Motor driver SPI error codes

atangerine · June 13, 2022, 6:57pm

We finished assembling our Solo12 robot and are now running the cpp example from the master board SDK to test the motors. Most of the motors move like they’re supposed to, but the back two knee motors only twitch, and the whole robot vibrates excessively. We’ve tried all possible combinations of the phase wires for those two motors with no success.

We intermittently see error codes 1 and 15 from the motor drivers in the terminal output. We’re absolutely stumped, so we want to see what these error codes mean in case they might be related to the knee motors. Does anyone know where we can find the meanings of these error codes for SPI?

felixwidmaier · June 14, 2022, 8:43am

Hello,

The error codes are define here:

github.com

open-dynamic-robot-initiative/udriver_firmware/blob/fc06efc38db4d0b187e48a6e5fe0c5643401173a/firmware/firmware_spi/mw_dual_motor_torque_ctrl/src/spiapi.h#L171

      
        
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_IDX1T (1<<8)
            //! \brief Flips each time encoder 1 index is detected
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_IDX2T (1<<7)
            //! \brief Error code
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_ERROR (0xF<<0)
            
            
/* sensor packet -> status -> ERROR : values */
            //! \brief No error
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_ERROR_NO_ERROR 0
            //! \brief Encoder 1 error too high
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_ERROR_ENCODER1 1
            //! \brief Timeout for receiving current references exceeded
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_ERROR_SPI_RECV_TIMEOUT 2
            //! \brief Motor temperature reached critical value
            //! \note This is currently unused as no temperature sensing is done.
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_ERROR_CRIT_TEMP 3  // currently unused
            //! \brief Some error in the SpinTAC Position Convert module
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_ERROR_POSCONV 4
            //! \brief Position Rollover occured
            #define SPI_SENSOR_STATUS_ERROR_POS_ROLLOVER 5
            //! \brief Encoder 2 error too high

Error code “1” means there is an issue with encoder 1 (either with the encoder itself or with the cables to the encoder). This probably also explains the described behaviour of the motor.

Error code 15 seems to be defined somewhere else, though. @thomas.flayols Can you say something about it? If I recall correctly it is some sort of timeout but I’m not sure anymore.

Best,
Felix

atangerine · June 15, 2022, 2:21pm

Thanks! It seems like the encoders were the problem. We replaced the encoders and the motors started working.

thomas.flayols · June 30, 2022, 8:45am

Hi,

Yes the error 15 is actually triggered by the MasterBoard itself when no valid data has been received from the corresponding uDriver. When error 15 happen all other fields are set to 0.

We should work on a troubleshooting section with error code description.

@atangerine I suggest you to update to the new MasterBoard firmware if not already done. With the latest release we optimized SPI communication with the uDrivers. Also we noticed in the past that error 15 happened often after other errors ( the uDrivers are more likely to not respond via SPI when in error state). This is probably what happened to you after encoder error.

Best,
Thomas.

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Motor driver SPI error codes

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