servopod on linux

[makuz]

i am trying to use servopod on fedora core 5 with minicom, but i'm having problems. the files are not transferred properly.

i read this: http://www.newmicros.com/isopod/appnotes/minicom.txt
and set my minicom configuration accordingly. my minirc.dfl file:

# Machine-generated file - use "minicom -s" to change parameters.
pu pname9 YUNYNascii
pu pprog9 /usr/bin/ascii-xfr -dsv -l 200 -c 50
pr port /dev/ttyS0
pu baudrate 115200

i am also using a wcs-232 serial to bluetooth converter (http://www.sysbas.com/english/product/sub.htm?prd_id=23&cat1=4&submenu=submenu4&proname=WCS-232)

when i am using vmware on linux with a windows virtual host and nmiterm, everything works fine. i assume nmiterm is doing something special minicom does not, but i cannot figure it out.

any help would be appreciated.

[Dave]

A friend let me know that your setup looks ok, but that on some hardware, char and line delays might be needed. He also noted that the Bluetooth module could be an issue in Linux, and that some people had to go through a couple of USB Bluetooth devices to get something to work well with Linux. There was mention of checking the hardware lists on the Linux Bluetooth site to see if the chipset used on a given adapter is fully supported : http://www.bluez.org/
It appears the hardware lists can be reached here :
http://www.bluez.org/hardware.html

[makuz]

thanks for your help.

this bluetooth adapter is a serial to bluetooth converter, which does not need any drivers. not even in windows. i assume if the serial port is used it converts the data automatically, this is how it works in windows and it does the same in linux with vmware.

i used line and character delays, that's what the -l 200 -c 50 stands for in the config file.

with minicom some lines are transferred ok, but some are not.

[RMDumse]

when i am using vmware on linux with a windows virtual host and nmiterm, everything works fine. i assume nmiterm is doing something special minicom does not, but i cannot figure it out.

On downloads with line pacing, NMITerm waits after sending a CR, for the particular character to be echoed. The default character is a LF. So the line is sent out, and the ServoPod(TM) is in QUERY, waiting on every character. When the CR comes, the ServoPod(TM) leaves QUERY and goes into INTERPRET. During that period, it is not looking at the serial channel at all. When the last incoming line is interpreted, the 'Pod says "O K CR LF" (or just "CR LF" if compiling) and re-enters QUERY. In either case, if the program will wait after the CR until it sees a LF response, the two programs will stay synch'd up.

[makuz]

thanks RMDumse. using the information you provided i'm a bit closer to the solution. i found gtkterm (http://www.jls-info.com/julien/linux/) that allows waiting for a character before sending the next line. when i am uploading a file to the servopod in the beginning it works fine, but after uploading about 20k of data the synchronization is lost.

[RMDumse]

Why would the synchronization be lost? Sometimes, I put CR in to give difficult lines a chance to resync.

20K is a suspicious number. Any chance you've run out of memory at that point? Thinking off the top of my head, you might have to step over the RAM in the ServoPod(TM) to access the rest of the Flash above it.

Where does it have problems? DP and FDP