Trouble With cRIO Serial Port

Technical Java
1

We would like to add a ultrasonic sensor to our robot and have one that outputs RS-232. So we wired up an old serial cable to the proper pins, and after some work we got output from hyper terminal in the correct format of

R000

on each line with 000 representing the distance (up to 255). When connected to the robot though we get a very different result. Below is part of the code we are using:


    SerialPort sonarSensor;
    
    public static String bytesToHex(byte] bytes) {
        final char] hexArray = {'0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','A','B','C','D','E','F'};
        char] hexChars = new char[bytes.length * 2];
        int v;
        for ( int j = 0; j < bytes.length; j++ ) {
            v = bytes[j] & 0xFF;
            hexChars[j * 2] = hexArray[v >>> 4];
            hexChars[j * 2 + 1] = hexArray[v & 0x0F];
        }
        return new String(hexChars);
    }  
    
    void updateDashboard() {
        try {
            for(int i = 0 ; sonarSensor.getBytesReceived() > 0 ; i++) {
                System.out.println(bytesToHex(sonarSensor.read(20)));
                if(i > 100) {
                    System.out.println("RESET");
                    sonarSensor.reset();
                    break;
                }
            }
            System.out.println("DONE");
        } catch (Throwable exception) {
            exception.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

the resulting hex dump is:


434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010
4153524C313A3A494E53545200000001742E6F75
434F4D31202D2000000000050000000155706461
434F4D31202D204275696C742D496E0038210010

Which (acording to http://www.dolcevie.com/js/converter.html) translates to this:


COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????ASRL1::INSTR????t.ou?4??????????P????W?F?COM1 - Built-In?8!????5$??????5E ????B???COM1 - ?????????Upda?4??????'V??B????????

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

2

Is the console out switch turned off? Where is your constructor for the sonarSensor?

3

Right now it’s:

sonarSensor = new SerialPort(9600);

But we also have tried:

sonarSensor = new SerialPort(9600, 8);

and:

sonarSensor = new SerialPort(9600, 7);

yes the console out switch is off (physical switch since we are useing the 8-slot cRIO).

4

For others, It appears as though while my computer was able to accept +/-5V for the serial data line the cRIO may require the full +/-12V defined by RS-232.