From: Lee H. <mi...@ho...> - 2010-02-04 23:50:05
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Hi; This ended up pretty long, so... thanks for any time you might take to read this or reply. I'm trying to get some kids at the school where I work interested in robotics. I have a couple of old IFI Robotics computers (from FIRST Robotics competitions) which work pretty well, but I'd really like to get more in to using the gumstix / robostix for some projects. I am using a Gumstix Connex. I know it's a pretty old piece of hardware, but I'm mostly just playing around and I hope there are some folks here who still remember it. 1) I have (I think) a netstix (it's the one with an ethernet connection and a CF card slot). The problem I have is that if I boot the system with the network cable plugged in, the card will not detect the connection. If I wait until the system is booted and then plug in the cable it is detected and it will acquire an address from DHCP normally. Does this seem like a driver problem? ie, if I were to update to a more recent kernel would that possibly fix this problem? 2) Sometimes the system will not boot at all unless the serial line is connected. (I can connect to the serial line through the robostix module, but normally I'd rather just use the ethernet). I seem to remember having a little connector I would put on there when I wanted to run the system without connecting to the serial line, but I can't find it now. Does anyone remember anything like this? 3) This is more of a robostix question... I'm not sure how much that has changed since the connex days. I have several servo programs which I can load from the connex to the robostix and run successfully. However, I can only get servo outputs 3A, 3B and 3C to operate. Also, it seems like the 3A and 3C outputs are switched compared to the code. Strangely, if I change the values in Common/Servo.h the servos are still switched. So, is there some additional setup that needs to be done before I can access servos 1A, 1B and 1C? And how can I make SetServo(SERVO_3A, ...) affect servo 3A instead of servo 3C? 4) Finally... I am using an old buildroot checkout at r1361. I tried updating to the most recent svn but was unable to build on my Ubuntu 9.10 system. I see that there is now an OpenEmbedded option for building software for the connex. Will I be better off moving over to the new oe system, or is it best to just stick with the (mostly working) buildroot checkout? Thanks again for your time. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969 |
From: Dave H. <dhy...@gm...> - 2010-02-05 00:06:01
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Hi Lee, I know some of the answers to your questions. > 2) Sometimes the system will not boot at all unless the serial line is > connected. (I can connect to the serial line through the robostix > module, but normally I'd rather just use the ethernet). > > I seem to remember having a little connector I would put on there > when I wanted to run the system without connecting to the serial > line, but I can't find it now. > > Does anyone remember anything like this? See this page: <http://docwiki.gumstix.org/index.php/Robostix_modifications> In particular, the pullup resistor section. > 3) This is more of a robostix question... I'm not sure how much that > has changed since the connex days. > > I have several servo programs which I can load from the connex to > the robostix and run successfully. However, I can only get servo > outputs 3A, 3B and 3C to operate. > > Also, it seems like the 3A and 3C outputs are switched compared > to the code. Strangely, if I change the values in Common/Servo.h > the servos are still switched. Yeah - there is mention of that on this page: <http://docwiki.gumstix.org/index.php/Robostix_I/O_pins> On revision 1131, the silkscreen on the board is incorrect. > So, is there some additional setup that needs to be done before I can > access servos 1A, 1B and 1C? You need to call: InitServoTimer( 1 ); > And how can I make SetServo(SERVO_3A, ...) affect servo 3A instead > of servo 3C? Swap the labels 3A and 3C on the silkscreen :) > 4) Finally... I am using an old buildroot checkout at r1361. I tried > updating to the most recent svn but was unable to build on my > Ubuntu 9.10 system. > > I see that there is now an OpenEmbedded option for building > software for the connex. > > Will I be better off moving over to the new oe system, or is it > best to just stick with the (mostly working) buildroot checkout? I suspect for the connex, you'll be better off sticking with buildroot, and figuring out why you're getting failures. You might want to fire up a virtual machine and go bad to an older ubuntu. -- Dave Hylands Shuswap, BC, Canada http://www.DaveHylands.com/ |
