MRotate using USB port.

[woody4325]

Anymore consideration given to creating a version of MRotate that supports a USB port rather than a printer port?
Thanks.

[DaOld Man]

Anymore consideration given to creating a version of MRotate that supports a USB port rather than a printer port?
Thanks.

Hmmmm. It has been thought of.
What sort of device (drive) do you have that communicates through USB?

I played around with using a PIC chip, but never finished it:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,110083.0.html

[DaOld Man]

Where have my manners gone?
Just noticed you are new here.
Welcome to the forum.
This is the most time consuming, head scratching, finger scraping, and wallet draining hobby you can ever get into, but it is more than worth it.
Please don't be afraid to ask for advice or help, thats why we all are here.

You may now bow to Saint, for starting this knowledge packed forum.  LOL

[darthpaul]

This is the most time consuming, head scratching, finger scraping, and wallet draining hobby you can ever get into, but it is more than worth it.
Please don't be afraid to ask for advice or help, thats why we all are here.

You may now bow to Saint, for starting this knowledge packed forum.  LOL

Amen to that Ken

[Samson]

There are some USB to RS232 breakout boards that can also be used for general purpose IO. 

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-ft232h-breakout/overview

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/22/introduction-to-ftdi-bitbang-mode/

The 232h breakout seems to offer more IO pins than some of the others.

The FTDI drivers are free, and there are application notes on how to use the gpio functions.  Might not be too difficult to incorporate into mrotate.

Of course these just offer IO, you still need a motor driver circuit.

Koz

[DaOld Man]

That looks interesting Samson. Do you have one? If anyone does Id be glad to work on a version of mrotate for that, but I will need someone to test it for me.

[SojuMaster]

That looks interesting Samson. Do you have one? If anyone does Id be glad to work on a version of mrotate for that, but I will need someone to test it for me.

I have an USB Pololu Simple Motor Controller 18v7 that I am willing to be your test monkey

[DaOld Man]

Thanks Soju!
Does that controller use line commands to run? (I havent researched it yet).
If it does, you probably wont need MRotate with it. You may be able to run it directly from startcom in mala.
Can you shoot me a link, just so I make sure Im researching the correct drive?

Edit: I see you have already posted a link to that drive in your other thread, let me study it a bit.

[SojuMaster]

The Simple Motor Controller polulmu 18v7 is at https://www.pololu.com/product/1372

I am able to control the motor via the command line.  The one thing that that threw me for a loop at first is that you have set everything up with the software then save the configuration file.  Then at the command prompt, you have to load that configuration file before sending commands.  I am not sure how long the configuration stays loaded after the power and USB connection is disconnected.

Edit: You have to send two commands to the command prompt: smccmd --resume  and smccmd --speed 3200 or -3200.  3200  = 100% Speed.

[DaOld Man]

The Simple Motor Controller polulmu 18v7 is at https://www.pololu.com/product/1372

I am able to control the motor via the command line.  The one thing that that threw me for a loop at first is that you have set everything up with the software then save the configuration file.  Then at the command prompt, you have to load that configuration file before sending commands.  I am not sure how long the configuration stays loaded after the power and USB connection is disconnected.

Edit: You have to send two commands to the command prompt: smccmd --resume  and smccmd --speed 3200 or -3200.  3200  = 100% Speed.

Havent forgotten about you. Ive been working a lot of hours this week, but have a few days off coming up, so hopefully I can explore this real soon.

[SojuMaster]

The Simple Motor Controller polulmu 18v7 is at https://www.pololu.com/product/1372

I am able to control the motor via the command line.  The one thing that that threw me for a loop at first is that you have set everything up with the software then save the configuration file.  Then at the command prompt, you have to load that configuration file before sending commands.  I am not sure how long the configuration stays loaded after the power and USB connection is disconnected.

Edit: You have to send two commands to the command prompt: smccmd --resume  and smccmd --speed 3200 or -3200.  3200  = 100% Speed.

Take your time.  I know how it goes.  I am hoping that this weekend that I can squeeze in a few hours and move forward with my project.

Havent forgotten about you. Ive been working a lot of hours this week, but have a few days off coming up, so hopefully I can explore this real soon.

[DaOld Man]

Im thinking you can build a bat file with those commands in it, then call the bat file from startcom.

[SojuMaster]

I tried the bat before and no success...

But after looking at the smccmd source code, I noticed that I could put multiple arguments on a single command line **DOH** 

The problem I have been struggling now with, is that the startcom plugin is acting stupid .... I built one playlist with two games (pac-man (vertical) and pac-land (Horizontal)). 
I start with Mala in the Horizontal position, play Pac-Land, exit game and MaLa stays Horizontal.
I switch to Pac-land, Monitor moves to the Vertical position then I exit the game and Mala stays Vertical.  I don't want that, I want Mala to go back to Horizontal BUT I could live with it and I would just have to build two different layouts.
Now here is where it gets stupid, while MaLa is in the Vertical position, I select Pac-Land, the Monitor moves back to Horizontal but the game is now oriented Counter-Clockwise 90 degrees, so now I am looking at Pac-Land sideways.

I am pretty sure it is a setting or two that I need to fix but there are SOOO many options in MaLa, that this is getting frustrating.

[DaOld Man]

Yeah, there is a setting in mala that has to be unchecked, let me look into it, memory aint what it used to be.

Edit:
Check out this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130682.msg1338095.html#msg1338095

Or better yet, this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,91842.0.html