Serial Read and Write with Dynamixel shield

ROBOTIS Hardware Support DYNAMIXEL
#1

Hello, I have been trying to run dynamixel XL430s with Dynamixel shield. However, the serial connection between the shield and
I am using XL430s with arduino Mega 2560, dynamixel shield and LN101. From the earlier post, @Andrew has said that the main serial bus is occupied controlling the motors and to get the serial back, I need LN101 which uses different COM port.

My question is,

  1. Is it possible to serial write into dynamixel while getting serial read through LN101? For example, if I want to write into dynamixel which port do I use? “arduino” port or LN101 port?

  2. I am now using arduino MEGA, which has more than one TX/RX ports. Would I be able to serial write through that port instead of the main connection that I have?

Thank you in advance.

#2

Hi @chris, thanks for your question and updates!

Using the LN-101 with DYNAMIXEL Shield, it should be possible to write values into the Serial Monitor by selecting the port for the LN-101 connection to your computer.

With the Arduino MEGA, I believe it may still be limited by the UART. I should be able to check with a MEGA and update here by tomorrow.

#3

Hi @Andrew thank you for your reply!

I have tried to write values into the Serial Monitor by running example code “factory reset” which has DEBUG_SERIAL.read() but the what I type into the Serial Monitor does not seem to go through. I get LED light up on the TX on LN101, but it does not go beyond the selection option.

#4

After I have tried so many example files, tweaking it and trying to send simple characters into the serial port, the DEBUG_SERIAL.read() does not seem to work for any cases. I have tried redownloading the driver and still no good.
I also researched into this and this might be the problem…? if this is the case, shouldn’t just simple delay() could solve the issue?

SoftwareSerial cannot transmit and receive at the same time.