Your Brain on Microcontrollers?
CounterRotatingProps
Posts: 1,132
In the spirit of creativity:
What can we do with a microcontroller?
Discussing this in the Parallax forum seems appropriate as their wonderful controllers cover a lot of (controllable) ground. I'm hoping we'll have far out, but workable ideas in this thread.
As "robotics"·essentially applies to everything controllable,·I'll naively suggest that robotics·be limited or left out (somehow?) in this proposed discussion.
Some examples we've seen (or might like to see)
________________
Disclamer: obviously, this is not·meant·that you hint at·your·top-secret, killer app, but rather·as·a brain storming thread on cool ways to use a micro controller.·The·slight vested interest I have is in learning new ideas that·might be useful in future·projects.
Thanks much, and looking forward to your thoughts,
~~ Howard in Florida ~~
What can we do with a microcontroller?
Discussing this in the Parallax forum seems appropriate as their wonderful controllers cover a lot of (controllable) ground. I'm hoping we'll have far out, but workable ideas in this thread.
As "robotics"·essentially applies to everything controllable,·I'll naively suggest that robotics·be limited or left out (somehow?) in this proposed discussion.
Some examples we've seen (or might like to see)
- The internet coffee maker
- Power transfer monitor for an electric vehicle
- Kramer's Air Conditioner [noparse]:)[/noparse] (see thread this forum)
- Toys that make you think and blink
- Retrofitting non-automated machinery
- Where you wish they had installed a controller...
________________
Disclamer: obviously, this is not·meant·that you hint at·your·top-secret, killer app, but rather·as·a brain storming thread on cool ways to use a micro controller.·The·slight vested interest I have is in learning new ideas that·might be useful in future·projects.
Thanks much, and looking forward to your thoughts,
~~ Howard in Florida ~~
Comments
IR motion detectors are notorious for false triggering. We have some X-10 sending detectors around our office --- at night, whenever there's a breeze, the lights go on and off. Though I have not built this yet, it seems like a controller could be connected to a simple anemometer to downplay the triggers at higher winds...
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- Stephen
- H
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Buzz Whirr Click Repeat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper_Text_Coffee_Pot_Control_Protocol
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2324
It's an April Fool's Day joke made by computer network engineers, but it's detailed enough to be an actual protocol for an actual internet controlled coffee maker (I'm pretty·sure someone already did it... the document was published in 1998)
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It didn't go far because it didn't make sense and made simple things complicated. But thats what happens when you let people who think throwing technology at something makes it better.
I'm surprised that this didn't become commercial. If the communications could be kept to a resonable amount, then the routes for the people filling the machines could be pre-planned daily based on the status of the machines. No use wasting gas to fill a machine that didn't need to be filled.
By the way - I just checked and it's not on line anymore, Pity.
This is my attempt to emulate the late Sci-Fi author Arthur C Clark. Some obvious examples that will change over the next 10 years:-
- The conventional electric motor will not exist. Cheaper microprocessor controlled brushless motors will have replaced them. This includes universal motors, shaded pole motors and synchronis motors. Brushless motors are more efficient, cheaper to make (except the electronics which will become much cheaper) and more reliable.
- The use of gears, cams and mechanical actuators will have reduced dramatically (almost eliminated) through mechatronics (and microcontrollers).
- Creativity and art, something that has languished for more than a century will once again blossom in our society. The creative application of knowledge will become much more important than knowledge itself and traditional knowledge professions will become less popular. Mass production is becoming so much easier that masses of product no longer command value. The unique, once off niche item will be what everyone wants.
- Operating systems are coming to ALL microcontrollers. There will be a few small 8 bit controllers but the masses will be 32 bit or 64 bit multiple processors.
- There will be more new technology than the human can handle. There will be all this exciting new technology shouting out for us to find useful applications. Things like Memistors are going to change the technology landscape.
- The home will be the slowest area to become an integrated system because of the variety of objects, appliances and gadgets involved. The lack of a standard is also a problem.
- The slowest link in this change will be our ability to adapt to this change. Us humans will be the restraining influence. We will not be able to move fast enough. Peter Drukker, another predictor of the future and business guru (one of his successes was the Japanese miracle of the early 1960’s) says that humans only adopt and accept a new technology 15 to 25 years after the technology becomes available.
Yet so much of the human psyche will remain unchanged. Humanity, morality, ethics and spirituality. Welcome to the brave new world…
Regards from South Africa this glorious spring day
John Bond
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Post Edited (John Bond) : 9/8/2008 10:58:38 AM GMT
The human psyche is also unlikely to change very much, and yet it could probably use a complete makeover as our belief systems are based on a very paradoxical pile of myth and folklore.
