OOPIC MarkIII Support Page

This page attempts to collect all the various bits of information you need to use the OOPIC version of the MarkIII Robot Controller. It is meant to make up for deficiencies in the MarkIII User's Guide, which only documents use with a PIC 16F877, not an OOPIC, even though the MarkIII controller board is designed to support both.

Note: Junun.org lists "oopic@noeticdesign.com" as my email address. I was getting bombarded with spam at that address, so I have turned it off. Please submit OOPIC MarkIII support questions to the MarkIII list on yahoogroups instead.

OOPIC Installation Tips

There are a few critical things you must do to make the OOPIC work on the MarkIII Controller. These are not directly addressed in the MarkIII User's Guide, resulting in a lot of confusion with many new users. Sorry this has taken me so long to get this page done!

1. install U4, the 24LC32A (or equivalent) serial EEPROM; this is where the OOPIC stores your program -- it cannot function without it; make sure pin 1 is correctly oriented
2. set the jumpers on JP1 correctly -- set them so that JP1 pins 3 and 5 are connected to each other, and JP1 pins 4 and 6 are connected to each other; this is required so that the SCL and SDA pins on U4 are connected to the LSDA/A4 and LSCL/A5 pins on the OOPIC -- this must be done so that the OOPIC can access the serial EEPROM; this is mentioned on the MarkIII Controller Schematic
3. all MarkIIIs sold with OOPIC chips use the OOPIC-II+, which can use either a serial cable or the older parallel port programming cable to upload your program; we highly recommend the serial cable, as the parallel cable is unreliable on newer PCs with Windows2000 or WindowsXP
4. you CANNOT use Hyperterminal to verify functionality of the OOPIC!!!!!
5. you CANNOT use BotLoader to upload programs to the OOPIC!!!!
6. you MUST USE the OOPIC Software!!!
7. the OOPIC software is available for free here: http://www.oopic.com/dloadp.html; select version 5.01.
8. you DO NOT need to install the port95nt.exe unless you intend to use the older parallel port programming cable
   

Dim EyeR As New oA2D
Dim Serial As New oSerialPort

Sub Main()
   EyeR.IOLine = 3 ' right ranger connects to this I/O line
   EyeR.Operate = cvTrue
   Serial.Baud = cv9600
   Serial.Mode = 0
   Serial.Operate = cvTrue
   Do
      S.String = "Right Eye = " ' just loop and print the current eye value
      S.String = EyeR.String ' to the serial port
   Loop
End Sub

Dim EyeR As New oIRRange
Dim EyeRValue As New oByte

...
EyeR.IOLine = 3
EyeR.Operate = cvTrue
...
EyeRValue.Value = EyeR.Value ' since the oIRRange does not have a String method, we must use an oByte
S.String = EyeRValue.String  ' to convert it to a string

Last Updated 5/26/2005