spend a little time in the EZ-B v4 firmware to see what else I could pull out of it for features... You know, to make your wait worth it While the molds are checked over for quality injections.
Well, I discovered there was just enough RAM left to add another UART/Serial TTL port for expanding modules! That's huge news - with a total of 3 High Speed UARTs on the EZ-B v4! The top speed is 3.75 Mbs per UART! That's 3,750,000 bits per second. And to top it off, each UART has an input (read) buffer of 5,000 bytes!
What does this mean? It means the ability to add additional two way peripherals to the EZ-B v4, including GPS, iRobot Roomba and more!
I'm pretty sure this little 120 MHz ARM CPU is literally running to the max right now - there's nothing else I can get it to do
- Streaming real-time audio
- Super low latency real-time video
- TCP/IP Web Server
- WiFi (ad-hoc & infrastructure with DHCP server)
- 3 x high speed i2c ports
- 3 x high speed UART ports
- 24 x Servo/Digital ports
- 8 x 12 Bit ADC Ports
- 50 x Dynamixel Chainable Connection
- High Efficiency/Low Heat Digital Switching Power Supply
All packed in a little 2 inch by 2 inch form factor... You're welcome, World!
Asked
— Edited
It sounds like my robot will have many options to grow!
Steve S
Richard , What program are you using that you will try to read the data you mentioned to Steve? Are going to use a terminal program or can you use the data windows in ARC? I'm lost in this area. I'm using a Kangaroo X2 operated by ARC and the SendSerial command. Kangaroo should be sending back serial text and I'm not really sure if I'll be able to see it in ARC or I'll need a stand alone program.
ARC has a serial terminal in it as one of the controls under the general tab. I'm pretty confident you'll be able to have ARC read what the Kangaroo sends back. I'm about to look in to getting a sabertooth and kangaroo however funds are very tight but it's one of those things that's been on my wishlist for a while so I may just decide to turn down the heat for a couple of weeks or eat less
@DJ, awesome! I think that sums it up well enough
However, to use the receive buffer for the uarts, you will use their respective EZ-Script commands. Search for uart in the EZ-Script manual
Looks like the IRoomba will be an increasingly popular platform! There are two applications that have been mentioned to utilize the UARTS....but.....there are three ports! Lets increase the list
Thanks again DJ!
@Rich your modesty is apparent
@Irobot, while most of what is in ARC is pretty much burnt in my memory (it's borderline eidetic so it should be) my OCD means I prefer to check and be sure.