ryates
Hey all. I just received my EZB kit. All of my microcontroller/robot control projects to date have been Arduino based or simple RC receivers with motor controllers and I wanted to try something a bit different. I'm currently building a 1:1 scale R2D2 droid and someone in the R2 builders group had mentioned DJ Shure's EZ-B so here I am.
Unfortunately, I haven't gotten very far with connectivity. I have tried two different laptops (Windows XP Pro and Windows 7) with built-in bluetooth as well as an external IOGear v2.1 adapter that I picked up at a discount computer store. In all cases, I'm able to find and pair with EZ-B with no problems, but ARC can't connect. When it tries to connect, the BT module status light goes solid for a few seconds, but then goes back to a fast blink and I receive a message in ARC.
I have tried several power sources including 9V alkaline, 6 AA alkaline, 7.2v LiPo, and 11.1v LiPo (around 1Ah and 2.3Ah respectively) and no luck there. I don't have a bench power supply capable of 6v so I can't test that just yet (I could try 12v from a power supply and see if that helps). I searched the forum and never could find an official spec on input voltage range.
I have also un-paired, re-paired, rebooted, restarted, stood on my head, etc. and no luck from any of it. In full disclosure, I originally had the BT module misaligned on the pin header and powered up the board. When I saw the BT status light didn't come on, I knew something was wrong. Could I have killed it?
Here is the message from the debug console in ARC. The message is always the same, but the COM port changes obviously depending on where the virtual COM port landed after re-pairing:
Attempting connection to COM4 Comm Err: The operation has timed out. BbytesToExpect: 1
Received: Disconnected Connection Failed: System.Exception: Controller Not Responding at EZ_B.EZB.Connect(String portName) Disconnected
Sorry for the long first post and thanks for any help or troubleshooting advice you can provide.
Oh, and DJ Sures, thanks for a really neat project. Nice work, sir.
-Rob
hey rob, I don't know if it makes you feel any better - but I've got the exact same problem with my board stress
And am in the same situation - new ezb board, new walle (though I have pulled him apart! hehe...), two laptops and no connection...
Sometimes our emails go into your junk folder - I can assure we reply to every email
We get a hundred+ per day, so it can take a few days or up to a week, sadly. There aren't enough of us
Thanks for the response. I did get an email last weekend and the EZ-B is on it's way back to the great north. I didn't want to be jumpy and I totally understand the several-day turnaround, but I was beginning to get nervous after three weeks. Definitely trying not to be the squeaky wheel.
-Rob
Ryates, I wish we had more resources to have quicker response. I can assure you that your case will be handled very well