Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

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khniehaus
 
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Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by khniehaus »

Hello,

I am following the tutorial, https://learn.adafruit.com/ttl-serial-c ... -comm-tool, to set up the TTL camera to take still images. I have bought and downloaded Parallels, and have arduino and commtool running in windows on there. Every time I get to the step about clicking on 'Get Version', I get the message 'Cmd time out'. I have tried adding 'Serial.begin(38400); Serial.println('starting');' as this person did to check the serial communication http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=22936, but the serial is printing gibberish instead of 'starting'. Images below. Please note that I used blue wire for RX and green for TX. I have more images if needed, maximum of three means I can't put them all on this post. Breadboard seems to be wired as shown.
error
error
Screen Shot 2015-02-20 at 20.08.38.png (568.73 KiB) Viewed 944 times
gibberish
gibberish
Screen Shot 2015-02-20 at 20.16.28.png (452.77 KiB) Viewed 944 times
setup
setup
IMG_6520.JPG (580.39 KiB) Viewed 944 times

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khniehaus
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by khniehaus »

Additional images...
closeup
closeup
IMG_6519.JPG (542.29 KiB) Viewed 943 times
camera
camera
IMG_6523.JPG (338.83 KiB) Viewed 943 times

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Your connections all look correct. And the gibberish in the serial monitor indicates that there is some communication going on. You can try with a few different baud-rates. It is possible that the camera is set to a different speed.

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khniehaus
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by khniehaus »

Hi, thank you for your reply. To be clear, you mean the baud rate in arduino software, not the baud rate on commtools, correct? Asking because of all the warnings not to ever change the baud rate in commtools because of the chance of disabling the camera.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

You can try it in the Serial monitor first to see if anything more intelligible shows up.
You can also change it on the main screen of the commtool where it says "BautRate" (sp) in your first screen-shot. That just affects the CommTool itself and the speed it uses to communicate with the camera.
Image
The warning applies to the camera configuration window. That will attempt to re-configure the settings on the camera. Do not change the baud rate in this window!.
Image

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khniehaus
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by khniehaus »

Hello, so I've tried messing with the baud rate in both arduino and commtools (not the configuration, no worries), and I'm still having the same problem. I've tried setting them all to the same one and trying each possible rate, off-setting them, random settings, etc, and I continue to hit the same error at that point. I've also had to restart a lot because after a certain number of tries it seems to cause communication errors with the port. On a whim, I did end up trying the software serial example, and it seems to be communicating to some extent, and at 56700 displays the correct message without special characters. Is it possible that the issue I'm having is one with Parallels or commtool, not the hardware itself? I guess there's not too much way to tell that conclusively, though, beyond what we've already said. Is there any other way for me to test this camera, or do you have any other suggestions?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Is it possible that the issue I'm having is one with Parallels or commtool, not the hardware itself?
It is possible. Let me check with one of our Mac experts...

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khniehaus
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by khniehaus »

Is there any other way to test the camera's basic functionality, ie for posting to twitter or similar? I understand that I won't be able to change anything or use the motion sensing capabilities, but could I say, hook it up to an ethernet shield and a button and appropriate arduino code and try to run it that way? Or is commtools my only hope of getting it to run? Thank you so much!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

One of our mac experts was able to query the camera, but not upload images. So it sounds like there are some compatibility issues with CommTool and Parallels.

But if you are able to talk to the camera using the Arduino examples, then the camera is functioning. Have you tried the snapshot example to verify that it can take an image?

To post on Twitter, you would probably need to go through a gateway like Temboo. The Arduino does not have enough resources to do it directly.
http://scuola.arduino.cc/lesson/QeobxOq ... ith_Temboo

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

I'm the guy who tried CommTool with Parallels. It was operator error that I couldn't download a picture. I am now able to get pictures from the camera using CommTool on Parallels. So you shouldn't be having any trouble with it.

This is an Arduino Uno you're running? Are you running the "blank" sketch on it?

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khniehaus
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by khniehaus »

Hi Rick, did you change anything to remedy that error? Whether or not I should be having trouble with it, I'm unfortunately still getting all the same errors as discussed above. Thank you!

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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

I didn't realize that I had to open a file in order to download the image. I was just clicking the Stop CFBuf button.

I didn't do anything special to get the thing working with Parallels. It just came up and worked.

Have you tried swapping the green and white wires? Do the RX and TX LEDs on the Uno do anything when you click on a button?

Do you see anything printed in the Data Show window?

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khniehaus
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by khniehaus »

Hello, thank you for your reply. I see no data in the display window on commtools. When I send the blank arduino sketch, and when I open the port on commtools/click get version, and when I do either individually, the TX/RX lights on the arduino flash briefly. This does not happen when I swap the TX and RX connections to the camera (nothing happens then, as makes sense). No matter what I try after opening the commtools port, I get the same 'cmd time out' error.

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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

khniehaus wrote:Is there any other way to test the camera's basic functionality, ie for posting to twitter or similar? I understand that I won't be able to change anything or use the motion sensing capabilities, but could I say, hook it up to an ethernet shield and a button and appropriate arduino code and try to run it that way? Or is commtools my only hope of getting it to run? Thank you so much!
Sure -the next page in the tutorial talks about reading pictures with Arduino software:
https://learn.adafruit.com/ttl-serial-c ... the-camera

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khniehaus
 
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Re: Cmd time out on TTL Camera tutorial

Post by khniehaus »

Hi all, sorry for the late reply. So the Arduino sketches worked perfectly with a little minor tinkering. If commtools doesn't work for anyone else, just go straight to that. Thanks to all of you for all your help! Much appreciated.

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