No Communication

[wdyasq]

New Egg Bot; LINUX computer; lsusb shows “Bus 010 Device 005: ID 04d8:fd92 Microchip Technology, Inc.” Eggbot control board states, “Unable to find an Eggbot on any serial port. :(“

Where do I go from here???

Thanks,

Ron

[Windell Oskay]

First, which Linux distribution/version are you using? We developed the Eggbot under Ubuntu, and we’ve had scattered reports of success with other distributions as well. (And, one person reported having trouble with Gentoo last year, but we’ve been unable to reproduce the setup locally.)

Second, check to see if the Eggbot has shown up as a USB-ACM interface on your computer. The EiBotBoard (EBB) normally shows up on linux machines as /dev/ttyACM* (e.g., /dev/ttyACM0), so look for it there.

If it is present, try again from Inkscape, at least twice in a row, to see if you can get a connection.

You may also want to consider unplugging it and plugging it back in, trying a different USB cable (if you have one handy), or if you are using an extra long/thin USB cable or hub, going back to the original cable for testing.

We have seen some suggestion that USB devices may not register on linux until after a restart, but I’d try that only as a last resort.

Please let us know how it goes!

[wdyasq]

Lbuntu “/dev/serial/by-id# ls usb-SchmalzHaus_EiBotBoard-if00″

Opened Inkscape – same problem – servo appears to be ‘locked’ and the steppers are a bit stiffer – Probably still need more power to the steppers.  How many volts and what size Amp wise will the bot board Handle?

Thanks,

Ron

[Windell Oskay]

>Lbuntu “/dev/serial/by-id# ls usb-SchmalzHaus_EiBotBoard-if00”

I’m not sure that I follow.  First, is “Lbuntu” the same as Lubuntu, or is this a different distribution?

Second, please try the following command, and let me know what output you get:

#ls /dev/ttyACM* 

> Opened Inkscape – same problem – servo appears to be ‘locked’ and the steppers are a bit stiffer – Probably still need more power to the steppers. How many volts and what size Amp wise will the bot board Handle?

Have you been able to communicate with the EBB at any point through Inkscape?   It is not necessary (or even, a particularly good idea) to adjust the motor current setting until after you have established communication.  And, we recommend a 9V/1.5 A power supply.

[wdyasq]

root@headquarters:~# ls /dev/ttyACM*

/dev/ttyACM0

Lubuntu – sorry for the typo

I had noticed a 12V battery was an option for powering. I need to build a portable machine and have a few old steppers that might be employed in a larger version. I was wondering what size steppers to select. I guess one could use the same board and use it to control larger steppers. I work with 4 different CNC controllers and don’t care to learn more software.

Ron

[Windell Oskay]

OK, great thanks– looks like your computer can see the EBB, but not communicate with it.  (Edit: Obviously you were seeing it in a different way earlier– the ACM* ports are how we try to address it.)

And, checking here– yikes— we have the same situation.  It looks like something in the latest round of Ubuntu updates is interfering with our serial communication.  I am not yet sure what the issue is, but we *will* make this our top priority to sort out, and I’ll post back here with a solution as soon as possible.

Yes, you can use 12 V directly, with up to 1.25 A per phase (assuming that your power supply is juicy enough). You can read more about the EiBotBoard and its capabilities here: http://www.schmalzhaus.com/EBB/

[wdyasq]

Thanks Wendell,

I’ll try the Eggbot on other computers in the next few daze. I have Windoze in XP and 7 versions as well as Ubuntu 10.10 and I am sure another version of Ubuntu on a netbook.

With 1.25A and 24V, a fairly serious CNC machine might be crafted.

A few other comments; The kit was missing the 10-32 set screw for the tail stock. I found one locally, only 22 miles from ‘home’. The hardest thing was to figure out it WAS 10-32 (.19 dia) and not 5mm X .8  (0.19685 X ~31.75).

This kit has to be the best ‘kit’ I have ever assembled. I’m old enough to collect social insecurity and trust me, I’ve seen more than a few kits.

Thanks,

Ron

AND, which direction would you like me to proceed? Other LINUX, Winsux …..??? I’ll probably start with Win7 on a netbook as it is pretty handy.

[wdyasq]

BTW, My board has the V2 layout but is marked 9-30 VDC for power! 

