Friday, October 07, 2005

A Year Hiatus .. and now the Basic Stamp

I hadn’t realized it but it has been a year since I last worked with my robots. Now that I’m back at it I switched from OOPic to Stamps. The only reason is the excellent documentation and forums at Parallyx. As a beginner ( … still! …) I just not ready for the OOPic although I think it has more features. At some point in the future I will go back to more advanced processors.

Actually I’ve been back at it for a few weeks. Most of this time has been getting organized although I have complete the Boe Bot and What’s a MicroProcessor Modules. I quickly discovered I wasn’t ready to go any further until mapped out some plans for adding modules to Boe Bot and other robots .. that rather than random breadboarding.

More importantly I’ve been datamining for code and how to’s so that once I actually begin with a module it will go easy (ier?).

Monday, October 18, 2004

MMB ... another failed test

Was successful in finding oSerialX code to drive a motor module (online). Modified it to conform to MMB .. didn’t work. Test LED lights, not sure that it should given that the serial line out to the MMB would be low … unless signal is going out .. right? Hmm .. another something to figure out.

MMB ... another failed test

Was successful in finding oSerialX code to drive a motor module (online). Modified it to conform to MMB .. didn’t work. Test LED lights, not sure that it should given that the serial line out to the MMB would be low … unless signal is going out .. right? Hmm .. another something to figure out.

SpeakJet Test Successful

Finished installing SpeakJet (Magnevation) chip into Tigerbotics Development Board. Downloaded PhraseALator software, configured the chip. Was unable to find any doc on the software. Appears that Magnevation poorly supports Speakjet judging from the newsgroups. At some point they’ll be an English dictionary (Magnevation) which can be used to download key words. Guess I’ll wait till then as I had planned on using it in my robot projects.

Sunday, October 17, 2004

MotorMind B - Still not working

Spent morning in 2cd attempt to get MMB working .. no luck.

oMotormind didn't work on last attempt
oSerialX didn't work on this attempt

Gonna have to go to school on Oopic serial communication. Problem is don't have an output device to read serial xmissions to test .. yet. Will receive a serial LCD soon so I can begin testing then. Best solution is to put all serial attempts on hold until then.

Monday, October 11, 2004

Ratshack H-Bridge Hacked

Well not really, however, I did extract from the old car board, two SCR's and two Millionspot relays while watching the Cowboys lose. Then spent a few hours learning about SCR's and relay's. In the end I figured out how to combine these 4 components to make a single H-Bridge for the single motor on the car.

I could have purchased all for about $10 .. but I learned to desolder ... and I kind of had fun figuring out how these 4 were used to drive a single motor in the Ratshack car.

Questions:
1) Compared to the MMB, this H-Bridge 'collection' is a real Kluge (but it works right?)
2) The drive motor must draw a hell of a current based upon the motor wire gage and the relays ( 7.2v battery )
3) The second SCR is a little bit of a puzzle. I've concluded its to operate the relay and that you can't drive a relay directly from TTL logic. But its so big.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Arobot progress.... todo's ...

Got most everything ready except still don't have MMB working.

1. Reshafted drive wheel
2. Aligned encoder wheel ... figured out generic circuit diagram for IR detector (encoder) .. basically a voltage divider ..
3. Figured out wire codes to old Stamp board ( appears to be a very good board ... another day)
4. Steering servo: spent a LOT of time, too much, repairing linkage to servo
5. MMB: Figured out command sets and how to send serial commands (although I can't get it to work ... yet)

ToDo's:
1. Get the damn MMB working ... that's all I need to get Arobot rolling! Have posted messages at several forums. Will attempt to use oSerialX object instead of oMotormind to see if that makes a difference.
2. Test Encoder by inserting RED Led into test circuit ... will attempt to use Tach feedback loop in MMB if ...
3. Write Code assuming have working ..
a. MMB
b. Wiskers
c. Encoder
d. Steering servo

Big Picture: Am attempting to replace Stamp brain on Arobot with Oopic board which has a geared DC motor. The Arobot platform has lots of room to test all the other sensors I've acquired but not yet tested.

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Arobot - Getting One Done

Received Motor Mind B controller for DC motor on Arobot. This will allow me to replace the Stamp board with an Oopic board.

I should have all I need now to get a working BOT to begin testing all the sensors I've piled up.

Mission today - install Motor Mind / Oopic board and get Arobot rolling!!
a) Test Motor Mind w/ Oopic board
b) Test both with CD motor on Arobot
c) Repair and test steering servo
d) Test wheel encoder on Arobot
e) Bring encoder signal back to Motor Mind for speed feedback


Sunday, October 03, 2004

Ratshack Steering Motor - No stepper

Received Electronic Compass & Wheel Encoder from SuperDroidRobots.com. Downloaded doc to construct and test.

Have accumulated quite a collection of sensors however still don’t have a working robot.


RatShack Car: Appears steering stepper motor may not be a stepper after all need to do some more tests today. If I can’t get it to work I’ll need to hack the steering with a servo motor instead. Also need to locate power transistor H-Bridge on original circuit board and use them for drive wheels.

Steering motor: determined 3 wires connected to a 5K Pot direction feedback. Still don’t know what the blue 6th is.

Used 10 ohm resistor to ck steering motor current draw @ 4.5 V .. worked out to about 150 ma .. stall at 200 ma. Now to determine how to drive it w/ Oopic board.

Ratshack & Arobot hacks

Received Electronic Compass & Wheel Encoder from SuperDroidRobots.com. Downloaded doc to construct and test.

Have accumulated quite a collection of sensors however still don’t have a working robot.

Arobot: Have body with Basic II board. To use the Oopic board still have to get a working H-Bridge to use with Arobot body. One on order.

RatShack Car: Appears steering stepper motor may not be a stepper after all need to do some more tests today. If I can’t get it to work I’ll need to hack the steering with a servo motor instead. Also need to locate power transistor H-Bridge on original circuit board and use them for drive wheels.