
fredebec

Hi,
I am trying to use the Roomba Movement Panel, however I have some issues.
It is very frequent that the panel is disconnected from the UART port, when I use it directly or through scripts.
When the Sensor Streaming is active, I have the following error in the Movement Panel console:
and all variables in the Variable Watcher are frozen, until I click on the "Init" command again.Code:
System.Exception: Missing data. Expecting 80 bytes
à Create2OI.Chassis.SensorData..ctor(Byte[] data) dans C:\My Documents\SVN\Developer - Controls\iRobot Roomba Movement Panel\iRobot Roomba Movement Panel\iRobot\Chassis\SensorData.cs:ligne 13
à Create2OI.Chassis.Create._timer_Elapsed(Object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e) dans C:\My Documents\SVN\Developer - Controls\iRobot Roomba Movement Panel\iRobot Roomba Movement Panel\iRobot\Chassis\Create.cs:ligne 83
Sometimes, the EZB itself is disconnected, and there is even some situations where the EZB is totally blocked with the solid red light...
Is it because I try to use the panel together with scripts with UART commands (write, read,...)?
I am using a Roomba 500, connected to an EZBv4 vi HW UART 1 or 2
When I didn't use the Roomba Movement Panel, I had multiple scripts having conversations with the UART running together and it was not really a problem, but maybe because there was only 3-4 of them, and I abused of sleep times, I was lucky.
I noticed that when I activate the Sensor Streaming of the Roomba Movement Panel, the red light of the EZB blinks a lot, so it seems that there is a huge amount of data going back and forth and so maybe that's why it is difficult to insert new conversation to the UART...
Another small question, the UART 0 on the EZB is the hardware labelled port, but I actually use the digital pins (UART1 or UART 2). Is there a difference? Is the UART 0 more adapted (I don't know, more stable, maybe) ?
Funny, I am just looking at the Sabertooth & Kangaroo Live hack, and you just answer my question about UART ports in some way
- go for a ride when an event is triggered (ex: camera tracking)
- monitor the battery level and go back to the dock when reaching a low level
- avoid obstacles with Roomba sensors and look at the distance with ultrasonic sensors to adjust the speed
- look at the charging status to leave the dock when the charge is finished
- etc...
It worked relatively OK, with some hit and miss in the autonomous moving.
As you know, I decided to convert every EZ scripts to Python (and it is done with your and @ptp's help) and know I am trying to use the variables available from the Roomba Movement Panel, instead of my own variables obtained through the UART read/write functions.
But trying to add the new roomba panel and variables to my old project mixes two much things and it is a mess.
I think I am going to start a new project from zero, using only the variables from the Sensor Streaming and see how it goes...
However, a limitation I see with the sensor streaming (as I mentioned in another thread), is that the variables are not all "human understandable":
At the moment ChargingState value is 170, Voltage is 65317, WallSignal is 2490, OIMode is 0, Temperature is 5, etc... It is not easy to convert them to "real values" and I don't seem to be able to find the conversion in the Roomba OI manual...
I have created a new project with only the Roomba Movement Panel, the VariableWatch and the Movement Joystick control.
If I activate Sensor Streaming, after some movements with the Joystick, I have the same error message in the panel console and all variables are frozen in the Variable Watch window:
Code:
Here is my project file if it is of any help Roomba_test.EZB