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Fri, 18 Jan 2008
SRV-1 USB configuration board for Matchport WLAN module
We recently started to employ our leftover Zigbee USB interface boards with Silicon Labs CP2102 USB bridge chips for configuring the Matchport. It's a simple modification requiring the USB board, a 4-pin male header (2x2), and 3 wires.
We connect the GND signal from the USB board to pin position 2 of the header, TX to pin position 3, and RX to pin position 4.
We then remove the SRV-1 Blackfin camera card from the robot and plug the new header into the 32-pin expansion port, as shown here -
The drivers for the CP2102 are built into Linux, and can be downloaded for Windows or OS/X from http://www.surveyor.com/srvdownload/ . To configure the Matchport, start a terminal program that interfaces to the USB board, change the baud rate to 9600, turn on the robot power and quickly (within a few seconds) type 3 'x' characters, and you should get the configuration menu for the Matchport.
You may find additional information about this procedure in a discussion thread on the Surveyor Robotics Forum.
We have started to include these boards in kit form along with new robot shipments (one USB board per location - you will have to solder the wires and header yourself). There is no charge except possibly postage for non-US customers. If interested, existing customers should send an email request to support@surveyor.com.
Posted Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:25 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...
Fri, 11 Jan 2008new SVN archive for SRV-1 firmware
Thanks to the Transterpreter development group, we now have an SVN archive for the SRV-1 firmware -
http://srv.transterpreter.org/
From the command-line,
svn co http://srv.transterpreter.org/
will check out the entire repository. To get only the trunk,
svn co http://srv.transterpreter.org/srv-blackfin/trunk
Posted Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:25 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...
Wed, 02 Jan 2008Switching SRV-1 production over to combo radio/motor control board
As mentioned a few weeks ago, we redesigned the radio and motor control boards to combine functions of WLAN radio, motor control and laser drivers onto a single circuit board. The result is reduction of the overall SRV-1 height by almost 5/8" (16mm) and greatly simplified robot assembly.
The new combo board does not provide the Zigbee socket or back-emf circuit, but does add support for the 2nd Matchport UART. We plan to offer the original radio and motor boards as an option if we get many requests, and we will also consider requests from SRV-1 Blackfin robot owners who want to switch to the new combo board configuration. Schematics for the original boards are still posted on the SRV-1 Blackfin download page, but starting today (January 2, 2008), SRV-1 robots will be shipping with the new configuration.
Posted Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:25 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...