Palm Microbot Controller

The Microbot is a fairly old "arm"-type robot with 5 degrees of freedom. (Picture 1, Picture 2.) We have a few of them in the robotics lab at NJIT. The cool thing about these robots is that they have standard 25-pin serial ports on the back (one in, one as a pass-thru) that can accept text commands.

The Palm Microbot Controller that I wrote with PocketC works by sending these text commands through the Palm's serial port.

       

The Microbot accepts commands (in all CAPS) that start with the "@" sign. There are 7 commands that it accepts:

@STEP SPEED, BASE, SHOULDER, ELBOW, LEFT-WRIST, RIGHT-WRIST, GRIPPER
 
	(example:
		@STEP 88500, 100, 0, 0, 0, 0, 50 
	will move the base 100 to the left and open the gripper 50 half-steps 
	at a speed of 88500)
@RUN (runs a program stored in the Microbot's 1k of RAM - yes, it's very old.)
@CLOSE (closes the gripper)
@READ (reads the current positions of the stepper motors - @RESET resets them to 0.)
@RESET
@QDUMP (downloads the contents of the Microbots memory)
@QWRITE (uploads a sequence of steps to the Microbot)

Download

1. Palm Microbot Controller - Standalone 57kb

This version requires no other software and will work on its own.


2. Palm Microbot Controller - PocketC PRC 18kb

This version requires PocketC or PocketC Runtime. Download this one if you want an icon on the Palm and you already have PocketC.


3. Palm Microbot Controller - PocketC PDB 17kb

This version requires PocketC or PocketC Runtime, but must be run from within PocketC - there is no icon.


4. Palm Microbot Controller - Source 10kb

Here is all the source code for this project with some icons. Make all the changes you want... drop me an email if you do!

Notes

• You can change the Step Size and the Speed by clicking on them.



• The Serial button lets you change the serial port settings. The program starts up as 2400 baud, 8 data bits, No parity, and 1 Stop bit as the default because this is how all the Microbots in my school were configured. Feel free to change the default in the source and recompile - it can be found in the Microbot_Controller_messageloop file.



• The Upload and Download buttons don't work. There's something to do with intercepting a carriage return and then getting the next line. Their intent was to Upload and Download Microbot programs between the Microbot and the Palm's Memos. Wanna fix it?



• The Read button reads the current positions of the Microbot's stepper motors. The last number is irrelevant - it is some code that can be used to figure out the last button pushed on the Teach-Pendant using some formula given in the Microbot manual.



• The M-Run sends the @RUN command to the Microbot to run the current sequence of steps stored in the Microbot's internal memory. This button was intended to be used with the Upload & Download buttons, but since those don't work, this is pretty useless.



• The Set Point button will append a step to a Memo on the Palm entitled "MicrobotProg".



• The Run button will send each line of "MicrobotProg" as an @STEP command to the Microbot, essentially running a sequence from the Palm.



• Clear will delete the "MicrobotProg" Memo.



• Reset will send the @RESET command to the Microbot. Turning the Microbot off and waiting 5 seconds seems to be more effective.

Suggestion