Ron

[Lenore Edman]

Hi Ron

Sorry about the missing set screw. Anytime there is a hardware problem, please feel free to contact us and we’ll certainly help out. I would have sent you a replacement, and still will, if you like (just contact us). Just FYI, the McMaster part number for that shaft collar is on your bill of materials, and McMaster lists the set screw size on their website.

Lenore

[Windell Oskay]

Hi Ron,

Our goal is that you can use the Eggbot on any of those systems. :)  And, thank you for your kind words about the kit– that really makes our day.

I’ve tracked down the problem, which turns out to be that there are new permissions required to access the serial port. The solution is to add your user account to the “dialup” group on your computer.  If I understand correctly, the command to do that should, on Lubuntu, be:

useradd -G dialout your_username_here 

Please let me know if this works for you!

[wdyasq]

root@headquarters:~# useradd -G dialout ronb

useradd: user ‘ronb’ already exists

Unable to find an Eggbot on any serial port. :(

I’ll try again after work …. on different machines

Ron

[Windell Oskay]

Here are two more things to check:

1.   At the terminal, please list the output of:

   ls -l  /dev/ttyACM*

   — just in case there is some other permissions error on your system.

2.  Check to see if python can connect to the EBB directly:

At the terminal, try the following four commands, and let me know the output of numbers 2 & 3:

1.   python

2.   import serial

3.   serial.Serial(‘/dev/ttyACM0’)         

    (if your EBB shows up at a different ACMx number, please use that instead)

4.   quit()

If step 2 fails, move to the directory where your eggbot extensions are located (usually .config/inkscape/extensions/) and try again.

[wdyasq]

root@headquarters:/# ls -l /dev/ttyACM*

crw-rw—- 1 root dialout 166, 0 Mar 14 14:19 /dev/ttyACM0

>>> import serial

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File “<stdin>”, line 1, in <module>

ImportError: No module named serial

—

>>> serial.Serial(‘dev/ttyACM0’)

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File “<stdin>”, line 1, in <module>

NameError: name ‘serial’ is not defined

>>> 

---

root@headquarters:/home/ronb/.config/inkscape/extensions# python

Python 2.7.3 (default, Aug  1 2012, 05:14:39) 

[GCC 4.6.3] on linux2

Type “help”, “copyright”, “credits” or “license” for more information.

>>> import serial

>>> serial.Serial(‘/dev/ttyACM0’)

Serial<id=0x7fc480396a50, open=True>(port=’/dev/ttyACM0′, baudrate=9600, bytesize=8, parity=’N’, stopbits=1, timeout=None, xonxoff=False, rtscts=False, dsrdtr=False)

>>> quit()

---

Unable to find an Eggbot on any serial port. :(

---

Servo has power and is ‘locked’. Pressure on servo arm seems to indicate the servo is working to resist movement. Steppers show a bit of resistance but not much (probably need more POWER!, but will wait until we acquire control.)

Thanks for the help.

Ron

(about to change ‘puterz)

[wdyasq]

Eggbot Central: We have control on computer ‘Bull’ …. Ubuntu 10.10.

Will attempt to get power correct and smear stuff on EGG! (or other thang)

Ron

[Windell Oskay]

Hmmm– this is getting interesting!  

The response that you got (Serial<id=0x7fc480396a50, open=True>(port=’/dev/ttyACM0′, baudrate=9600, bytesize=8, parity=’N’, stopbits=1, timeout=None, xonxoff=False, rtscts=False, dsrdtr=False)) indicates that python *is* able to open the serial connection to the EBB if you’re in the correct directory.  If the serial port permissions were the problem, it would have failed at this step.

The Eggbot Control extension would give you a different error (“No module named serial”) if it were not able to load the serial module, so that’s not the root cause either.   

Can you run one more test here, to help identify the root cause? 
Open up the file eggbot.py, and search for the section that starts with
def testSerialPort(…)

   except serial.SerialException:
                        pass

And replace it with:

   except serial.SerialException as inst:
                        inkex.errormsg(‘Serial Communication Errorn’ + str(inst.args))
                        pass

That should indicate the exact error that’s actually occurring.
(This is python, so please be careful to mind the spaces, or you’ll get new syntax errors.)

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