Bringing up Gluonpilot config

[Ben]

Hi All,
I’m having a problem running Gluonpilot config. When I do a Connect I don’t see anything (i.e. the text mentioned in the Bench Testing/Booting the Module section) in the lower part of the “Gluonpilot config” window. In the “Sensors” tab I see values in all of the boxes and the values are constantly changing. The Pressure, Height and Temperature values are pretty stable(Pressure about 100740). The Raw and Processed values for Accelerometer and Gyroscopes vary in the lower digits and they change rapidly. Under the RC input tab the green bars on Channel 1 through 6 disappear but remain for Channel 7. Nothing else shows values. If I uncheck “Hide parsed lines” I see a continuously moving stream of values like the following:
[05:39:54.20] TR;33160;35520;38840;26476;25728;32908
[05:39:54.20] TT;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0
[05:39:54.20] TP;117;444;-880;28;-90;0
[05:39:54.20] TA;-419;-169;0;0;0
[05:39:54.34] TP;117;441;-880;26;-90;7
[05:39:54.34] TA;-419;-167;0;0;0
[05:39:54.48] TP;117;444;-876;17;-90;4
[05:39:54.48] TA;-419;-167;0;0;0
[05:39:54.65] TR;33152;35520;38824;26488;25728;32840
[05:39:54.65] TP;117;444;-876;24;-90;-3
[05:39:54.67] TA;-419;-169;0;0;0
[05:39:54.67] TH;100742;32
[05:39:54.68] TT;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0
[05:39:54.68] TG;2;0.000000;0.000000;0;0;0;0
[05:39:54.78] TP;118;443;-880;26;-88;6
[05:39:54.78] TA;-419;-169;0;0;0
[05:39:54.93] TP;117;444;-876;24;-90;0
[05:39:54.95] TA;-419;-168;0;0;0
[05:39:55.07] TP;117;444;-880;14;-90;-9
[05:39:55.09] TA;-419;-168;0;0;0
[05:39:55.12] TR;33156;35512;38840;26484;25728;32912
[05:39:55.14] TT;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0
[05:39:55.23] TP;118;442;-880;15;-90;2
[05:39:55.25] TA;-419;-169;0;0;0
[05:39:55.39] TP;121;444;-876;24;-90;2
[05:39:55.39] TA;-419;-169;0;0;0

I’m running on Windows XP, 32 bit. Version 0.3 of Gluonpilot config won’t run on my computer, but 0.2 will. I’m using a Sparkfun (DEV-09717) FTDI Cable (5V VCC-3.3V I/O).
At the FTDI website I saw that there are two types of drivers: Virtual COM Port (VCP) drivers and direct (D2XX) drivers. I’m not familiar with Virtual COM Port so I installed a D2XX driver. I run Gluonpilot.exe (as opposed to Gluonpilot. Vshost.exe, which won’t run on my computer).
After plugging the FTDI cable into the USB port I see LED2 flash green once and then LED1 begins flashing red (about twice a second).
Other ports and other baud rates don’t provide any values or response at all so I’m pretty certain I have the port and baud rate correct.
I hope someone can tell me how to get Gluonpilot config working.
Also, do I need to provide power to the Gluonpilot board (on the 2 pins at 5V)? I assume not since it doesn’t say anything about this in the “Opening the configuration tool” section.
I haven’t found anything on the website about diagnostics (e.g. “if you have this problem then . . .”). Also, no other information on indicators of whether the board is working right, e.g. “when the board starts up LED# will flash green at x/sec”. If there is anything like this (more information than is in the “Opening the configuration tool” section) please give me the URL to it.
Thanks for your help, Ben

[Mitch]

Hi Ben,

Welcome to the forums. I'll jump in because it is wee hours where tom is. It looks like you have a good connection. The text you're seeing is the data from the board to your pc. You're powering up via the ftdi and probably missing the initialization sentences as the usb connection comes up. The current ftdi driver is the combined virtual com port and d2xx CDM20602.zip last time I looked.

