I am new to all this, but I am eager to learn, and have learned alot of your tut ! However, I would like to use several motors (RC kind with PWM adjustment), and a few servos, plus buttons on the joystick for on/off functions… I believe that this is just plug and play, but I want to make sure before I fry my PCBs… ;) Is it just to change “servo” to “motor” etc… in the program? And, I want to use ethernet from the laptop to the Arduino Ethernetcard (that is mounted on the Mega card…) How will this be with COM ports? Do I need a router between the laptop and Arduino side? (to get correct IP etc…?)

I really hope that you have time and interest to help me with this :)

Rob

Though I’d like to know how to recieve data from the Arduino as well, can anyone throw me in the right direction for this? I want to use Python and preferably the ‘serial’ module. I know Python quite well but I know little to nothing about serial communication, but it seems simple enough to use in this example.

I’ve been wondering lately if a rover/bot concept such as yours would almost need TWO microcontrollers: one for command and control, and another for collecting and transmitting sensor data, to simplify the coding and keep the memory and processor on the control Arduino free to receive commands. The PC would also have two (or more) USB-Xbee inputs, and the GUI would just tie everything together.

Unfortunately I’m bogged down with work and school, along with the myriad tasks of my primary project these days – the kitplane – so I haven’t really been focusing much on the Arduino/Processing stuff lately. If you have a go at it though, keep me posted!!

BWs

Thanks, i know you are busy

link to VB firmata app http://www.acraigie.com/programming/firmatavb/default.html

Cheers.

!/usr/bin/env python

#

Module: servo.py

Created: 2 April 2008

Author: Brian D. Wendt

http://principialabs.com/

Version: 0.3

License: GPLv3

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/

”’ Provides a serial connection abstraction layer for use with Arduino “MultipleSerialServoControl” sketch. ”’

#

import serial import sys

Assign Arduino’s serial port address

Windows example

usbport = ‘COM3′

Linux example

usbport = ‘/dev/ttyUSB0′

MacOSX example

usbport = ‘/dev/tty.usbserial-FTALLOK2′

try: servo = int(sys.argv[1]) angle = int(sys.argv[2]) except IndexError: print (‘a servo and angle are required’) sys.exit(2)

Set up serial baud rate

usbport = ‘/dev/ttyACM0′ ser = serial.Serial(usbport, 9600, timeout=1) def move(servo, angle): ”’Moves the specified servo to the supplied angle.

Arguments:
    servo
      the servo number to command, an integer from 1-4
    angle
      the desired servo angle, an integer from 0 to 180

(e.g.) >>> servo.move(2, 90)
       ... # "move servo #2 to 90 degrees"'''

if (0 <= angle <= 180):
    ser.write(chr(255))
    ser.write(chr(servo))
    ser.write(chr(angle))
else:
    print "Servo angle must be an integer between 0 and 180. You typed:"
print servo
print angle

move(servo, angle)