The test softwares and hardwares

On 28/9/06 the work for board tester softwares was started. There are two program involves, the input and the output. These 2 programs are very important to check that the system is working.


Input Tester
As for the input program, a User Port Tester Input Form is generated to read the data fed from the User Board Tester Board to the USB I/O 24 module connected to the PC. Click here to get the copy of the codes. This is how it looks like once it is running.

Output Tester
The next program is for the board ouput. This program produces a User Port Tester Output Form to feed data out from the PC into the USB I/O 24 module. Data is generated using a Scroll Bar on the Visual Basic Form. The output reading is displayed in decimal format in the Text Box and in binary form on the User Port Tester LEDs. Click here to get the copy of the codes. This is how it looks like once it is running.


Hardware Tester
On 29/9/06 the hardwares required components to built the User Port Tester board are purchased from SS2 Electronics shop in PJ, costing for RM297.50. Actually this amount includes the purchase of a few tools as well as AC to DC power supply components for Mr Khow to built for the feel of electronics work.

The preliminaries work is about to begin..

As the mooncake season is about to over in a week time, so today the workshop where the USB project would take place is being cleared up. All unnecessary and unused items are disposed to give ways and spaces to the project to begin.

As the IBM Thinkpad is ready, as shown in the picture, now we have two USB 24 io mk3 boards. The blue device on the keypads is the USB to LAN adapter, the one I use to connect to the network to access the internet for this journal.

The desktop is looks like a Mac OS X due to the installation of the WinMAC program, to give some outstanding appearance to replace the dull looking Windows 98SE.

As for the next stage is to get the electronic components from Pasar Road, followed by giving the circuit diagram to my partner Hong Lee to assemble and as to give him some hands on experience of the electronic world. This should be happening next week as this week schedule is already full. Meanwhile, me myself will write the coding in Visual Basic 6.0 for the io interface as described in the chapter three of the book 'PC Interfacing Using USB' by Peter Bates.
The io_usb.bas module1 is already written last night. Click here to get the pdf version of it.

The difference of two simmilar USB 24 I/O MK3

2nd Board Arrival
The 2nd USB board ordered from Australia arrived today. It looks the same as the other previous one externally. So far the a few noticeable difference is the FTDI chip. This one is FTDI 245BL 612-1 while the previous one is FTDI245BL 607-1. While the new one a bit dusty the old one looks brand new. Next the sticker for new one is slanted while the old one nicely stamped.

IBM Thinkpad
The Windows 98SE has been fully installed as well as the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition. To make it nicer, the WinMac utility also has been installed. Now the Thinkpad looks like running Mac Os X server version. Next, the Borland Turbo C for DOS also has been installed as to test the old 8255 Program.

FTDI FT8U2XX Device Driver
The driver has been downloaded from the net. The are two options available. The firts is VLP and the other one is D2xx. The VCP driver emulates a standard PC serial port such that the USB device may be communicated with as a standard RS232 device. The D2XX driver allows direct access to a USB device via a DLL interface. As for our devices, I choose D2XX because our PC do have both USB and serial port. no need for emulation.

USB I/O 24 Test Utility
Download the test utility Visual Basic sample codes from elexol and compile using the VB6Pro under sample1 name. This is the putility rogram that I produce from the sample codes and use to test the two USB boards.



Test Result
As for board number 1 (hobby engr), when data 0 are written to Port A, Port B and Port C, then followed by reading them back, the answer are 0, 0 , 0. Even by running the continious testing with different input numbers, the values still 0 for all ports. ?
However for 2nd board, when 0 data were written, and followed by reading the port again, the data were 20H for Port A, 15H for Port B, and 0 for Port C. Even after reset all, when the procedures were repeated, the numbers read changed to different values. ?


Temporary Conclusion
I also confused which board is really OK, both OK or both NG. Further testing are arequired I guess!!!

The 6-Axis Robotic Arm

Today I received the quotation from Bizchip RM4600 for the Robotic Arm complete set. When I check out the 6-Axis SG6-UT Robotic Arm from www.crustcrawler.com it turn out to be USD618 only. Well, one thing for sure whether we built our own or buy the ready made one, it would move something like this one. Just click on the picture to see it movement.

Nice isn' it. Unfortunately, for the time being, the USB I/O 24MK3 cannot be programmed yet due to the inavailability of the Visual Basic compiler. So the next stage is to get the IBM P2 Thinkpad running Windows 98SE, then install the Visual Basic. On the meantime, there's not much thing can be done.

The Arrival of USB I/O 24 V3 Board

This morning, the long awaited board from www. hobbyengineering.com has been delivered. I thought it is big. However, once the box is opened, its only 38X69mm only. Yet another the IC being used is FT245BL instead.

Actually the FT245BL is the lead free version of the 2nd generation of FTDI's popular USB FIFO I.C. This device not only adds extra functionality to its FT8U245AM predecessor and reduces external component count, but also maintains a high degree of pin compatibility with the original, making it easy to upgrade or cost reduce existing designs as well as increasing the potential for using the device in new application areas.

Check the device using the Dell Notebook. And this is the test program that use Microsoft Visual Basic Express Edition 2005 on Windows XP. Suppose this program is used to detect more than one USB board. However, since for the time being this is the only one, what the heck then.

The point is the board is working fine. The next stage is to explore it using Windows 98 platform since that's the one we actually plan to use. The old IBM P2 Thinkpad running WIndows 98, that's the next target.

Robot Arm 2 Kit

Today I called Bizchip for their robot availability. They said they do not keep stock and instead they will quote us any robot we want. SInce we are looking for the robot that can lift more than 250 grams, so they offer this one.

Model Number [ARM_A2-KT]
Robotic Arm 2 Basic Kit

This Robotic Arrm 2 basic kit included :
1 Hardware Kit
1 Assemble Manual
3 HS-645MG Ultra Torque Servos
(2 x shoulder & 1 x elbow)
3 HS-475H Heavy Duty Servos
(rotating base, wrist, & gripper )

· Gripper :
Inside width = 3.25" (8.26cm)
Depth = 3.25" (8.26cm)
Height = 1.12" (2.85cm)

· Arm height = 17.75" (45.1cm)

· Base to elbow pivot holes C/L(center line) = 4 7/8" (20cm)

· Wrist pivot hole C/L to center of gripper = 7" (17.8cm)

· Elbow to wrist pivot holes C/L = 5.5" (14cm)

· Max lift capability = 14.23oz (403.41g)

· Base rotation = 180 degrees

· Weight (including servos) = 2.34 lbs (1.06kg)

Building My Own Humanoid Robot

Today is a special day because we already decided to go ahead with the USB project. As for the things to explore with this USB capability, we would build a humanoid robot. This is not a joke. We already read through a book 'Build your own humanoid robot'. This is the book.
Based on the design, and the required parts, it is possible to make it. So from today now on, we will collect the necessary items to make this thing work.

There are 6 Austounding Projects given in this book
1- Robotic Arm
2- Personal Computer Interface
3- Visual Basic Control Software
4- Voice Recognition Control
5- Expressive Speaking Face
6- Bipedal Walking Robot

Of course we would not do all of them. But one thing for sure, once the USB hardaware arrived, we will make full use of it to modify the sample project to be controlled by a PC through USB interface. Good luck to all of the team members.

The beginning of the USB projects

Today I received an email from www.hobbyengineering.com saying that the purchase order for USB I/O 24MK3 has been proceeded. So while waiting for the hardware to arrive, I will spent some time reading and understanding the USB port functions and how to configure it. By the way the hardware would be like this.. costing USD107.5 each including shipping and handling from USA.

Its pretty cool hardware, so this is what inside it ...