[Coriander-user] A very strange problem...

[Damien D. <d....@qu...>]

Hello,

 

In our application, we are collecting vision (with, of course, coriander),
GPS (Serial Port) and inertial data (serial port).  We are using Fedora Core
4.

 

Earlier this year, we installed Coriander 2.0.0-pre4, and the individual
programs for controlling the serial ports.  Each program behaves nicely.

 

The serial port programs are structured around a termios structure, and are
managed by using the select system call to notify when data is available to
be read, and for input from the keyboard where necessary.

 

The problem is this:

1.  Load the Inertial Sensor program - no problem, logs data as usual.

2.  Load Coriander.  No problem.

 

Now, we turn on the receive control, and suddenly, we are getting checksum

errors everywhere on the serial port.   Most probably (I am working to

confirm this now) due to dropped bytes.   Bumping up the priority of the

serial program does not help.

 

3. Shut down Coriander.  Sometimes the packets reset themselves without
help, sometimes a plug-unplug (forces a reset of the inertial sensor) brings
it back into line.

 

And, even stranger, a USB-Serial converter (virtual COM Port) does not have
the same problem.

 

This problem is very repeatable (every time), on the PM-2.0GHz laptop I am
using.

 

My uneducated guess is that for some reason, the serial interrupt is not
being serviced fast enough, and data is overrunning the FIFO, but once
again, I need to confirm this.

 

Can anyone make a suggestion as to what might be causing this strange
interaction?  I would never had thought that firewire activity would affect
a serial port!  I'm a bit stumped, actually.

 

Sometime soon, I will trying on another computer to see if I can reproduce
it on another computer.

 

-----------------

 

Part 2.

 

I have also tried upgrading to -pre6, to see if has any affect.  However, on

./configure,   it says that libdc1364 is not installed.

 

So, a download and install of libdc1394 later, I try again, with no success.

I have followed the instructions to add /usr/local/lib to the
/etc/ld.so.conf (forgive me if the file name is wrong, I am working from
memory... on another computer)

 

Updated the path with ldconfig (I think), as per the previous post on this
issue, with no luck.

 

Is there something obvious I am missing?

 

Thanks very much for your patience.

Damien Dusha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damien Dusha

B.E.(AeroAv)Hons. GradIEAust

 

PhD Candidate

Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA)

School of Engineering Systems

Queensland University of Technology

PO Box 2434

Brisbane QLD 4001

AUSTRALIA

 

Ph: +617 3864 1362

Fx: +617 3864 1516

Email: d....@qu...

Web: www.quav.qut.edu.au

 

 CRICOS No. 00213J