Resolved by Dunning-Kruger!
I recently purchased a EZ4 board and I was anxious to use it. I went through two cables (mini din to molex) both of them traced correctly but yet I got nothing when I went into ARC.
The camera functioned (although it appears to only take up half the image window), I could connect to the web server no problem, but not the Roomba (although it acted like it wanted to connect).
In your pin out you have two pins being used one is ground and one is sending 5 volts (pin 3) to the create. Which confuses me because the directions make note to measure the voltage coming from the cable however I believe pin 3 SENDS to the Roomba not receives, am I misunderstanding?
My last attempt I took a PS2 cable put a meter lead on the pins you mentioned and then on the bare wire, until I had a complete connection. I attached those two to a molex connector with servo wire double checked the connections and still nada.
Help? stress tired
Yes I understand it's not being used. I was just curious about that diagram and where you got it.
To all EZB members that are interested, I will offer the correct 7 pin mini din connector that you can solder the leads to and connect into the 7 pin jack on the Roomba / Create for $5 including USPS shipping. My email is in my profile.
One last post to show the difference in pinout numbering scheme between the 7 and 8 pin mini din connector.
First is the 8 pin connector.
Then the 7 pin connector
i tried wiring directly with the bare jumper wire going from DO-Black (GRND) to pin 7 and D0-White (Signal) to pin 3. I'm 100% certain I have it wired according to above instructions and I'm still getting intermittent responses. It will only respond with the baud rate button checked on the config and the old protocol button not checked.
The response I get is that the first or second command sent seems to respond properly and then its is very intermittent about responding. The most consistent response comes from turning the vacuum on and off, but even that will stop working if I turn it on/off very quickly.
I'm not very hopeful the the 8-pin mini-din plug I've ordered is going to be any better then the 8-pin mini-din cable I was trying to use before.
Also, I have no problem controlling the Roomba from the computer with the USB to Serial cable the Create 2.
Why would you continue to order an 8 pin mini din when the Roomba SCI port uses a 7 pin min din ?
Sending commands using D0 on an R3 Roomba (500, 600, 700, and Create-2) may not work well due to the difference in 3.3vdc signal being sent from the EZB(4) and Roomba serial expecting 5vdc.
You might try using one of the UART ports and send test commands to see if the Roomba responds better.
@todd85 Doc's right.... grab a 7pin Mini Din... I have no issues whatsoever controlling my Create 2 (or any other Roomba for that matter) with the ezb4... Like Doc also mentioned try using the UART port instead... also again as Doc mentioned keep the cable as short as possible due the fact the ezb having a 3.3v signal pin instead of 5V
@todd85 I guess we should ask how you are controlling the Roomba from the ez-b and ARC. Are you connected to D0 from the ez-b and using the Roomba control from ARC? Otherwise, are you using a ez-b uart and using your own scripts?
I feel I should mention that the D0 control is not as reliable as using one of the 3 ez-bv4 uarts.
I just realized...with the new ARC serial port Com commands you can use a Bluetooth receiver like RooTooth on your Roomba to control the Roomba or Create through ARC without an ezb at all...
EDIT Ha, ha also realized you can't do anything cool without the ezb on board....