Troubleshooting the Cyberware Scanner and Echo
General tips
If you get the message "Write to server: Broken pipe"
- Quit echo and restart to see if the problem went away.
- If the problem did not go away, reboot the server. See notes
on rebooting.
If you get the message "Motion system panic"
- The emergency stop (red) button at the front of the scanner is
deprenssed. Press to release. Then rerun echo. You may get
the error message "Write to server: Broken pipe". If so,
reboot. See notes on rebooting.
If you cannot display any scanner data
- Type "server set power" at the echo prompt, and see if works.
- Type "server set rgb" at the echo prompt, and see if works.
- Execute the view program and use the up arrow to increase the
sensitivity. It may have dropped to zero (for no good reason).
See notes on setting the sensitivity.
- Reboot (see notes on rebooting) and see if it works. Repeat steps
above if necessary.
If the scanner data is noisy
- The sensitivity is too high. See notes on setting the sensitivity.
If the scanner data has too many gaps
- The sensitivity is too low. See notes on setting the sensitivity.
Rebooting the server
The server is an IBM compatible PC that sits under the platform. To
reboot it, press the middle (reset) button. Alternatively, you can
press the right (power) button twice. After a reboot, the server will
need to home the platform. The homing will happen when you issue a
command like "lin256" at the echo prompt. MAKE SURE THAT THE PATH OF
THE PLATTER IS CLEAR! Remove all obstacles from the full length of
its path and make sure the fluorescent light cord does not get caught.
Setting the sensitivity
The scanner hardware is able to threshold out range data if it is too
dim. The purpose of this feature is to disregard sensor noise and low
level ambient illumination. To control the amount of light impinging
on the sensor, you can adjust the aperture to the range camera. Don't
adjust the aperture unless you know what you're doing; ask for help.
There are two ways to control the sensitivity for range peak
detection. The first method is to use the "server set sens +/-N"
command. The number N is the amount to raise or lower the server's
sensitivity register, which has a range of 0-100. If the argument N
is not proveided, the current sensitivity is burned into the
register's EEPROM so that the setting will survive reboot. A typical
seequence of commands for setting the sensitivity would be:
server set sens 100
server set sens -60
server set sens
The first command forces the register to its highest value, and the
second command decrements by 60, yielding a stored value of 40. The
third command burns the sensitivity into EEPROM. I have written a
script that performs this command sequence, and it is called
"resetsens" (reset sensitivity).
To control the sensitivity interactively, use the view program. You
can start the view program by typing "view" at the echo prompt, and
you adjust the sensitivity by hitting the up and down arrows. If you
cannot achieve the desired sensitivity in 20 seconds, you will need to
quit and restart view, as the laser will only stay on for 20 seconds
at a time.
We currently have no method of choosing the optimal aperture and
sensitivity. Choosing the aperture setting is tricky; ask for help.
To choose the best sensitivity, I use view and hit the up arrow until
noise spikes appear in the range profile. Then I hit the down arrow
10-20 times. To verify that you have a desirable setting, run a scan
and inspect the range rendering for noise spikes.
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Brian Curless / February 2, 1995
Last modified: Wed Oct 4 15:52:01 1995