timmaxw

How to Emulate DPC-11 programmer using clone FTDI adapter and Arduino Nano

Suppose you want to program a Hitec D-series digital servo, but you don't have Hitec's DPC-11 dongle. This guide describes how to use an FTDI serial adapter and an Arduino in place of Hitec's DPC-11 dongle, so you can use Hitec's GUI without having the physical DPC-11 dongle.

Motivation: This lets you reprogram the endpoints of your servo to be whatever you want. The range of motion can be increased to 180 degrees. Fail safe positions can be set, overload protection settings, dead band, speed, and more..

Let's get started.

Flash your arduino with the following code (just about any arduino will work):

timmaxw

#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""
lagcurse.py uses the Linux ptrace() API to pause/unpause threads of the given
process at random intervals. This can be helpful for fuzzing race conditions or
simulating CPU contention. See "lagcurse.py -h" for usage information.
"""

import argparse
import ctypes

timmaxw

==6649== Memcheck, a memory error detector
==6649== Copyright (C) 2002-2011, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
==6649== Using Valgrind-3.7.0 and LibVEX; rerun with -h for copyright info
==6649== Command: ./test
==6649== 
==6649== Invalid read of size 8
==6649==    at 0x4EC9063: std::basic_ostream<char, std::char_traits<char> >& std::operator<< <char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >(std::basic_ostream<char, std::char_traits<char> >&, std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&) (in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.16)
==6649==    by 0x400B6E: main (in /home/ssd0/tim/scratch/clang-pointer-to-method/test)
==6649==  Address 0x5a04040 is 0 bytes inside a block of size 38 free'd
==6649==    at 0x4C2A4BC: operator delete(void*) (in /usr/lib/valgrind/vgpreload_memcheck-amd64-linux.so)

timmaxw

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

template<class T>
struct B {
    struct X {
        T t;
    };
};

timmaxw

import Control.Exception (assert)
import Control.Monad.Writer
import Data.List (intercalate, nub)
import Prelude hiding (Left, Right)

slice :: (Int, Int) -> [a] -> [a]
slice (l, r) x = take (r - l) $ drop l $ x

data Ball = Ball Int deriving (Eq, Show)
data Bias = Heavier | Lighter deriving (Eq, Show)

timmaxw

#include <iostream>

/* Under GCC 4.4.1, VERSION_1 fails but VERSION_2 and VERSION_3 work. */

#ifdef VERSION_1

void show(std::string s) {
    std::cout << s << std::endl;
}