Quote:
Originally Posted by DanDon
If the computer and the robot are connected via the program port,...
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And if your goal is to download a program to the Robot Controller, you have to have your computer and the robot connected via the program port in any case.
A few years ago, I put together a couple of "breakout" connectors that stole three pins from the 9-pin serial cable and provided a remote reset and program button. Giving the person at the keyboard the ability to put the robot controller in program mode himself is a whole lot more convenient than having him ask someone to reach into the robot and press the button.
Last year, I got fancier and replaced the serial cable with the equivalent of an ethernet cable, putting adapters at each end. The computer side has a 9-pin female serial connector, the remote buttons, and an RJ-45 jack. The RC side has another RJ-45 jack, a 9-pin male serial connector, and a servo connector for the remote button header pins. The robot's jack was intended to be mounted in an easily accessible spot, to be more convenient than the serial program port on the RC itself.
We eventually moved beyond needing a hardware button at all. We implemented the kind of menuing system
DanDon alluded to, with a single wire from one of the RC's digital outputs to the remote PROG pin. It worked so well we did it again this year, with some refinement to the menuing routines to make it easier to add new menus. I intend to work with the TechnoKats' lead student programmer this spring to make our menuing framework available for other teams to use and/or adapt.