I just work on a project that use Processing control a small robot drived by Arduino Dumelianove with 2 Xbee. This robot have 4 steppers, 4LEDs and two relays. Every 5 Second will the Processing send a message "#1001001000", after the beginning '#' every 3 charactor means the info. for each stepper,'1' means direction of the stepper and the following 2 means the steps. The last charactor means the control of two relays. With cable works the robot pretty good. But if I try to use two xbee the Stepper moved weird.most time work each step right, but about each 10 Time will a Error step appear. sometimes moved more sometimes the relays didn't work and so on.
I used paar "XBee 2mW Series 2.5 Wire Antenna" and a "XBee Explorer USB" from sparkfun to connect one xbee to my MAC. I think must be something wrong with the xbee part.
//Here is the prototype of the Communication between MAC and robot, Processing part
import processing.serial.*;
Serial arduinoPort;
long previousMillis = 0;
int i = 0;
void setup(){
arduinoPort = new Serial(this , Serial.list()[0], 9600);
delay(2000);
}
void draw(){
long currentMillis = millis();
//port.available() can direct store the value when possible
//then the value of the port is once more empty
// while (arduinoPort.available() > 0){
// int inByte = arduinoPort.read();
// println(inByte);
if(currentMillis - previousMillis > 5000){
arduinoPort.write("#0101001001001");
previousMillis = currentMillis;
print("Now is ");
println(i);
i++;
}
//}
// arduinoPort.clear();
}
than Arduino part
#define ST1 2 //ST1 means "Steppermotor 1's step number"
#define DI1 3 //DI1 means "Steppermotor 1's step direction"
#define ST2 4
#define DI2 5
#define ST3 7
#define DI3 8
#define ST4 12
#define DI4 13
int SL1 = A1; //SL1 means "Steppermoto 1's sleep mode"
int SL2 = A2;
int SL3 = A3;
int SL4 = A4;
#define LED1 6 //LED1 is the control Pin of one of four LED that put on the Robot
#define LED2 9
#define LED3 10
#define LED4 11
int FOCUS = A0; //the control Pin of the Focus function on the camera
int SHUTTER = A5; //the control Pin of the Shutter on the camera
char buffer[14]; //store the Sequence that followed by "#" as the input from the Serial port
byte inByte = 0; //detect if the input is the "#"
int pointer = 0; //to store the number of the buffers' arrays
int motor1 = 0; //store the move amount for each motor from Serial
int motor2 = 0;
int motor3 = 0;
int motor4 = 0;
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
void setup(){
pinMode(ST1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(DI1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ST2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(DI2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ST3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(DI3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(ST4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(DI4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(SL1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(SL2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(SL3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(SL4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(LED1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(LED2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(LED3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(LED4, OUTPUT);
pinMode(SHUTTER, OUTPUT);
pinMode(FOCUS, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
//Serial.println("OK, all Pins' define are done");
digitalWrite(SL1, 0);
digitalWrite(SL2, 0);
digitalWrite(SL3, 0);
digitalWrite(SL4, 0);
digitalWrite(FOCUS,0);
digitalWrite(SHUTTER,0);
//this part let Smaker warm up
for(int k=0; k<256; k+=5){
analogWrite(LED1, k);
delay(30);
}
for(int k=0; k<256; k+=5){
analogWrite(LED2, k);
delay(30);
}
for(int k=0; k<256; k+=5){
analogWrite(LED3, k);
analogWrite(LED4, k);
delay(30);
}
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
void loop(){
inByte = Serial.read();
if(Serial.available() > 0){
if(inByte == '#'){
//store the info. from Serial
//Structure is #0FF0FF0FF0FF, 0s are the direction of each motor, 0 = LOW
//FFs are the amount of the steps that stepper should go
