Hardware FAQ

How do i connect Serial to the bug?
You will need the following:
- Molex connector
- DB9 female connector.
The pin outs can be obtained here you *only* need to connect pins 7 (rx) , 8 (tx), 9 (gnd) for serial.

Where is the ethernet connector? and how do i connect it?
The ethernet is also broken out through the molex connector on the back of the bug (same one as the serial port). For this you will need the following:
- Molex connector
- RJ45 connector w/ magnetics (YES it *HAS* to have on board magnetics)

I used the HFJ11-2450E made by HALO which is pretty standard. The following is the way i connected my cable (forgive my crappy ms paint work).

Soldering not your forte` ? Then just grab a USB to Ethernet adaptor. I tested a few and the Linksys USB200M worked best

I need to drive some servos can i do it using the Von Hippel?
Yes and no. To drive a servo you need something called PWM (Pulse width Modulation). The Bug Base uses the i.MX31 ARM CPU which actually supports PWM but unfortunately when the BugBase was designed the PWM pins wern't broken out and that means you can't do PWM directly from the CPU. The next option would be doing it via GPIO to the Von Hippel module. Well the problem with that is the Von Hippel module doesn't actually have GPIO directly from the cpu. It uses the PCA9538 I2C IO port (the 9538 doesn't have PWM either). So driving the GPIO's on the VH module via software to produce PWM wouldn't work very well as it would be slow. Think Bug -> I2C -> 9538 -> GPIO. There is another 4 GPIO ports connected to the VH module that are memory mapped from the Bug Base but again software PWM is going to be pretty unreliable and i wouldn't waste your time on it. Thats the bad news. The good news is that you can use a lot of different circuits to produce PWM using the gpio's from the VH module. A good choice would be the PCA9550 which is similar to the 9538 but has 2 PWM channels.
Update - So i ended up doing a POC software pwm app. Watch the video and download the application here

Where is the JTAG port and Pinouts?
The JTAG port is contained behind the lcd inside of the platics and requires you to void your warranty and open the bug's plastics. I would not recommend this!!! Unless you have a LATTICE development kit and feel confident voiding your warranty. If you're sure you want to do it then email support@buglabs.net and request a copy of the pin outs.