The Dynamixel RX-10 is an inexpensive powerful servo that designed for the rigors of robotic applications. The RX-10 can report real-time position, voltage, speed, load, and temperature using an openly published instruction/status packet protocol. The servos shuts down in the event of overheating, out of range voltage, or several other user configurable alerts.

Dynamixel RX-10 Communication Protocol

The Dynamixel communication protocol

RX-10 Packets is an openly published instruction/status packet protocol. Instruction packets are sent from a controller to the Dynamixel network. Response packets sent from the Dynamixel network back to the controller. Since every Dynamixel RX-10 on the network is given a unique ID, only the RX-10 addressed in the instruction packet will execute the instruction. Instructions can also be broadcast to all RX-10s on the network. The Dynamixel communication protocol can be found in the Dynamixel RX-10 manual.

Light the LED on RX-10 ID 6
0xFF 0xFF 0x06 0x04 0x03 0x19 0x01 0xD8

Controller Options

The USB2Dynamixel

USB2Dynamixel is CrustCrawler's most popular Dynamixel bus interface device. The USB2Dynamixel connects your PC directly to the Dynamixel RX-10 network through a standard USB port. Software running on a PC sends instruction packets to the USB2Dynamixel which is forwarded to the Dynamixel network. Response packets are sent back to the PC through the USB2Dynamixel controller. The USB2Dynamixel comes with a USB extension cable. Recommend power supply; 10-12VDC (Ideal 10.8V) 6A .

Open Source Software Options

CrustCrawler provides open source PC software options for communicating with the Propeller or USB2Dynamixel controllers.

Forest Moon C# Source Code Scott Ferguson of forestmoon.com created several open source Dynamixel libraries. Scott´s software is very comprehensive and it comes with excellent help files. .NET programmers will really appreciate the time put into these classes.

The USB2Dynamixel SDK contains libraries and example source code for VB.NET, C#, LabVIEW, MATLAB, JAVA, C/C++, and python. Download it today, heck it's free!