Ugo, 
Your symptoms suggest that your tree is being broken into two pieces.  Usually this is a result of trying to attach two frames as parents of the same frame which is not allowed.  Depending when you query it's a race condition as to which was updated more recently.  Often it will appear as if only one is connected due to sequencing.  

For debugging I'd suggest the following.  Is the forearm the root of your transforms published by the robot_state_publisher?  Can you attach the output of `rosrun tf view_frames` both before and after you run the static transfrom broadcaster?  Also with the broadcaster running can you make sure that roswtf is not complaining about anything tf releated.  

Tully

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 9:51 AM, Ugo Cupcic <ugo@shadowrobot.com> wrote:
Hi,

I'm having some problem displaying some /tf in rviz. I'm working on
displaying a hand in rviz.

Here is the situation:
I have a robot_state_publisher transforming joint_datas to tf, and I can
view the model in rviz, using a frame published by the
robot_state_publisher (/srh/position/shadow_forearm). This works fine, I
see my whole hand, I can move the fingers, etc...

I'm then publishing a fixed transform: <node pkg="tf"
type="static_transform_publisher" name="fixed_frame_pos_pub" args="0 0 0
0 0 0 fixed  /srh/position/shadow_forearm 20" /> which transforms the
/srh/position/shadow_forearm to /fixed. This fixed transform is published.
When I view this new /tf in rviz, the forearm goes to /fixed frame which
is fine, but I get errors for all the other joints saying "No transform
from [srh/position/lfdistal] to [/fixed]". The other joints are then not
displayed (no transform).

However, the transform from shadow_forearm to fixed is published and the
transform from the rest of the joints to shadow_forearm are published as
well.

Any ideas ?

(I hope I was clear :S)

Cheers,

Ugo

--
Ugo Cupcic         |  Shadow Robot Company | ugo@shadowrobot.com
Software Engineer      251 Liverpool Road
need a Hand?           London  N1 1LX       | +44 20 7700 2487
http://www.shadowrobot.com/hand/              @shadowrobot


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--
Tully Foote
Systems Engineer
Willow Garage, Inc.
tfoote@willowgarage.com
(650) 475-2827