You won't see rc input or gps data unless they're connected.

You can power the board via the ftdi so long as you dont have other things connected (too much current for usb with receiver and servos).

You can do a calibrate from the sensor tab press use current at both places then write and burn. Then click the cube icon at the top right to see the cube displayed in 3d.

[Ben]

Hi Mitch,

Thanks for jumping in and thanks for the welcome. Can you tell me what write and burn do? Does it write the values to the memory of the Gluon board to establish those values as level? Is the cube a real-time 3D representation of the board orientation in space? Is there any documentation that explains the functions in the Gluonconfig software?

Also, if I attach servos to the board, is it OK if I (or necessary for me to) provide 5V power to the 2 power pins? I'm concerned that this could cause problems because the two power sources (I plan to provide the 5V power from a power supply) would be from different sources.

Also, is there any information provided by the flashing LEDs (color or rate of flash)?

Thanks again, Ben

[lukasz]

Hi Ben,

Try doing following.
1. Connect FTDI cable
2. Open Gluonconfig Tool
3. Select Com port + boundrate (my is 115200).
4. Power the gluonpilot to FTDI.

At some point when I was playing with Gluonpilot board with different configuration I started to see garbage in the terminal. At that point I didn't receive any communications from the gluonpilot board.
What i did is after point 4 clicked "Default" option than "Write" and "Burn" give your gluonpilot board 10 seconds after each click.
After this operation i disconnected glunpilot and reconnected and received correct readings in the terminal.
Hope this helps.

[Mitch]

These are cursery explanations

Write - sends data from gluonconfig to the board, data stored in volatile memory

Burn - instructs the board to save its current configuration data into eeprom so it will be used at next powerup

Default - loads default data into gluonconfig fields. As Lucasz said - can be used to correct some mistake you burned, but will reset all parameters. Follow this with write, then burn to save to eeprom on the board.

Read - read volatile configuration data from the board into gluonconfig

Load - instructs the board to load configuration data from the eeprom now. Same thing happens at powerup. Example - to set and view what is in eeprom configuration do load then read.

Level is reset by pressing the hardware button on the board

Yes the cube is real time - display may be kind of jerky with low telemetry rates

For the earlier versions of gluonconfig (not sure which revision) the z axis calibration number for the accelerometer is a raw reading and is not valid because of gravity on the board. In this case copy the y axis neutral value to the z axis field, then write, burn.

Easiest power solution is to power the board with a 5v battery (4.8v nicad) or power supply and remove + wire from ftdi connection. Leave the ground and two signals. See here http://gluonpilot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=68 8th post down

For the sparkfun ftdi I made a jumper with two connectors to connect only the ground, tx, and rx wires to the header. Later you will see the sparkfun ftdi board may interfere with the gps connector and this solves both problems.

Gluonconfig is fully functional but it is still evolving - there is limited documentation. If you have some minimum programming knowledge with C# (like me) you can download all of the source via svn and see exactly what it is doing.

I recommend trying to figure why ver.3 isn't running on your box. I have sparkfun ftdi with 32 bit xp also. Possibly try to run from source code as described here http://gluonpilot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=64 see the 5th post down.

Leds can be programmed in code to exhibit whatever you want. I'm uncertain how tom is using them.

[Tom]

Hi Ben,

Glad you found the forums
Did you follow the steps described in http://www.gluonpilot.com/wiki/Overview_getting_started ?
If they are not clear, any feedback on this is welcome!

I don't know which parts of your questions have been clarified by Mitch and Lukasz and which ones haven't, so here I go:

Led1 = "heartbeat" of the module (actually of the lowest priority thread which is serial communication)
Led2 = blinks when there is a GPS lock

For experimentation with the module, the 5V power from the module should be fine enough. Otherwise remember to disconnect the red wire from the FTDI cable to prevent the module from having 2 power sources.

