Camera fails to output anything on serial lines

[steven114]

I've wired up the camera - I'm using the 2002 mini RC for power, and I then hooked up the camera and serial lines. Upon powering up, all three status LEDs turn on and the servo twitches. Very quickly, the green status LED (the one to the left) turns off, leaving the green power LED and the red status LED on. Nothing appears on my terminal. I tried typing 'gv' as was suggested by the directions to no avail. The GUI fails on any command, often crashing in the process. I'm providing about 7V of power, more than the minimum 6. I have no clue where to go from here - how else can I go about debugging the camera? Thanks,
Steven

[jgannon]

Lots of people (myself included) have had trouble running the GUI on slower computers, as has been noted in other threads. I tried a number of the school's computers (1.0GHz Celeron, I think) with no success. I brought in my own 1.8GHz computer for our programming team, and it worked fine. Make sure that your serial port is configured properly first. If it is, try setting the camera up on a faster computer, and see if it works there.

[steven114]

I saw those, and figured that it's not the problem because nothing at all appears on the serial port - the documentation says that the firmware should spit out a version string (and I'm fairly positive I have the settings right, although minicom isn't my favorite interface) and nothing appears (and even if it was the wrong speed or something, at least some sort of garbage would appear)

[jgannon]

On the school computers I was using, I couldn't even get the version string out of the camera. Try it on a faster computer; then you can see if that's the problem, or if your hardware is malfunctioning.

[steven114]

That's very strange - why would a 366MHz computer be unable to read ten bytes off of a serial port? They existed long before such fast computers did...

I don't think I have a faster computer readily available. I'll check out the clockspeed tomorrow and look around, however...

[steven114]

I haven't changed the jumpers from the default settings (all open). Should any be closed for normal operation?

[Omni L]

Originally Posted by steven114

I haven't changed the jumpers from the default settings (all open). Should any be closed for normal operation?

Honestly, I don't remember at the moment, I'll try and remember to check. (I think I closed the one that ships open, and opened the one that ships closed.. but I don't rememeber)

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by steven114

That's very strange - why would a 366MHz computer be unable to read ten bytes off of a serial port?

Honestly, I have no idea. I don't know why the 1.0GHz computers at my school couldn't even do it. However, between you, me, and some of the other threads around here, it appears to be a fairly consistent problem. Peculiar indeed.

[Omni L]

Originally Posted by jgannon

Honestly, I have no idea. I don't know why the 1.0GHz computers at my school couldn't even do it. However, between you, me, and some of the other threads around here, it appears to be a fairly consistent problem. Peculiar indeed.

oh joy.. I can see it now, another drill motor repeat...

If anyone has gotten these cameras to work, please post computer specs and settings, along with any modification done to the camera.

[Mike Betts]

Originally Posted by Omni L

If anyone has gotten these cameras to work, please post computer specs and settings, along with any modification done to the camera.

PIII, 1.0 GHz, Bafo BF-810 USB-Serial adapter, comm settings as per documentation in "start here".

[steven114]

I just got it to work - apparently 1.6GHz is not enough but 1.8 is. This is very strange, and somewhat disappointing - I can see no reason why the system requirements would be that high and there is no way we'll be able to bring such a fast computer to our competitions, seriously affecting how well we'll be able to debug problems...