Serial monitor outputting unintelligible characters w/ Arduino UNO R3 and XL330 Motors

Technical Support
, , , ,
1

Issue:

I am currently using a Dynamixel shield alongside Arduino UNO R3 with XL330 motors. I’m using the DynamixelShield/basic/velocity-mode example code. The motor spins just fine, but my serial monitor output looks like this:

���~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~�����~
[Description: a bunch of diamonds with question marks inside]
I’ve tried switching between baud rates on the serial monitor to no avail. What can I do so that I can see English characters on my screen instead?

DYNAMIXEL Servo:

XL330-M288-T

DYNAMIXEL Controller:

Dynamixel Shield

Software Interface:

DynamixelShield

2

Hello Zoolan,

Any updates?

I attempted to look into this but am unsure what the cause may be. My best guess would be the baudrate not matching in the serial monitor and or your serial.begin code.

Have you tried recovering firmware using the DYNAMIXEL Wizard yet?

Is it okay to make this post public? Others may have experienced this before.

4

Hello Zoolan,

Checking on this one more time.
Instructions for operating the Serial Monitor can be found in the e-Manual.

** Be sure to use SoftwareSerial Library to use the serial port with DYNAMIXEL Shield and AVR 8 bit boards as the port is designed for the use of general pins. Prefered Comunication Modules: BT-210, BT-410, LN-101.**

5

With the UNO R3, I had difficulty using Software Serial, so I have switched to UNO-R4 which has 2 Hardware Serials which made DXL Control and Serial Comms at the same time and much easier without having to flip the switch back and forth all the time!

Please read this post: