Mike L

It is possible that the combination of running the motors and the ping sensor on the same supply is causing the issue.  Typically I try to have a separate power source for the motors because they have a tendency to generate a lot of noise that can interfere with other logic or sensors.

 

Here is a couple troubleshooting things you can do:

1. Double check your power source for your design.  Typically hbridge motor drivers allow for a dual source so that you can separate the motor power from the logic power.  Maybe you only have the motor power being supplied and the logic power is being supplied when you plug in the USB.
2. Comment out the code that turns on the motors.  On power up does the ping sensor seem to be working while the motors are no longer running?
3. If the ping sensor still doesn't work make sure you delay some on your start up code before you start doing the ping.
4. If you still don't have ping on power up then try removing the Motor Shield.

Probably no surprise to the people reading this community group but the Netduino Plus 2 is Number 5 on this Maker Shed Top Products list for 2012 http://blog.makezine...d-top-products/

I just posted a video showing the devices all connected together. Check it out here

I thought I would share a project that I am working on that might be of interest to the rest of the group.

I am working on building out some content for a hacknight that the Charlotte Alt.Net group is having in December. The idea is that I will have 10 to 12 Netduino Plus devices that will be distributed to all attendees. The attendees will be tasked with completing a security system in which each Netduino device plays a specific role in the I/O of the system. The Netduinos will communicate using a MQTT Message Bus that is deployed to a Windows Azure Worker Role. The brains of the security system will be deployed to a Windows Azure Web role. This web role will also provide a dashboard page that shows the status of the system. I am providing the complete code for the brains, MQTT communication and the dashboard. The attendees will have to complete the code on the Netduino devices (although I will have that completed as well if they run into trouble).

The goals of the hacknight will be to give them exposure to Netduino's, Internet of Things and Windows Azure.

You can check out the web site that provides a little more detail about the project at Cloud Home Security. The are links to the source code from the web site.

This project is still a work in progress, but I have to give a shout out to Dan Thyer from Logical Advantage for helping me out on the code, hardware and hosting the event. Also thanks goes out to Chris Walker and Secret Labs for sponsoring the event.

Mike Linnen
@mlinnen
http://www.protosystem.net

I was wondering if anyone has tried creating a Netduino client that connects to a SignalR hub to participate in a pub/sub communication with the hub? I have been thinking about doing this but didn't want to re-invent the wheel if anyone in the forum has done this already.