ESP32 + DXL Shield MKR Mashup in ARDUINO

[roboteer]

UPDATE 8/12/2023

I finally got the time to review/recheck this ESP32-V2 mash-up project with the new Robotis Dynamixel2Arduino Library V. 0.7.0 and the new ESP32 Boards Library V. 2.0.11. This project was successful back in February 2023 as shown in my previous posts, but recently (6 months later) I have found that my old sketches and my prototype PCB as described in the above posts DO NOT WORK properly anymore. So, I implemented a series of steps to figure out “what really is going on”!

STEP 1 – Checking my prototype PCB.

I stacked an Arduino MKR 0 on top of my PCB (i.e., MKR DXL SHIELD) as shown below:

And my previous SyncWrite-Goal-Position/Goal-Velocity sketch worked fine:

So, my prototype PCB is still working fine with the new Dynamixel2Arduino Library V. 0.7.0 and Arduino MKR Zero board!

STEP 2 – Checking my Adafruit ESP32 V2 Serial1 Port functionality.

I used a BT-210 hooked up the RX/TX Pins of the ESP32 V2 as shown below:

And I made an ESP32 sketch that applied the Robotis RC-100 protocol to work with the TASK 2 Output Monitor, and it worked fine for me – see below:

So Serial1 Port on my Adafruit ESP32 V2 is working fine as a UART Port via BT-210 and TASK2.

STEP 3 – Checking my Adafruit ESP32 V2 Serial1 Port functionality with Dynamixel2Arduino Library.

I re-implemented my previous mash-up project between the Adafruit ESP32 V2 + MKR DXL Shield as shown below:

Then I ran my previous ESP32 sketch that “previously” worked with 2XL430s but NOW with the NEW software tools (D2A V. 0.7.0 and ESP32 V. 2.0.11). It compiled and downloaded OK into the ESP32 V2 board, but the run-time results are quite unexpected - see below:

Apparently, DYNAMIXELS connected to the MKR DXL Shield CAN NO LONGER be found, so it looks like that my ESP32 + D2A mash-up project CAN NO LONGER be IMPLEMENTED for REASONS UNKNOWN at this point in time.

I retested my other mash-up projects with the Adafruit ESP32 S3 and UM ESP32 S3, and these projects (previously working) are no longer working in similar fashions!!!

ESP32 S3 + DXL MKR Shield Mash-Up in ARDUINO

2/27/2023 Continuing on my mash-up projects with the DXL MKR Shield, here are my current progress on using the ESP32 S3 controller with the Dynamixel2Arduino Library using the wire-wrap experimental carrier developed for my previous ESP32 mash-up project, see post below ESP32 + DXL Shield MKR Mashup in ARDUINO - #6 by roboteer I used the UM Feather S3 from Unexpected Maker and the test setup is shown below: [UMFS3_MKR_Shield] First, using this board with Windows 10 (at least on my current …

Basically my previous SOLUTIONS are no longer “SOLUTIONS”