From: Ned F. <nfo...@wh...> - 2010-02-05 02:56:03
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On 02/04/2010 06:49 PM, Lee Harr wrote: > > Hi; > > This ended up pretty long, so... > > thanks for any time you might take to read this or reply. I'm trying > to get some kids at the school where I work interested in robotics. > > I have a couple of old IFI Robotics computers (from FIRST Robotics > competitions) which work pretty well, but I'd really like to get more > in to using the gumstix / robostix for some projects. > > I am using a Gumstix Connex. I know it's a pretty old piece of > hardware, but I'm mostly just playing around and I hope there > are some folks here who still remember it. > > 1) I have (I think) a netstix (it's the one with an ethernet connection > and a CF card slot). The problem I have is that if I boot the system with > the network cable plugged in, the card will not detect the connection. > If I wait until the system is booted and then plug in the cable it is > detected and it will acquire an address from DHCP normally. > > Does this seem like a driver problem? ie, if I were to update to a more > recent kernel would that possibly fix this problem? I use the netstix ether connection almost exclusively. I have never had a problem with the network starting up, but I only use assigned addresses, not DHCP. I am guessing that this is a DHCP problem, and that you might find a command that you can put in a high numbered (late executing) file in /etc/init.d that would kick the DHCP process. Sorry I don't know what that command might be; it might be a simple as: /etc/init.d/S40network restart I am running a version of buildroot with the 2.6.20 kernel. Another possibility is that you have a connection but no way to resolve hosts, because something is wrong with DNS. If you haven't done so, use the serial console to run "ifconfig" to see if you have a valid address assigned. Also "cat /etc/resolv.conf to see if there are valid name servers assigned. > 2) Sometimes the system will not boot at all unless the serial line is > connected. (I can connect to the serial line through the robostix > module, but normally I'd rather just use the ethernet). > > I seem to remember having a little connector I would put on there > when I wanted to run the system without connecting to the serial > line, but I can't find it now. > > Does anyone remember anything like this? I took a look at the page that Dave suggested, and it addresses the same problem that I have noticed: spurious transitions on the RX line look like a key press to uboot, so the boot process diverts to the uboot prompt and hangs there. I did not read the referenced page in detail, but it looks like it addresses an unterminated TTL input on the connex/robostix. In my case I have a proper RS232 receiver connected to that line. Boot works properly if there is not a long cable attached to the serial console port. However if I have a long cable (>5-10m), the transmitted uboot prompt crosstalks to the RX line with the result of getting stuck in uboot. The solution is either to connect the cable to an RS232 device, or to simply ground the RX line with a jumper plug. I only mention this in case your situation is similar to mine, and not similar to the circumstances mentioned in web page. > 4) Finally... I am using an old buildroot checkout at r1361. I tried > updating to the most recent svn but was unable to build on my > Ubuntu 9.10 system. > > I see that there is now an OpenEmbedded option for building > software for the connex. > > Will I be better off moving over to the new oe system, or is it > best to just stick with the (mostly working) buildroot checkout? I have forgotten what release I am using, but my /etc/gumstix-release contains: DISTRIB_ID='gumstix' DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION='' DISTRIB_RELEASE='1432M' DISTRIB_CODENAME='' BUILD_DATE='Wed Aug 5 04:53:14 EDT 2009' BUILD_HOSTNAME='localhost.localdomain' So I guess that makes it 1432M. Note that the build data is recent, but the checkout is about 2 years old. I have a driver that I wrote against 2.6.20, and that would be difficult and unnecessary to make work on a more modern kernel. If it's not broke, don't fix it. As for OE, I have not tried it. I can't think what advantage there would be for me in moving from a 2GB installation that I understand to a 40GB installation that people still seem to have trouble navigating. -- Ned Forrester nfo...@wh... Oceanographic Systems Lab 508-289-2226 Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Dept. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA http://www.whoi.edu/ http://www.whoi.edu/sbl/liteSite.do?litesiteid=7212 http://www.whoi.edu/hpb/Site.do?id=1532 http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=10079 |