Starter Robot Kit - Stuck after build and bluetooth connect - Control? Firmware / Board ID?

#1

Hello,

I just build the Makeblock Starter Robot Kit - Bluetooth edition with my wife to allow her and I to experiment with a basic robot kit and arduinos. Kit build was easy enough, and we can get connected with the phone app no problem, but no luck doing anything from there. Unable to control or interact with the unit.

So after reading more online we wanted to upload the firmware, and possibly the makeblock examples we downloaded from the site such as the Ultrasonic Car, but we built it as the Tank (as opposed to the three wheeled car option) and would just like to start with making the unit move. We have Arduino IDE, Makeblock Library, drivers, and ever related installable for this on out PC and phone.

Next I am not sure which board I have to properly load the firmware. Looking at this link http://learn.makeblock.cc/driver_installation/ the Makeblock Orion and the Me Baseboard are nearly Identical. Actually the only thing I see different is the stickers for wire colors on ports 3 and 4. Is the really the only difference? If so my #3 and #4 are blue and yellow on the top so I have the Orion?

Trying upload firmware fails every time. After a few minutes of uploading I get a error like this one:

*Arduino: 1.0.6 (Windows NT (unknown)), Board: "Arduino Uno"*
*Binary sketch size: 6,304 bytes (of a 32,256 byte maximum)*

*avrdude: stk500_loadaddr(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x55*

*avrdude: stk500_paged_load(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x74*
*avrdude: stk500_cmd(): programmer is out of sync*

Can anyone tell me where to go from here? I have searched, but havent found anything that worked. Any recommendations or suggestions would be helpful! We are willing to learn and read just need to get past this roadblock to know where to go next.

Thanks!

#2

I have the same kit. It’s the Orion. I believe the Me Baseboard is the old one based on the Arduino Leonardo.

Although this is the MakeBlock version of Arduino I had issues with this distribution. I was able to get much better debugging and results from the latest Arduino IDE 1.6.5 and the MakeBlock Libraries (be sure to delete mecompass.h and .cpp as they have a bug). You can then enable debugging which may give you better results.

#3

I am having the exact same concern. I am about to give up. the video show it to be so simple to connect and all but I find it useless, so if you find a way please post.

#4

This is probably a bit late for you folks–Oct 2017–But I had the same problem and discovered that it was a bad MegaPi board.

#5