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BS2 powered skittles sorting machine — Parallax Forums

BS2 powered skittles sorting machine

Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
edited 2012-12-02 17:25 in General Discussion
When he opens it up you'll see a bunch of Parallax gear

Comments

  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2012-11-04 14:15
    Ah, another Redditor..

    :)
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2012-11-04 15:46
    Ah, another Redditor..

    :)

    Indeed, there's some entertaining stuff that gets posted there. I figured the BS2, homework board, standard servo, and color sensor begged for this to be posted here.
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2012-11-04 16:09
    That's really well done. Nice design!
  • egenrietheregenriether Posts: 29
    edited 2012-11-06 21:15
    Thanks to whoever posted my machine here. I just posted it on youtube about 8 months ago then a couple days ago the video went viral. Its now got close to 400,000 hits and I was contacted by the Today Show and its on tons of news and entertainment sites. Not sure why all the attention all of a sudden, but thanks again!
    --Brian Egenriether
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2012-11-06 21:22
    what is Funny is when I was at UNI last Year I we did the SAME thing with a BS2 and a color pal and a servo . took1st place ! sorted ping pong balls in a ATMAE natonal Comp .

    same diverter and colors .. the trick was with the pal as yellow was not just a RGB Hex but a combo so some codng was needed.
    they compete again this Nov! so I ll share the code after the comp..

    the way the servo is used is Key . One thing that I can not tell in your vid is that is the Code smart enough to not move if the color is the same as last .
    or is there allwas a move..... we ended up stuffing a byte in ram and if the new RGB read was the same YRBG yes or no then it would just not send any servo move and just keep letting it go .


    with that we go up to about 1.5 balls a Second .

    we ended up being botttle necked by the servo and its mass not the code however .
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2012-11-07 00:47
    Your sorter was mentioned on TheRegister.co.uk so I expect the hit counter to go nuts...
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-11-07 00:57
    Why would I sort Skittles, when I could sort M&Ms? It certainly is a well-built machine with a BS2 for its heartbeat.


    I wonder if I could get a grant from the M&M folks to build one of these......

    The more I think about it, I may never have tasted a Skittle. But chocolate is impossible to avoid.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-11-07 01:07
    Thanks to whoever posted my machine here. I just posted it on youtube about 8 months ago then a couple days ago the video went viral. Its now got close to 400,000 hits and I was contacted by the Today Show and its on tons of news and entertainment sites. Not sure why all the attention all of a sudden, but thanks again!
    --Brian Egenriether

    I am sure Parallax and all of us that use BasicStamp2 devices are proud to see something so able to demonstrate how a tiny bit of electronics can do so much.

    Maybe it went viral as the Holloween candy loot became too much for hand sorting. Automation is creeping into everything.
  • Matt GillilandMatt Gilliland Posts: 1,406
    edited 2012-12-01 08:34
    Completely missed this thread, but saw machine on stupidvideos.com this morning - well done!
    [video]http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/just_plain_stupid/Skittles_Sorting_Machine_1/[/video]
    -MattG
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2012-12-01 08:59
    Why would I sort Skittles, when I could sort M&Ms? It certainly is a well-built machine with a BS2 for its heartbeat.


    I wonder if I could get a grant from the M&M folks to build one of these......

    The more I think about it, I may never have tasted a Skittle. But chocolate is impossible to avoid.

    Probably inspired by Phil's M-Sorter:

    http://www.parallax.com/tabid/352/Default.aspx

    I'm surprised with all the documentation disappearing from the Parallax web site, this one is still there from 2003!
  • egenrietheregenriether Posts: 29
    edited 2012-12-02 10:35
    Completely missed this thread, but saw machine on stupidvideos.com this morning - well done!
    [video]http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/just_plain_stupid/Skittles_Sorting_Machine_1/[/video]
    -MattG


    Thanks Matt!
  • egenrietheregenriether Posts: 29
    edited 2012-12-02 10:39
    One thing that I can not tell in your vid is that is the Code smart enough to not move if the color is the same as last .
    or is there allwas a move.....
    It gets a reference angle with each decision, so if the next color is the same it will just stay there. If there is no skittle it sees black and I have it move to the purple slot. I did this because sometimes the purple looks almost black to the sensor (especially if the white "S" is facing down) this way it will get it right either way.
  • doggiedocdoggiedoc Posts: 2,239
    edited 2012-12-02 13:02
    Very slick. Nice design all around. Well done sir.
  • egenrietheregenriether Posts: 29
    edited 2012-12-02 17:25
    I thank you!
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