I find the idea that brushless motors becoming dominant quite appealing. It makes a lot of sense and in wet environments, one might have completely submersible motors that don't require a dry containment, just superior insulation.
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It's sunny and warm here. It is always sunny and warm here.... (unless a typhoon blows through).
Tropically, G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan
Post Edited (Kramer) : 9/10/2008 7:33:27 AM GMT
The problem is most home automation outside of climate control and security isn't worth much to people nor can it be justified. Its bragging rights for geeks and rich folk who have money to burn.
Bill Gates house is a case in point, its so automated that it takes a staff of 3 full time IT types to keep it working, which defeats the purpose of automation to begin with.
Operating systems aren't needed by most embedded controllers. At best they'll have a real-time executive to manage interrupts and task management, etc. And 8 and 16 bitters are still selling well. Just ask Freescale, Atmel and Microchip.
32 bitters make sense when you need a 32bitter. I know ARM makes 32bitters as cheap as a 8 bitter but unless you need that extra computational power its not needed. Heck I'd rather write code for a AVR 8 bitter any day over a ARM. Sure you can use a ARM in a coke machine but a PROM configured as a state machine can do the same thing.
As far as creativity and art goes there's plenty out talented artists doing all sorts of things right now. Most just don't get any publicity or are only know to those who are interested in the arts.
To be honest we'll never recapitulate Venice of the Renaissance, nor the European era that enabled musical titans like Beethoven, Mozart and Hayden to flourish. Its not a matter of throwing lots of expensive and complicated tech at it, but fostering a culture that supports such artists.
Yea we've been playing SMB level 8 a lot.... a LOT...
Theoretically it wouldnt be hard, read each button low level, just tap the switch contacts. Reverse the same to replay. It could be done by intercepting and sending the data packets, but this just seems easier, though I suppose you could just record the datastream and play it back.
If you used the start button as the trigger, you could make sure the timing synced up perfectly.
@John Bond: John, can you say more about what you see happening in art?
@GICU812: this reminds me of the old macro playback tools on windoz --- recording keystroke and mouse moves for later playback.
If I can cast a vote here, it would be nice to see this thread continue on the two track you all have presented: the philosphical on the one hand, and the specfic technical on the other. For example, Waltc, MSDTech, and InSilco account of soda-pop accounting is a fun application with practical consequences. And on the flip side, Franklin, Waltc, and Kramer reminds us that technology can always be made more complicated than it needs to be! How often we technologist forget the old K.I.S.S. principle! RE: the Gate's mansion - if his Vista based house-controller blue screens, does Bill get stuck with soap on in the shower --- not to mention the liquid buffers that won't flush ;-P
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Technology, which enhances security and eases effort, seems to be the edge of change because of its obvious immediate usefulness regardless of one's own culture. On the other hand, observing the dimensions of reality that we don't understand, like the mysteries of life and death, one's role in one's family and society, or the seasonal cycle of food production become traditions and the ballast of stability. These two extremes are in a constant struggle, very much a yin-yang situation.
Sadly, technologies security role seems to constantly be a two-edge sword. It seems that much of the advancement begins with weapons systems that only later become converted to peaceful use. GPS is a good example of the evolution. But even antibiotics were an outgrowth of war.
The real problem is that bad people are born everywhere and disrupt finding a consensus. In some cases, we successfully police ourselves with jails and laws. But having diverse cultures seems to lead to conflicting views on who is a criminal. We used to exile criminals, but that just sent the problems to someone else. We seem to be nearing the end of that era.
Where do the arts and music fit in? These seem to be a by-product of more secure cultures having time to pursue mental pleasures. Sometimes these pursuits are good for everyone, but other times they can be quite decadent. For example, I find Europeans to be far more engaging in these mental pursuits than Americans or Asians. In Europe, Linux is more accepted because it empowers one to find pleasure through thought and learning about computation; while in other regions Windows is just taken as being the quickest way to get up and running for a material advantage. Great art and music may not be universalized until poverty is banished, maybe never.
Technology might contribute to such, but the socio-political problems will more likely be resolved as the by-product of better understanding and communication with each other. History has shown that technology on its own can also set off arms races that are quite counter-productive. So, second language studies and in depth linguistic research have a central role in peaceful change.
I hope I am not sounding too profound. Sometimes it is fun to thing in very abstract global, universal terms.
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It's sunny and warm here. It is always sunny and warm here.... (unless a typhoon blows through).
Tropically, G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan
Post Edited (Kramer) : 9/10/2008 8:09:57 AM GMT