tomega3
Resolved by Dave Schulpius!
Hi, I found this Great site while searching for info on controlling a Dimension Engineering Sabertooth / Kangaroo setup driving my mixed mode 2 wheel differential drive bot.
I am more of a hardware guy and am having trouble understanding how to use the packetized serial library that Dimension Engineering provides. I am using an arduino to sent packetized serial commands to the kangaroo. I have it driving forward and reverse with velocity (S) commands and turning with position (Pi) commands.
I have not figured out how to process the return values from the Drive and Turn command and am lost with how to use the Status and Monitor commands.
Has anybody figured out these things? I am hoping that someone here will point me in the right direction.
I can share my kangaroo test code if anybody wants to take a look.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Thanks for visiting
no one here uses old school arduino's - so I doubt we will be able to help. The robots here are powered by the wifi ezb v4 with its camera and streaming audio. Makes them more like real robots
Maybe we can help you get into an ezb instead of that old arduino!
Good luck on your search. I'm also using DE's Roo/Sabertooth combo of boards in my robot and love them. However I'm only using Simple Serial commands as I really don't understand the Packetized Serial. It does everything I need so far.
I've found there's little info or community support for this set of boards. Too bad because it rock solid when it set up properly and working. If there was a forum sponsored by DE I think there would be more people using this set of boards if there was a little help. I've found it a struggle to get it up and running and working like I want it. However like I mentioned, once setup it hard to beat.
Again, good luck!
Where can I get one? I will add support for it in ARC
DJ, are you asking about the Kangaroo X2 that attached to the Sabertooth? If you could somehow add support that would be great. Here's the link to DE's Kangaroo X2:
Kangaroo X2
Thanks everyone for your replies. I contacted Dimension Engineering (DE) Help Desk and asked the same questions in my original post to them.
There is a video by DE showing Kangaroo Drive Mode Autotune procedure. The Kangaroo user manual does not document this procedure. I wrote a 'How To' procedure which describes my 2 wheel differential drive (aka Kangaroo Mixed Mode) setup and the steps to do the autotune. I used. The robot can now be driven using a RC transmitter and receiver or packetized serial commands. or 2 PWM signals from a microcontroller.
I will post my 'How To' word doc if anyone would like to use it.
The DE Kangaroo arduino and mbed class libraries appear to be written by a C++ genius. I cant make out how to use the error, status and monitoring objects. If anybody knows C++ could download their class libraries and take a look at them I would really appreciate it.
I wish I knew about the ez V4 controller before I started with arduinos. It looks really powerful and simple to use. I have several arduinos and would like to continue using them to make the most out of the time and money I have invested in learning and using them.
Thanks for your help.
Again, would it not be better to ask this in the arduino forum?
Hey, it's never too late to dump your arduino for the king of all robot controllers... EZB4
I looked over that library a few months ago and it all looks like witchcraft to me.
I do understand arduino code.... I program them from time to time....However, there is nothing like the EZb of doing things....