I just bought a new Orangutan SVP-1284 robot controller. My problem is that it just doesn’t seem to power up when I connect it via USB. I have followed the instructions in the user guide to set it up in Windows 7. I have installed the driver, but when I connect the controller via the USB-cable nothing happens. Not even the power led turns on.
I’ve tried to connect the controller to different PC’s, I’ve tried different USB-cables, so I don’t think anything is wrong with the cable or the PC.
Am I missing something? Shouldn’t the controller at least power up when I connect it via USB cable, or is there any jumpers or something I have to set? The controller is fresh out of the box, nothing has ever been connected to it, so i’m pretty sure that at least I haven’t ruined it
If anyone have some thoughts on this, I would appreciate it.
There is a jumper needed to power it from the USB, however it may not work. From the “Pololu Orangutan SVP User’s
Guide”:
11. VCC-VUSB jumper
To power the board from USB, install a 1×2 male header at this location and use a blue shorting block to connect
VUSB to VCC. See Section 11 for more information and caveats about using this jumper.
11. USB Power
When connected to a computer, the USB connection provides a 5 V power supply. If an external power supply is
present, the unit will run off of the external supply and not draw any power from USB. If only the USB power is
present, then by default the auxiliary processor will be powered from USB, but the AVR and the VCC power pins
on the board will not be powered.
An option is available for powering the entire board from USB. To power the board from USB, install a jumper
to connect VUSB to VCC. When the board is powered this way, the voltage regulator will conduct current
backwards, resulting in a VBAT around 4.6 – 5.0 V and a VCC around 4.3 – 4.6 V. In some cases, VCC will be
low enough to trigger brown-out detection on the AVR. Therefore, if you are having trouble powering your AVR
from USB, try changing your brown-out detection fuses to be tolerant of lower voltages.
Using the VCC-VUSB jumper can also cause other problems because the Orangutan is not being USB-compliant
whenever it draws more than 100 mA from the USB. If the Orangutan draws too much power from USB, the host
may respond by disconnecting the power supply to that port. Therefore, if you are having trouble powering your
AVR from USB, you may be drawing too much power.
Thank you for that info. This must be it. I will try the jumper tonight when I’m home from work.
I’m just wondering, you say “it may not work”, any particular reason you think it may not work? This is just for powering up the device so that it can be recognized by windows and installed correctly. I will use an external power supply to run motors and other stuff.
You should not expect the blue power LED to come on when you connect USB, but the green USB led for the auxiliary processor (near the USB connector) should definitely come on, and the device should show up in your Device Manager in Windows.
Do you see any LEDs on the board turn on when you connect it to USB and nothing else?
It did not work for be. This is what I read in the document:
When the board is powered this way, the voltage regulator will conduct current
backwards, resulting in a VBAT around 4.6 – 5.0 V and a VCC around 4.3 – 4.6 V. In some cases, VCC will be
low enough to trigger brown-out detection on the AVR. Therefore, if you are having trouble powering your AVR
from USB, try changing your brown-out detection fuses to be tolerant of lower voltages.
I did not want to change the fuses, so I just connected a 9 volt power source to VBAT.
David, I think we’re on to something here. No LED’s come on when I connect USB. On the other hand I tried Mikes suggestion with the jumper, and that powered up the controller. The green USB led and the blue power led came on. I also tried a 9v power source which seemed ok.
My problem is that my PC will not recognize the SVP as a USB unit. Since nothing happens when I only connect USB (not even the green LED), I suspect maybe the auxiliary processor may be the problem? Any thoughts on this?
I manually installed the drivers (3 COM ports), but all of them has a problem in Windows and cannot start (error code 10), which seems to indicate that they dont “see” the unit. Or am I missing something here?
Any more thoughts and help would be appreciated.
EDIT: The green USB LED does NOT come on, even when I connect the external power. I confused the green user led with the green usb led. So it seems that the whole USB part of the controller is dead
The “Device can not start” error code 10 is a problem that typically happens for Windows XP SP2 users. What version of Windows are you using and have you read the driver installation section of the user’s guide? Also, what do you mean by “manually installed the drivers”? These entries that you see in your device manager: do they disappear when you disconnect the SVP, or are they always there?
I’m a little confused by your description. What exactly happens when you connect GND and VIN and nothing else? Do you just see the green USER LED and the blue power LED, and no other visible activity? The Orangutan SVP is supposed to come with a demo program pre-loaded on to the AVR which blinks the red user LED, makes beeps with the buzzer, and prints a message to the LCD.
My Windows version is Windows 7 64-bit. I have read the driver installation section and it seems it should be pretty easy. In the driver installation section it says for Windows Vista users (I presume also for Windows 7 users):
“Windows Vista users: After the INF file is installed, your computer should automatically install the necessary drivers when you connect an Orangutan SVP, in which case no further action from you is required”
This does not happen. When I connect the Orangutan SVP after I installed the inf-file, nothing happens. No LEDS is coming on, and Windows does not automatically install the drivers. So then I entered Device Manager and browsed for the .inf-file in add hardware section. This way I installed the drivers “manually”. These entries are always there, they do not disappear.
When I connect GND and VIN and nothing else, 3 things happen: The blue power LED comes on, the green user LED comes on, and the backlight of the LCD comes on (however no text in the LCD).
I installed the pololu_usb_to_serial.inf drivers on my wife’s Windows 7 64-bit VAIO and saw the three Pololu USB serial connections in device manager. When I plugged in the USB windows installed the device driver and I saw the green light. I did not try to upload any code however, I need to install the development environment.
Thanks for your feedback. At least we can now rule out that 64-bit OS is a problem. My problem is when I plug in the USB, Windows does not install the drivers, and there is no light. I have tried to connect to two different PC’s, and its the same on both.
I can only see lights on the controller when I connect another power supply, but then it’s the green USER led that comes on (I doublechecked this - it’s not the green usb led), I find this strange.
I was thinking, maybe there is some setting (maybe a jumper) or something that deactivates the USB programmer? does something like that exists on the robot controller?
Looking at the schematic I do not see a jumper to disable the USB.
I see the USB green light come on when I plug in the USB even when there is no power supply connected. It does seem like your USB connection is not working. Have you tried a different USB cable?
