Auto detect lack of power from wall adapter

[oskay]

Copied from issue by @EmbeddedMan (Brian Schmalz) at Google Code: https://code.google.com/p/eggbotcode/issues/detail?id=22

"The latest hardware versions of the EBB (1.5 and 2.0) with the latest firmware (2.0.1) have the ability to monitor the power input from the wall. Because the boards are also powered from USB, you can't easily tell (from the LEDs, for example) if you've got good wall power on your EggBot.

This is a request to add a feature to the Inkscape extension that would query the EBB for the current voltage level at the power input jack, and warn the user if they try to run their EB without power (or with power less than, say 8V).

The EBB command to use is the QC command."

From Ragstian:
"Code to manually read the voltage and current setting has been added to the eggbot extension, (eggbot.py and eggbot.inx). See this forum thread for the updated files.
http://forum.evilmadscientist.com/discussion/337/checking-ebb-motor-voltage-from-inkscape#Item_17 "

From Brian:
"The code that ragstian added works to properly detect the input voltage to the EBB. Note, however, that you need to use v2.2.3 of the EBB firmware in order for this to work correctly. Previous versions had a semi-broken QC command.

At this point, I think all it would take is a little python to send the QC command and verify a minimum voltage (say 8.5V) before the beginning of a plot."

[oskay]

Handling this properly would require (1) checking the EBB version, and (2) querying the QC value, if EBB firmware level is high enough. At present, the vast majority of users will not have the high enough firmware level to support this query.

[EmbeddedMan]

Agreed. I believe the EBB firmware part of this issue is complete and working, and at this point it is purely an inkscape-extension task. There may be little value in adding this to the extension, but it could be done, as you suggest, by looking at the version value of the EBB firmware running on the board first.

[oskay]

Are there any issues with the current EBB code that should prevent us from beginning to deploy it on new EBBs as they are shipped?

[EmbeddedMan]

Windell,

I don't believe so. However, I believe the latest code (version 2.2.6) has
only been tested by a couple folks. The only possible strangeness
(unconfirmed) is when dealing with very long moves (like > 24 bit values).

So I strongly recommend testing this version out, a lot, and reporting
anything strange as issues that I'll do my best to fix ASAP.

*Brian

On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 3:10 PM, Windell Oskay [email protected]
wrote:

Are there any issues with the current EBB code that should prevent us from
beginning to deploy it on new EBBs as they are shipped?

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[oskay]

Implemented for AxiDraw, through code added to plot-ink:
evil-mad/axidraw#6