Workshop: Programming a Bioloid robot workbench using C# and C++

[Next post: Dynamixel communications with C#]

It would be a workshop using C# .Net and C++ with Qt 5. The code presented here is used in this two different robots and boards, a HP 214 Ipaq with Windows Mobile and a Raspberry Pi, using the Robotis CM-510 as the servo and sensors controller:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvaMTdlb48E&w=281&h=210][youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhv43H5Omfc&w=281&h=210]

These will be the first steps, using C# and .Net , here the code and the exe for the Workbench UI:

Using this enhaced Toss Mode that adds some new functions.  Some of them:

And these are the base classes that allow to create it:

[caption id="attachment_1043" align="aligncenter" width="547"] Bioloid common C# classes[/caption]

We will start connecting to the Dynamixel bus and sending commands and queries. These classes do the work:

- DynamixelCommunications

- SerialPort2Dynamixel

- RCDataReader

Before we start, one question: why I am not using Robotis Dynamixel SDK?

Well, when I started programming Bioloid there were no SDK, so I start creating my own SDK. When the SDK was published I try it but it has two important handicaps:

- it only works with the USB2Dynamixel and I need that it should work with the serial port and with zigbee or bluetooth (really all 3 use the serial connection)

- there is no way to query the sensors connected to the CM-510

[Next post: Dynamixel communications with C#]