Programming a Robot

[Henning]

Hello Teams,

time for some updates of the current progress with the Robots. We received our Robots, Programmer and Recharger.
We tested both and are happy to tell that so far everything works fine. Using the soldering tools Rodrigo mentioned before it is possible to solder even
the small connectors to the Programmer and Recharger.

Rodrigo prepared a little video of how using the Programmer with SAM-BA to flash the ARM processor of the Robot. With SAM-BA you do not need the expensive programmer but it is a little complicated to flash the robot. Also we proudly present the first video shown on the internet of a running Eco Be! 2.

See yourself:

Download the video,
watch at Google,
watch at YouTube

The Downloadversion has a pretty good resolution.


How to get SAM-BA running on Ubuntu:
Download SAM-BA at:
http://ftp://ftp.linux4sam.org/devel/tools/sam-ba_cdc_2.7.linux_01.zip

Before you start SAM-BA you may have to change some system settings that helped me getting it to work.

Unload Serial Driver

Code:

#Unload serial driver
sudo rmmod usbserial

#Sometimes usbserial is being in use by another mod, just remove it also by typing "rmmod <mod>"

#Reload serial driver with different settings
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x03eb product=0x6124

After erasing the ARM and connecting it with USB dmesg sould show you where it is connected. Make shure you removed the "erase" pin before continue.
Starting the sam-ba_cdc_2.7.linux_01 executable usually SamBa gives a good guess for connection like ttyUSB01.
If not, make shure dmesg or lsusb show the board connected and select the right USB port. For board please select  AT91SAM7X256-EK which is
our CPU.

You shold see the GUI like in the video. Do following steps:
1. Select binary file to upload -> klick "send file"
2. Select Boot from Flash (GPNVM2) at "Scripts"  -> klick "Execute"
3. If you like to compare file and flash click on "Compare send file and memory"

Done, close the window and reboot the ARM.

For now you do not have an firmware, but a protoype will come soon.

Greetings,

Henning

[guerra]

The "watch in high quality" button seems to be now available in the YouTube version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UnMJoxPQ3M0
(see bottom right of the video frame)

[Vahid]

Hi,

I can see at91sam samba bootloader by lsusb command, but I don't find the right device which the controller attached on by dmesg command. I work on ubuntu 8.10 and there is no any ttyUSB device on my pc. Would you help me how can I find the right device?

Best Regards,
Vahid.

[guerra]

Try executing dmesg before connecting the cable, looking at the last few lines, then connect the cable and execute dmesg again to compare what changed. You should see some messages regarding the newly connected USB device.

[jufajardini]

Hi everyone,

We've just changed one of our bots' AVR.

Now, when I try to load the firmware on it, the command

Code:

sudo make fuse

gives the message

Code:

avrdude: stk500v2_command(): command failed
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.


avrdude done.  Thank you.

I tried to google a bit about it, but I thought it would be more helpful trying to know if somebody from MR already had the same problem - and what does it mean, and whether is it possible to solve it or not.

If anyone know something, it would be great.

Thanks in advance,
Juliana, from BahiaMR

[Henning]

Hi,

i do not remember exactly  - but i think you have to keep the ARM cpu in Reset.
If you don't, than the programmer cannot communicate to the AVR cpu.


Right?

Regards,

Henning

[jufajardini]

Hi,

you're right. I'm pretty sure I've done that.

It is, anyway, a sort of intermittent issue - sometimes, I'm able to communicate with AVR, sometimes not.

Thanks!