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Subject: 
Keeping tower on for sporadic broadcasts from RCX
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Tue, 12 Feb 2002 21:27:42 GMT
Original-From: 
Chris 'Xenon' Hanson <xenon@3dnature.(AvoidSpam)com>
Reply-To: 
xenon@3NOSPAMdnature.com
Viewed: 
628 times
  
   So, I have the hardware and RCX software for my LIDAR station done.

   I have the host-PC side client software to display the data collected
in real time.

   Now I need to get tab A to fit into slot A by getting the two to talk
to each other.

   My original plan was to have the host PC listen on the serial (IR Tower)
port continuously and plot data as it arrived. The RCX would broadcast
packets willy-nilly as it measured them.

   Easy enough for the RCX, but how do I get the IR tower to stay alive
and receiving all the time so the PC gets the broadcast packets whenever
they come it? Can it be done by holding DTR or RTS or some serial line
high, or does the tower always shut off after a timeout after sending data?

   Do I need to send dummy keepalive bytes to the IR tower to make it remain
in a powered on in order to receive?

   If I have to hold a particular line high, can I do this from Linux using
ioctl()?

   So close... I'm also considering using the datalog and the upload feature,
but I still need to resolve this problem so that the RCX can signal when it
has collected an entire 360-degree pass and is ready to upload.


   I plan on making all RCX (NQC) and Linux (C-GCC) code available on my
web site when I'm done, so hopefully others can learn from it.

   A fuzzy digital photo of the device in question is on my web page right
now:

http://www.arcticus.com

   I hope to have screenshots of the PC client display software up once
I have it actually displaying live data and not synthetically-generated
test data.

Chris - Xenon
--
  Chris Hanson | Xenon@3DNature.com | I've got friends in low latitudes!
         New WCS 5 Demo Version!     http://www.3DNature.com/demo/
  "There is no Truth. There is only Perception. To Perceive is to Exist." - Xen



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Keeping tower on for sporadic broadcasts from RCX
 
Steve Baker wrote: > The 'official' way to do this is to have the RCX record data in a 'data log' > and have the PC poll that periodically to upload it's contents. That > can be done quite easily with NQC. I guess the act of sending the poll request (...) (23 years ago, 12-Feb-02, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Keeping tower on for sporadic broadcasts from RCX
 
(...) You could use one of the solutions of John Barnes, 1. modifiying your IR-tower (adding 1 diode) 2. building your own IR-tower you can find both on my site (URL) Mientki (23 years ago, 12-Feb-02, to lugnet.robotics)

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