For a first use: when connected click the "default" button click the 2 buttons on the Sensors tab as described in the "getting started" (when the module is laying flat). Then click "Write". Wait some seconds. Then click "Burn" to write everything from the module's memory to flash.

Anything else you are having difficulties with?

Tom

[lukasz]

Hi All,

I have question regarding "RC input" tab in Gluonconfig tool.
I have attached to my gluonpilot board hacked Hitec HFS-05MS with ppm signal.

When moving sticks on my RC transmitter all seems to work fine.
The only thing i noticed is although I have reset by transmitter to defaults the values shown on "RC input" tab never reach there min/max values.
Is this by design?

[Tom]

Hi Lukasz,

Glad to read you already got this far
Normally the channels should go from 1ms (a value of 1000 next to to bar) to 2ms (2000) as indicated on the GUI. What are the min and max values you are reading?

See also the min and max values on this screen shot: http://gluonpilot.com/wiki/File:Rcinput.png

Tom

[lukasz]

ok, than I have exact readings
I just thought that the bar should move to the very beginning/end.

[Ben]

Thank you for your answers. I'm making progress. I now see the following messages on startup:
[10:44:03.09] Gluonpilot v0.2DVLP [Jun 3 2010 20:29:16, config: 220 bytes, logline: 66 bytes, double: 4 bytes]
[10:44:03.09] A Brown-out Reset has occurred
[10:44:03.09] A Power-up Reset has occurred
[10:44:03.09] Loading configuration...done
[10:44:08.25] Opening ppm...timeout... done
[10:44:13.17] Opening GPS...timeout...done
[10:44:13.18] Control task initializing...done
[10:44:13.43] Sensors task initializing...done
[10:44:13.46] Gps task initializing...done
[10:44:13.48] Console input task initializing...done
[10:44:13.48] Datalogger task initializing...done
[10:44:13.50] Telemetry task initializing...done

I learned that if I started the Gluonpilot config software and did the Connect before I applied power to the board, I see these messages!!

I see the Accelerometer, Gyroscope, etc. values under the Sensors tab so I think the board is running OK. However, I'm not seeing any response in RC input.
I have the FTDI cable plugged in but the red wire is disconnected. I'm using a Futaba FP-R127DF 7 (or 6?) channel receiver. I have 5 volt power connected to the B slot of the Receiver but no power directly to the board (the LEDs flash and the board seems to run properly so I assume the power is carrying over from the receiver through the connection to PPM1). I connected the 3 wires of the #1 servo connection on the receiver to the 3 PPM1 connections (with black near the edge of the board, red in the middle, yellow inboard). I also connected wires from the signal (inboard wire) of servo #2 through #5 on the receiver to the 4 connections on PPM2. I went to the RC input tab and "Separate PWM inputs" was already selected, but I went ahead with Write and Burn.

When I click on Write I get an error message:
Gluonpilot config
Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

When I clicked on Details (in the error message) I got the following:
************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at Gluonpilot.ConfigurationModel.ToAllConfig()
at Gluonpilot.Form1._btn_write_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.RaiseEvent(Object key, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripButton.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEventInteractive(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEvent(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

I clicked on Continue, then Burn with no more error messages, then I stopped and restarted Gluonpilot config. But, under RC input, I don't see any response in any of the channels. I tried connecting servos to #1 and #2 but no response by the servos.

I notice that in the startup sequence it says: [10:44:08.25] Opening ppm...timeout... done. But there isn't a message that says the PWM was successful. Should there be a message that says PWM successful when using PWM?

Also, I don't see any messages indicating PWM is failing. Should I?

As I said above, I got an error message when I selected "Separate PWM inputs" and tried to do a Write. Is "Separate PWM inputs" the default, such that if my Write and Burn fail, it will still be operating as PWM? Or will PWM not work unless my Write and Burn are successful?

If a Write and Burn are performed successfully, are there any messages to indicate that they took place? If yes, then it appears that the Write and Burn are not occurring.

Any suggestions?
Thank you, Ben