Updated 08/10/2010. Phoenix code v2.0.

Safety first! Wear eye protection and never touch a powered robot!

Software:
  - Basic Micro Studio
  - Basic Atom Pro program

I. SSC-32 Configuration: Registers

Step 1.
Place the robot on top of a CD spindle or similar to hold the legs off the ground.

Download and install the latest version of LynxTerm.

Figure 1.

Step 2.
Connect the SSC-32 to the PC's serial port. This can be recognized by the 9 pins that stick out. Apply power, and the green LED should light and stay on until it receives a valid serial command. Run the LynxTerm program.

To test basic communications, do a "ver" test: type "ver" into the terminal then press "Enter". You should see the proper firmware version returned.

Please consult the serial troubleshooting guide if you have difficulties with this.

Click on "Firmware" along the bottom of the LynxTerm screen.

Click on "Open" and browse to the firmware file you just downloaded.

Make sure the SSC-32 is powered, and click on "Begin Update".

Figure 3.

Now do another "ver" test: type "ver" into the terminal then press "Enter". You should see a new firmware version returned.

Figure 4.

Step 5.
Place the robot in a position as close to neutral as possible. Click on "All=1500" in the bottom right portion of the screen. Your robot should go to and hold the neutral position, and should resemble figures 7 through 13. If the joints are off by more than 15° you may have made an error in assembly. To correct this, remove the center screw from the round servo horn, pull the servo horn off the servo, rotate until it's aligned, then reattach the servo horn.

Caution! You are about to power up the servos. When this is done immediately make sure all of the moving parts are not tangled or hung up and no joints are positioned beyond their range of motion. If anything looks wrong, power down and look for mechanical problems with the build. This is bot has long, apendeges. You must periodically allow the servos to cool down if left on for more then 5 minutes at a time. Take care with the vertical servos, especially the head and tail. They should be monitored to prevent overheating during the calibration.

Figure 5.

Click on "Default" to initialize default values.

Figure 6.

Do the most accurate alignment as possible! The robot can only operate as well as as it is aligned. In other words, a poorly aligned robot will walk poorly!

Servo Channel Numbering.

Do this for servos #04 and 20.

Note, the mouse's scrollwheel or keyboard's arrow keys can be used to make fine adjustments.

Figure 7.

Do this for servos #00, 08, 16, 24.

Note, the mouse's scrollwheel or keyboard's arrow keys can be used to make fine adjustments.

Figure 8.

Do this for servos #01, 05, 09, 17, 21, 25.

Figure 9.

Do this for servos #02, 06, 10, 18, 22, 26.

Figure 10.

Step 11.
Now adjust the robot's mandible servos. Adjust #13 and #14 until the mandibles are level with the ground, both from the front and side.

Figure 11.

Figure 12.

Figure 13.

II. Bot Board II Configuration

Step 14.
To connect the Bot Board II to the SSC-32, you will need to modify a 12" servo extender cable. Remove the header pins from the cable so you have two female ends. Then use an exacto knife to gently pry the tab up to pull the red wire free on one end. Cover the exposed female connector with heat shrink to avoid accidental shorts.

Remove the TX and RX jumpers from the lower-right corner of the SSC-32, and plug the unmodified end of the cable in. Yellow on TX, red on RX, and black on ground.

Plug in some extra lengths of 18-24awg wires to VL on the SSC-32, with the 9vdc battery clip. These will be used to run power to the Bot Board II.

See Tables 15-2 through 15-4, and the schematic below for connection information.

Figure 14.

Plug in the PS2 cable as shown in Figure 15-1. Plug in the power wires from the SSC-32 to VL.

Note: Refer only to Figure 15-1 for connection information. The cable colors in the picture may be outdated. If your cable's colors do not match the diagram, you can find a complete listing of possible colors here.

See Tables 15-2 through 15-4, and the schematic below for connection information.

Install the BASIC Atom Pro as shown.

Atom Pro Orientation:

Figure 15-1.

Connection Information Tables.

Schematic.

Schematic.

Step 16. Download the Program
Download the Basic Micro Studio. Install and run the IDE to allow programming the chip.

Download the .zip file, and unzip it. Open the .prj file in Studio (File->Open->*.prj), and verify that the files listed in the Workspace are in the order shown in Table 16. Install the PS2 controller receiver into the PS2 cable on the robot, make sure your PS2 controller is turned on, and then apply power to the robot. Program the Atom Pro. If all is well, you will hear a beep after power up. Press Start and the legs should snap to position. At this point, if you properly calibrated the servo offsets, the legs should be perfectly aligned.

Note: The software switches the controller to analog mode. However, some controllers may need to be put into analog mode manually. If you hear a continuous beeping, the PS2 controller is not connected to the Atom properly or is not functioning. If you hear beeping, you can try pressing Reset on the Bot Board II. You can also test the controller with a Playstation 2 to verify that it is working.

There are two special "body moves" functions that are triggered by pressing Circle, or X. While in one of these modes, the hexapod does not walk. The joysticks and some buttons change function depending on which mode is toggled on; see Table 17 for details.