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I would expect you to need two wires from the clock to the Art Controller: A common (ground) connection, and a signal from the buzzer output to the Art Controller’s trigger input. With a single wire (no ground connection), it may trigger, but it may not do so reliably. Essentially what you are doing is using the fact that it is a changing (“AC coupled”) signal, rather than its absolute value to create a trigger.
If you wish to power the clock from the 5V power supply on the Art Controller, then you need to run not just a 5V wire but also a common (ground) wire between the two. And, depending on how much current the clock requires, the regulator on the Art Controller may or may not be sufficient to power it. Since the regulator handles 150 mA and the Art Controller requires 95 mA, that only leaves 55 mA available to power the clock kit– you may want to look at how much power it draws when running on its own power supply.Depending on your application, it may be a better choice to use the power supply that came with the clock kit, and use it to power the Art Controller, rather than doing it the other way around.You will not be able to measure the buzzer voltage on your multimeter because it is changing very quickly. However, what you should look for is whether one side or the signal goes low when the buzzer sounds. Without looking at the code, my guess is that neither side of the buzzer goes low when the buzzer sounds. You might be able to fix the problem by intentionally AC coupling the buzzer output to the Art Controller’s trigger input, by connecting one up to the other through a capacitor.I’m sorry to hear about the problem. There are a few failure modes that would cause it to totally cease operation.
Most obvious: No power. Check that the batteries (if using) are good, or that your plug-in 5 V power supply is good, and that the power jumper is installed and in the right location. Check that there are good solder joints at the power connector/battery wires, power jumper, and at the pins of the chip.Also possible:* Reset problem, if pin 1 of the chip or the reset button has an accidental connection* Clock problem, if the clock crystal or its two capacitors are not soldered well, or are cracked.Yikes! And, that sounds like a fine solution.
I’ve lived in places where I ritualistically touched (grounded) door frames when I walked by, to keep from developing an ESD-dangerous charge.That’s a good point; I was thinking of a possible problem on the analog side. You’re absolutely right that this could be a “PWM” type problem due to a clocking or interrupt issue. (And if so, it would be the first time that I’ve seen it.)
jgr4: Would you be willing to try (yet another) replacement servo or to send the EBB, power supply, and servo back to us for testing?I’ve never heard of a servo motor doing that, so there may well be something wrong with it. I cannot imagine a situation in which the software or interference would have an effect on that. I suppose that a power supply malfunction could cause something like this, but you probably would see other signs of that as well.
Also, you might consider writing to us (please contact our shop directly by e-mail) to request a replacement for your original servo. If that doesn’t fix it, then let’s try to see if it’s a problem with the EBB or power supply. We’d like to help you get to the bottom of it. :)We have actually strapped an ‘XX8 board into the battery compartment area, which (we thought) worked surprisingly well:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/3287679666/ (This was part of the “old school” TWI method of getting video onto the Peggy:Adding proper mounting points for one of those isn’t a bad idea….The wiki does specify Arduino 1.0.3 as the required software, so that’s only *almost* following wiki procedures. ;)
In any case, I’ve downloaded 1.0.5, and I am unable to reproduce your error (at least on a Mac). The error may have to do with the underlying version of avr-libc installed on your computer.You might try opening up the file in question (fiveletterwords.h) and adding the word “const” in front of that variable definition, like so:const unsigned int fiveLetterPosArray
to see if that fixes it for you.I guess I’m not familiar with a “TTL level COM” port, but if it exists, then there should be some way to hook it up. The FTDI adapter is not strictly necessary, and there are a great many articles out there about programming an Arduino directly from an RS-232 port. Depending on exactly what your computer has, you may need a level adapter or polarity adapter in order for everything to work correctly.
Hi Nadine,
Interesting! One (longshot) thing that you might try is saving the file in the format “Inkscape SVG” and re-opening it, to see if that helps to fix any bad paths.Is there any chance you might be willing to post a link to the file so that we can make suggestions?Fantastic– glad to hear it!
(But, I wonder what kind of inputs can cause the program to fail like that?)The current range is roughly up to 25 mA per LED, in the time that they are lit, so it should not be possible to damage the LEDs through code alone. That was a tricky design decision; it could be much brighter if it weren’t so important to keep it safe! More info here: http://www2.evilmadscientist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=2979
Our technique is much like mlowe’s, except that we just sight over the edge of the ornament to the edge of the Eggbot’s frame. With motors off and pen up, I spin the ornament around one full turn by hand, and align it such that the highest point is pointing up. Then, push the ornament into the spring plunger just a little, slide the end down at the motor side, and spin it around again to check. Usually, this takes just that two pairs of spins and about fifteen seconds, when switching between two objects of the same type.
The precision egg coupler itself is *great* for eggs, but doesn’t work well on bare glass surfaces. There should be a big rubber washer that came with your kit, which serves as a grippy interface between the glass and the coupler.If you are experiencing breakage while engraving, there are a few things that you might consider:– Try to find some ornaments that have thicker walls. You can tell by tapping the surfaces. Some ornaments are simply paper thin, and there’s hardly anything you can do to avoid breaking them while engraving. Ornaments with thicker walls can be much more robust.– Reduce the vibrating speed of the motor, move more slowly. This makes marks that are less deep, but more accurate.– And the other big one: Reduce pressure. Let the diamond tip barely touch the surface, rather than using the springy hinge to push it down.In our experience what happens when you wash a board with alcohol is that it partly dissolves the remaining solder flux, and spreads it around in a thin, sticky, sometimes white and flaky, but all-around awful layer that remains when the alcohol evaporates. If you didn’t leave it soaking for a long time, my best guess would be that the finish isn’t actually damaged, so much as covered under a thin layer of thinned solder flux, which can be removed with great patience or a professional-grade flux remover.
Unless you’re using flux that *requires* removal or you are willing to pick up some solder flux, your best bet is probably to just hide the backside, and hope that no one asks to see– it shouldn’t be harmful.And on that bug: Yep, you’re totally right. That jumper used to be called JP1. Somehow, you’re the first person to notice this after a couple of years, and a surprisingly large number of Peggy 2 kits out there!For the record, we did update the extensions with the change suggested by jlauro, which was necessary to fix a change in Inkscape as of 0.48.4. This fix is included with extensions version 2.3.4 and higher.
What kinds of objects are you printing on? And, are you printing one-after-another of the same type of thing, or always changing between different types of things?
