02.08.07
US range finder ideas
Found a very simple range finder here. Fairly basic though. Would like to try and use my mega sensitive Inst Amp on it, or at least use one of the inferior inst amps. INA121 maybe…
Phil
01.27.07
More thoughts, keep changing my mind!! - Inked
Still havent had any time to do anything yet but:
Ive decided to run multiple IR modules off one 18F pic then:
This does still mean that the I2C routines will have to be written (boaring!) since that was what my motivation was dreading before.
Also still love the idea of creating a phased array sonar system on it, but that will come later…
Could look for some code on the net, see if that will help/save a lot of time. Just depends how its been written…
Phil
Image of options
01.23.07
ZBot want to get something working! Inked Thoughts
Decisions:
There is no point using some complicated I2C when you can use a simple on/off line. Although
What about inter-IR communications?
And it should be independent and modular?
I think that I am going to bypass the I2C for now. Use the I2C bus as an On/Off for ALL Ir sensors to get things up and running.
12.11.06
Status of the ZBot
Ive finally had some time to do a little work on this projct. Being someone that wants everything done right, and to learn, do everything by myself, where it would normally take a weekend to knock some crappy robot together takes a little longer!
Firstoff, I have treated myself to a Robo Jr Chassis from www.active-robots.com, mainly because of the price. The only quarm i have with it is that because it uses tiny 5V motors and tiny cogs not particullay securely mounted, it makes a right racket. Maybe in the future it could be modded to use motors with internal step downs.
On the code front, I still cant decide what to do with the IR proximity detectors. I have wasted LOADS of time writing some cool I2C Multi-Master routines so that I can connect devices (the IR’s) to the I2C bus and address them whenever I want.
The thing is, I still cant decide if its the best idea. Since I also fancy, instead of using some IR transmitter reciever that I have built, to use one of them sharp distance finders and use that as a combined Proximity detect/range finder. That would be cool. I still might want to do it on the I2C bus though to make the comms wiring nice and simple.
Hence, I have also built a simple proximity detector that literally takes uA’s to run. This uses a pic to control the most power hungry device on the IR circuit, the TSOP38 blah… reciever. With it permanently turned on, the curret will be about 800uA. Which is poo.
And also, I have done a VERY simple PWM test to test the motors. Works good.
Well there we are. Till next time….
Phil
11.09.06
Start of the ZBot
Basically want to create a cluster of robots using a mesh’ed ad-hoc network. This will be done using zigbee, but the problem is that I havent created any robots before so I will have to go through the motions before I get to the zigbee part.
So far I have created a primitive IR proximit sensor with some 10F PIC’s. I have a few problems with the PIC’s themselves, for example: If you connect the pic back up to the ICD2 before turning off the main power, the PIC will burn itself out. Secondly, I had a load of problems with trying to program the damn thing, I think it was due to inproper driver installation. (Make sure you preinstall the drivers for the ICD2 FIRST!!)
Next I am going to start on the actual motor control using some schematic I found on the net.
