No control over vertical headmovement?

Posted by: chrisbuy

This is the strangest problem I have even seen. I wrote a simple headmove.py script to move the head left/right, up/down. See attachment...

1. Connect to Q.bo using VNC
2. Copy the attached file headmove.py to the /home/pi/ directory
3. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal
4. Enter

   sudo pkill python
   sudo pkill chromium

5. Enter

   sudo cp headmove /opt/qbo
   sudo -u qbo python /opt/qbo/headmove.py

Qbo will initially move it's head towards the starting position and then start turning it's head. Horizontal movement but NO vertical movement of the head?!?!?! I know too little of the Arduino board and controller but this is just strange... also the head's vertical servo sometimes is fixed in position when powered on but sometimes it isn't and you can move it up and down. The horizontal servo seems always blocked when powered on.

headmove.py_.txt

Hi Chris,

what max & min params are you using to move the two servos ( horizontal/vertical )?. If you overpassed this values the servos will not work.

I was able to move the head in all directions with the scratch program.

Okay, let me rephrase my problem... running the headmove.py test program seems to work immediately after a power off/on cycle. I have sneaking suspicion the SetAngleRelative messes up things.

I can confirm the "SetAngleRelative" (SET_SERVO_ANGLE_REL)  messes up headmovement.

I've replaced upon boot the standard PiFaceFast.py with my version that doesn't use "controller.SetAngleRelative" (SET_SERVO_ANGLE_REL) and only uses "controller.SetServo" (SET_SERVO) - my version is NOT finished yet (!) but I know what commands I sent to the Arduino for headcontrol.

The result:I keep control over head movement both horizontally and vertically. Once "controller.SetAngleRelative" (SET_SERVO_ANGLE_REL) is used, I loose control for the final used servo (1 or 2) with  "controller.SetServo" (SET_SERVO).