Before You Begin

Be sure to go through the tuning process before trying to send motion control commands. Kangaroo can't do anything until it's analyzed your system. See the manual or quick start for details.

Links to the manual, DEScribe PC software, etc. can be found on the Kangaroo website, http://www.dimensionengineering.com/kangaroo.

Simplified or Packet Serial?

The Arduino library uses Packet Serial. If you don't need all of its features or don't want to use a library, Simplified Serial is an extremely easy way to interact with the Kangaroo from a microcontroller or PC.

For example, if you open up a terminal at 9600 baud (8-N-1), and have tuned channel 1 in Independent Mode, the following is actually a completely working sequence of commands:

1,START
1,HOME
1,GETMIN
1,GETMAX
1,P123
1,GETP

Mixed mode (tank-style) is similarly easy. If this interests you, see the manual's section on Simplified Serial.

Getting Started

Make sure DIP switch 1 is ON for Digital Input. In Digital Input mode, Kangaroo automatically detects between R/C (Servo), Simplified Serial, and Packet Serial.

The Kangaroo Arduino library is available for download at http://www.dimensionengineering.com/arduino.

Once you have the library installed, you can try any of the included examples. This is the best way to get a feel for using the library.

To find the examples, first start up the Arduino software (if you installed with it running, restart it). Click File, Examples, Kangaroo, and then take your pick.

Questions?

Feel free to contact us if you have questions. Our Help Desk is at http://help.dimensionengineering.com.