Reference

Simplified or Packet Serial?

Kangaroo supports two serial protocols, Simplified Serial and Packet Serial:

Simplified Serial

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.

Packet Serial

Designed for high reliability even on noisy signal lines.

Among Packet Serial's advantages, it uses 14-bit CRCs, it is possible to make sure packets are

received once and only once and to match up commands with replies, and it can share a S1 line with

SyRen and Sabertooth motor drivers running in Packet Serial mode. On the other hand, Packet Serial

is much more difficult than Simplified Serial to implement correctly.

If you decide to use Packet Serial, this documentation has all the necessary details. Alternatively, we've

made libraries for several platforms.