while(pointer < 13){
buffer[pointer] = Serial.read();
pointer ++;
}
motor1 = hex2dec(buffer[2]) + hex2dec(buffer[1]) * 16;
motor2 = hex2dec(buffer[5]) + hex2dec(buffer[4]) * 16;
motor3 = hex2dec(buffer[8]) + hex2dec(buffer[7]) * 16;
motor4 = hex2dec(buffer[11]) + hex2dec(buffer[10]) * 16;
pointer = 0; //reset the pointer so can be reuse the buffer
}
}else if(Serial.available() == 0){ //when there is no input, set all value to zero
motor1 = 0;
motor2 = 0;
motor3 = 0;
motor4 = 0;
buffer[12] = 0; //when there is no Serial input, take no foto
}
if(buffer[0] == '0'){ //this part can set the direction of each motor
digitalWrite(DI1, LOW);
}else if(buffer[0] == '1'){
digitalWrite(DI1, HIGH);
}
if(buffer[3] == '0'){
digitalWrite(DI2, LOW);
}else if(buffer[3] == '1'){
digitalWrite(DI2, HIGH);
}
if(buffer[6] == '0'){
digitalWrite(DI3, LOW);
}else if(buffer[6] == '1'){
digitalWrite(DI3, HIGH);
}
if(buffer[9] == '0'){
digitalWrite(DI4, LOW);
}else if(buffer[9] == '1'){
digitalWrite(DI4, HIGH);
}
//take the Photo first than make the movement
if(buffer[12] == '1'){
//cause the structur is not very stable,
//so wait a moment till the vibration stop
delay(2000);
foto();
//write something to tell processing give the next info Data
delay(500); //time for the camera's exposure
}else if(buffer[12] == '3'){
delay(2000);
foto();
delay(500);
foto();
delay(500);
foto();
delay(500);
}
go(1, motor1, 1); //this part can give each motor steps number
go(2, motor2, 1);
go(3, motor3, 1);
go(4, motor4, 1);
delay(50); //balance the Arduino's speed to save battery
Serial.print('?');
led(); //blink the LED on board
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
int hex2dec(byte c){
if(c>= '0' && c<= '9'){
return c - '0';
}else if(c >= 'A' && c <= 'F'){
return c - 'A' + 10;
}
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
void go(int stNumber,int stAmout,int stSpeed){
int selected = 0; //to assign the StPin's number
int i = 0; //to Set the counter variable
/*
Serial.print("Stepper ");
Serial.print(stNumber);
Serial.print(" is moving: ");
Serial.print(stAmout);
Serial.println(" steps"); //show all movements of four motors, println = print+return+newline meaning
*/
switch(stNumber){
case 1:
//digitalWrite(DI1,stDir); //set the direction of the rotation of the Stepper
selected = ST1; //assign the ST1 as aimed operate object
digitalWrite(SL1,HIGH); //awake the aimed Stepper
while(i < stAmout){ //in full step situation, stAmout means how many rotate
digitalWrite(selected,LOW);
digitalWrite(selected,HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(1600/stSpeed);
i++;
}
digitalWrite(SL1,LOW); //let the stepper go to sleep
break;
case 2:
//digitalWrite(DI2,stDir);
selected = ST2;
digitalWrite(SL2,HIGH);
while(i < stAmout){
digitalWrite(selected,LOW);
digitalWrite(selected,HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(1600/stSpeed);
i++;
}
digitalWrite(SL2,LOW);
break;
case 3:
//digitalWrite(DI3,stDir);
selected = ST3;
digitalWrite(SL3,HIGH);
while(i < stAmout){
digitalWrite(selected,LOW);
digitalWrite(selected,HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(1600/stSpeed);
i++;
}
digitalWrite(SL3,LOW);
break;
case 4:
//digitalWrite(DI4,stDir);
selected = ST4;
digitalWrite(SL4,HIGH);
while(i < stAmout){
digitalWrite(selected,LOW);
digitalWrite(selected,HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(1600/stSpeed);
i++;
}
digitalWrite(SL4,LOW);
break;
}
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
void foto(){
digitalWrite(LED1,LOW);
digitalWrite(LED2,LOW);
digitalWrite(LED3,LOW);
digitalWrite(LED4,LOW);
digitalWrite(FOCUS, HIGH);
delay(50);
digitalWrite(SHUTTER,HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(FOCUS, LOW);
digitalWrite(SHUTTER,LOW);
}
boolean ledState = LOW;
long previousMillis = 0;
long interval = 900;
void led(){
unsigned long currentMillis = millis();
if(currentMillis - previousMillis > interval){
previousMillis = currentMillis;
if(ledState == LOW)
ledState = HIGH;
else
ledState = LOW;
//ledState = LOW ? HIGH : LOW;
digitalWrite(LED1, ledState);
digitalWrite(LED2, ledState);
digitalWrite(LED3, ledState);
digitalWrite(LED4, ledState);
}
}
