DVD Kiosk

[pknight37]

I recently came into possesion of an old DVD Kiosk (similar to Red Box, etc.).  However it came without the software to run any of the Kiosk functions, so I wanted to see if I can get the robots working myself without paying thousands of dollars for the software.  I know that the robots respond to the computer because I can move the robotics using the testing software currently installed (NMC Test).

The robot has PIC-Servo v.4 and PIC-ENC chips for DC motor control, and 2 PIC-I/O v.1 multifunction control chips.  I have tried a few different software programs but nothing seems to be able to find the robot on my computer.

Can anyone recommend any software I might be able to use to find the robot and get it working???  (I am running Windows)

Anything helps, thanks!

P.S. I am not well versed in robot programming, so if you need more info than I provided let me know and I will try to provide it.

[waltr]

What is used for the interface between the PC and the Kiosk?
RS232? USB? or something else?

[pknight37]

RS232

[waltr]

Well RS232 makes it relatively easy to monitor the serial transactions (Commands etc) while running the 'testing software'.
Google RS232 monitoring.

I'll guess you do not have the interface specifications that list the commands so you will need to 'hack' to learn them.

Then write your own Windows program (VB, C++, C#, .net, etc) to send commands from your input.

[pknight37]

Ok great thanks, I found some monitoring software.

However the issue I'm having now is that once I open the test software, I can't run the monitoring software on that same port (the one the control board is connected to).  Any way around this?

[waltr]

Another PC if yours only has one Comm Port.

[garrettg84]

There is also software that can 'clone' serial ports. You might look into that. I can't remember any off the top of my head cause I haven't touched Windows in so long, but I know it exists.