Searching...

[railerobotics]

In the terminal window after I download the camera code it is suppose to display searching and then the camera is suppose to searching for a target. It never does and nothing is ever displayed in the terminal window.

[Terry Sherman]

Originally Posted by railerobotics

In the terminal window after I download the camera code it is suppose to display searching and then the camera is suppose to searching for a target. It never does and nothing is ever displayed in the terminal window.

We've seen this as well but it occurs for us when our serial communications with the camera is not working (cable wiggled lose) or the power was not applied (again typically a cable came loose). the 'Searching...' text is displayed after receiving 'T' packets from the camera which are the cameras what of saying what it sees.

Some things you might check or do (sorry if any of these are obvious):
1.) Verify you have downloaded Kevin Watson's 2006 Camera Code, you need IFI Loader 1.0.12
2.) Verify you have the serial connection wired correcly, we use the TTL->RS-232 adapter on the TTL port of the Robot Controller and then use a 3-wire 'PWM' cable to connect from that convertor to the robot controller's 3-pin RS-232 connector. Kevin has this described in his guide.
3.) Confirm power is applied
4.) Kevin has posted a program to verify serial communiations, though our team hasn't tried it yet, I suggest you use it to verify your setup.
5.) Kevin has some debug code that you can enable via a #define in camera.h "_DEBUG". uncomment his line and some useful debug messages should be available.

Hope this helps!
-Terry

[railerobotics]

Here is what is displayed in the terminal window when debug is enabled.

Camera: Initialized abnormally with code 131
Camera: Initialization state = 1
Camera: No EEPROM configuration data found; using default parameters
Camera: Initialization state = 2
Camera: Initializatoin state =3

Thanks for your information. I'll try all of it today after school.

[Alan Anderson]

That sequence of debug information means the camera isn't responding to commands. It could be as simple as a disconnected wire in either the power or communication cables, or as nasty as a fried camera or TTL converter board. It's most likely to be one of two things: the PC serial cable is still plugged in to the camera and is interfering with communication, or you're using the broken release of the camera default code. See http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...78&postcount=5 for Kevin's explanation of the problem and instructions on how to correct it.

[railerobotics]

I ran Kevins serial port diagnostics. The camera passed the first test but failed the second. What does this mean?