Robotino Camera Problem

[amr.labib]

Hello,

I am trying to move Robotino using information acquired from the camera. When the robot moves at a high speeds (starting from approximately 900) the connection is closed. The robot stops and when I create a new connection, I am unable to use or even detect the camera anymore until I restart the robot.

I tried using C++ code runnig from a PC using the API, running Robotino View, and running local code and on three Robotinos. The same thing always happen. It even happens when I am running the robotinocontrol example from Robotino View.

Did this problem occur to anyone before?

Thnak you.

[MBellenberg]

Dear amr.labib

Thank you for your precise fault message.
Your colleague has contacted Festo Didactic via phone as well and
we are in close contact with your group leader (Moustafa)

Festo is working on this problem right now:
· soon we will have a software fix that will restart the driver if the connection is lost
· on the other hand we are checking the hardware to find a possible
the source of this problem as well

[MBellenberg]

Dear customer

Finally - after long testing procedures, we have found out that the layout of Robotino, its components (e.g. WEBCAM) and Software worked fine so fare.
An EMC/EMV influence on the USB port caused by fast moving motors finally caused the Camera-Freezing.

Even thought Festo has proven the EMC/EMV safety of Robotino in 2006, we had
a change of the industrial PC beginning 2008.
The industrial PC (Kontron PC104 "MOPSlcdLX 500Mhz”) shipped with Robotino since 01/2008 has more sensitive AMD powered USB ports than the slower “MOPSlcdVE 300Mhz” shipped before 01/2008.

Enduring testing has shown that this faulty behaviour can be fixed:

• For now 100 pcs of a ferrits (140Ω at 25Mhz) are ordered.
• The procedure of inserting this ferrit is rather easy.
  Please take a look at the enclosed PDF file
  "How to solve a freezing camera problem on Robotino.pdf"
• If you agree to fix this malfunction USB yourself we will be happy to send out the ferrits to you as soon as possible.
• Please contact your local Festo Didactic Dealer.
  Please be so kind to name the number of Robotinos that causes the malfunction, and its SSID-names (e.g "Robotino1.3" or "Robotino4.123", ....)

Note:
The FHCC-Teams will be provided by the fix automaticly starting May 13th 2009 - no action needed.

Our sincerest apologies for any inconveniences caused by the camera-freezing!

Greetings
M. Bellenberg
Festo Didactic

Note:
Please always keep the batteries loaded. Very week batteries could cause a quick
drop of the power if the current of the motors is very high. In this case the
connection might be cut off and the display will show "batteries empty"
(the message is shown only 1sec. - we will fix this timing issue soon)