2 ax2500 on once computer

im trying to control 2 ax2500 with an onboard laptop on my rover. i want to use roboserver to communicate with the controllers as im writing a wrapper around it for my control system. i tried to open two instance of roboserver and the second instance keeps crashing. so im assuming i cant use 2 roboservers on the same computer?
wut other options do i have. please advice.
msbasher

You don't have too many options at the moment. You can select the serial port in Roboserver, but each instance (if they could run without crashing) would be using the same TCP/IP port.
We could easily compile a second version of Roboserver that would be listening to a different TCP/IP port, but then the question is how would you plan to communicate with the main computer. Roborun is written to talk to only one controller.

If you are prepare to dive into some Visual Basic programming, we could make code available to you.

Later this year, we plan to modify the controller software to allow two or maybe three controllers to be connected to a single serial port. This is 2-3 months away, however.

i was thinking if u can get me something that listens on a different tcp port i can get my wrapper to parse the incoming commands from the main computer and pass it to the appropiate server. im doing this for a senior design project at santa clara university in conjunction with the nasa ames and im more than willing to look at any code u r willing to provide me and see if i can work with that.
thanks
msbasher

We will post a version in a couple of days that uses port 1008 and COM2. Current version uses port 1007 and COM1.

also i was wondering if u can point me to the visual basic code for the roboserver.
thanks
msbasher

The source code and two executables (with different socket/com configurations) have been posted at <A href="dev.roboteq.com/dev1/download/roboserver2.zip" target=_blank>www.roboteq.com/download/roboserver2.zip

u r the man... i got it to work... im also porting it to C and/or C#.net and im willing to share the code here if anyone else is interested.

Beta version of firmware is now capable of handling up to 4 controllers (8 motors) off a single serial port.

Scheme works as follows in a two controller configuration:

Each controller is given an individual address of 0 to 3 using PC utility. Stored in Flash

Serial ports are daisy chained. Tx from PC goes to Rx of Controller 1. Tx of controller 1 goes to Rx of Controller 2. Tx of Controller 2 goes to Rx of PC.

Each controller echoes every character that it receives

Controller 0 recognizes the standard commands (e.g !a55, ?a ...) ignores the rest

Controller 1 recognizes commands+1 (see ASCII table: !+1 = ", ?+1 = @). E.g "a55, @a ignores the rest

This scheme introduces a 1 character latency (~1ms). Furthermore the 9600bps bandwidth must now be shared by two or more controllers.

Firmware is available to beta testers. Please contact me to request a copy an instructions.

Cosma

i would like to get a copy for testing. u can contact me at the email i used to register here.

I am in need of a copy of this firmware.

Are you able to send me a link to my email?

woodsb02 AT gmail DOT com

Cheers