Re: [WheelCommander] ooPic WheelCommander Assisstance Required...

"Evangelos Georgiou" <evangelos.georgiou@xxxxxxxxx> · Tue, 27 Nov 2007 10:54:05 -0000

Hi Pete,

I am currently a PhD research student at King's College London in the United
Kingdom. My interest in utilizing the WheelCommander is purely personal
though. The use of the WheelCommander is to be implemented in my mobile
robot to compete in the annual MicroMouse competition, hopefully if I can
get the mobile robot to work.

It is not fundamental to use the ooPic for the operation of the
WheelCommander. But it is paramount that it can be operated via Visual Basic
or any other variant in a Windows operating environment. 

On your advice it seems that the best solution is to use the NdiCmdC.dll.

My experience in Visual Basic 8 is limited because I have learnt it on my
own but I am able to complete some complex tasks and I'm edger to learn new
things. If you do not mind to assist me in setting up the "dll" and sending
receiving commands from WC-132, in Visual Basic 8, I would be most grateful.
I have looked at the support documents for the "dll" but since I have never
done something like this before, I am not 100% sure on how to use this
information. I am sure it simple once the understanding is grasped. I have
looked at the example provide for Visual Basic 6 but found it difficult to
understand. I have also tried to convert the Visual Basic 6 example to
Visual Basic 8 but failed and I do not understand the application enough to
correct the errors.

If you are interested diagrams of the mobile robot has been attached along
with a hardware map of the implemented mobile robot.

Thank you very much for your help.

Evangelos Georgiou
E-mail: evangelos.georgiou@xxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: wheelcommander-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:wheelcommander-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Pete Skeggs
Sent: 27 November 2007 01:16
To: WC-132 WheelCommander Controller Support List
Subject: Re: [WheelCommander] ooPic WheelCommander Assisstance Required...

Hi Evangelos,

I spent today trying to get an ooPIC I2C example working with the 
WC-132.  Unfortunately, the ooPIC software itself does not yet provide 
raw I2C access via the hardware I2C lines; the only way to communicate 
using I2C with the WC-132 is using the slow oI2CM object, which shares 
the I2C bus with the EEPROM that stores the ooPIC user program.   I have 
some hope that I can get it to work, but I'm not sure at this point.

It looks like Savage Innovations (makers of the ooPIC) have plans to add 
hardware I2C access, but it is not ready yet; they currently only use 
the hardware I2C lines for their oDDELink object, which is meant to 
communicate with another ooPIC, not a general purpose I2C device such as 
the WC-132.

I think your best bet will be to try to port the Basic Stamp example, 
which uses serial port access, to the ooPIC.

As for your desire to have an example using Visual Basic that does 
direct serial port writes to the WC-132 rather than use our DLLs, we 
would rather you just use the DLLs -- they do all the hard work for 
you.  But, if you are required for some reason to bypass them, you will 
need to research how to access the serial port from Visual Basic, which 
lots of people have done for other kinds of devices, and I'm sure you 
can find such an example on the internet.  The part that would 
communicate with the WC-132 would use those example RS-232 Visual Basic 
access methods to implement the WC-132 protocols.  Again, the Basic 
Stamp example would be a starting point.  Not knowing your experience 
level, I don't know if this is easy or hard for you.

Just for our information, is this a school assignment you are working on?

-Pete

Evangelos Georgiou wrote:
> Hi Pete,
>
> Do you have any good news about my request for assistances in utilizing
the
> WC-132 via a Microsoft desktop PC serial RS232 port (in Visual Basic 8)?
>
> Regards,
>
> Evangelos Georgiou
> E-mail: evangelos.georgiou@xxxxxxxxx
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wheelcommander-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:wheelcommander-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Pete Skeggs
> Sent: 22 November 2007 07:15
> To: WC-132 WheelCommander Controller Support List
> Subject: Re: [WheelCommander] ooPIC WheelCommander Assisstance Required...
>
> Evangelos Georgiou wrote:
>   
>> In addition to my question about controlling the WheelCommander via a 
>> PC using a RS232 serial port; Is there a guide or examples on how to 
>> use the WheelCommander with an ooPIC via the I2C bus? The wheel 
>> watchers have ooPIC examples does the WheelCommander have examples?
>>
>>     
>
>
> Evangelos,
>
> I have not tried using the WheelCommander from an ooPIC yet, though I 
> know I had plans to.  I'll see if I can work something up for you.  But, 
> we're closed the rest of the week for our Thanksgiving holiday.
>
> -Pete
>
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>
>
>   

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