hi,
our names are Omry and Ofec and we just started working with the mini maestro 24 channels controller. we want connect the maestro to a receiver and send command bytes to it through a remote control, to control 19 servos(servo model VS-S092J) and possibly 2 LEDs 
we wanted to know what are the limitations using the maestro scripting language versus MATLAB for example, or any other programming language?
can we use the maestro scripting language with case statements? for example, if we’d like to send a word through the RX line(we guess that’s where we’d connect the remote controller) and want the maestro to do something whenever it receives it?
also, if we use one of the pins as digital input or analog input, is there a way to use it in the script?
thanks in advance,
Omry and Ofec
Hello, Omry and Ofec,
What kind of remote control are you planning on using? The Maestro cannot directly receive and decode RC signals. If you wanted to use an RC interface, you might consider decoding your remote control’s signal with a separate microcontroller and using that to send serial commands to the Maestro. If you have subroutines in your Maestro script, you can send a serial command to restart the script at specified subroutines. Alternatively, you might consider using one of the channels as dummy channel. This would involve sending a “Set Target” serial command for the dummy channel with your microcontroller, and using the “GET_POSITION” command in your script to check the “state” of that channel. Then you could have specific subroutines run when the channel is at certain “states”.
All of the commands and keywords in the Maestro script language, including a brief description of each, can be found in the “Command Reference” section of the guide.
As far as your question about the Maestro scripting language, it is suitable for many simple applications, but if you need high precision timing or a faster processing speed, it might be better to use a separate microcontroller as I suggested above. If you have not used a scripting language like the Maestro’s, another limitation might be the learning curve. For example, since the Maestro does not directly support variables, you would have to use a position on the stack to hold a number that you can change and check the value of, like a variable.
-Brandon
hi Brandon,
thanks for the quick reply. since we just found out that the remote we wanted to use is missing, we’re not sure yet what kind of remote control we’re going to use in this project.
do you mean that we need to use another microcontroller BESIDES the receiver for the remote control’s signal to interpret the signal and then send to the maestro?
as far as the scripting language - we need to make our robot walk and do simple things(maybe in the future also move autonomously and pass obstacles) do you think the maestro scripting language will be enough?
thanks again for the quick reply,
Omry and Ofec
Also, does the mini maestro 24 channel controller support I2C protocol, or do we need to use a separate controller to send the signal to the maestro ?
thanks again
The Maestro cannot accept signals directly from an RC receiver. If you want to use an RC transmitter, you would need some kind of microcontroller between the receiver and Maestro to interpret the signals.
As far as your question about the scripting language, it would probably be enough to autonomously walk and avoid obstacles, assuming that the sensors you plan on using for obstacle avoidance can be read by the analog or digital input modes of the Maestro’s channels.
The Maestro does not support I2C communication, so you would need a separate microcontroller to use it.
-Brandon
