Whatever happened to the Remote Control Night Vision Nose Hair Trimmer and Ball
rjo_
Posts: 1,825
That was my project for the First Propeller Expo...and (1) I just didn't trust my first pass at making a tether for the near Earth·balloon(s),(2) I left my remote control at home, and (3) I was too tired to test it all the night· before... so I just forgot about it.
Having a little time on my hands, it is time to dust it off and launch it.
The linch pin of the entire development· sequence is the remote control...
Step one... go to Walmart and pick up·a Phillips Universal Control... I know what you are thinking... "but isn't that a Dutch company?"· Yes it is.· But they took a bath developing the finest MRI system in the World and they need your money.·
Step 2,· Drop the attached file into your IR Kit folder... which you can download from the object exchange.
Step 3 Put your IR reciever facing you into pin 0...· so that the other two pins are in VDD and VSS but not necessarily in that order... if you are using a proto board, just set it up so that you are using the 3 pins on the right side of the south wall.· See foto.
Step 4... start your program as usual
Step 5... start your terminal
hit your number keys and you should see them reflected on the terminal screen.
Much Much more to come.
Rich
Having a little time on my hands, it is time to dust it off and launch it.
The linch pin of the entire development· sequence is the remote control...
Step one... go to Walmart and pick up·a Phillips Universal Control... I know what you are thinking... "but isn't that a Dutch company?"· Yes it is.· But they took a bath developing the finest MRI system in the World and they need your money.·
Step 2,· Drop the attached file into your IR Kit folder... which you can download from the object exchange.
Step 3 Put your IR reciever facing you into pin 0...· so that the other two pins are in VDD and VSS but not necessarily in that order... if you are using a proto board, just set it up so that you are using the 3 pins on the right side of the south wall.· See foto.
Step 4... start your program as usual
Step 5... start your terminal
hit your number keys and you should see them reflected on the terminal screen.
Much Much more to come.
Rich
3200 x 2048 - 793K
Comments
While you were out to Walmart, I realized that I uploaded the wrong file... will fix momentarily
Post Edited (rjo_) : 9/8/2008 7:57:44 PM GMT
I just saw in your picture, and I must say, using a 3 pin header or extension wire to plug an IR sensor into..... Brilliant!
(might be a good idea for someone else we know in the forums who needs to change over their IR sensors often)
but all kidding aside, that would make connecting them sooooo much easier. Might I suggest extracting the red and black wires in that servo extension wire and swapping them on one end, then they could plug right into standard servo connector???
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board
Needs a kit.
More coming...
As is, the remote is capable of switching between nine camera inputs with the key pad and as many cameras as you have Propeller pins available if you don't want to use the numeric keypad for camera selection...each of which is hooked up to a video switch as pictured below.
For this project you will need at least 4 cameas... 2 for the night vision nose hair trimmer and one to launch on your balloon and another to video your balloon from your base station. Of course unless you plan to trim your nose while you are launching your balloon... then you could get by with 2...
If you aren't into nose hair trimming or balloon launching, the same setup can be used as part of a home brew security system... or as a camera array on your mobile platform... I'm planning to do both and will post things as I go along.
More pictures tomorrow,
WOW, Brian!
You and OBC appear to be just now gaining an awareness of the Parallax "LCD extension cables" and their many uses. Just shows that not everyone needs SpinStudio adapters for their Prop projects.
I'm really surprised at that, too, what with Jeff's Cookbook collaboration with your SpinStudio extensions!
Here's a photo of a protoboard I use as the brains to a BoeBot style truck I've built. You'll note the use of those cables, both modified and stock. They are great with those headers for quick assembly or teardown! I also didn't use the double wide header rows, which leaves those pins available for more permanent connections to the Prop outputs. Just my 2 cents!
Lil'Joe
Lil^ Joe I think you got all wrong[noparse]:)[/noparse]) Everyone in the world doesn't need SpinStudio... just like everyone doesn't need size 9 shoes. In fact at the core of my fabulous remote control night vision nose hair trimmer and balloon launcher is the idea for a kt...that I talked to Brian about but very briefly... things were positively humming in his little corner of the room[noparse]:)[/noparse]
The idea is that we have people here that started out as programmers and people that started out as hardware geeks... but what about those that are convinced that they will never be programmers and don't know anything about hardware? Are we just going to let them keep their money?
The video switcher I am slowly documenting here could be sold as a kit... Brian has the rights to do it. And it could include a board with a prop and programmed EEPROM... so all a customer would have to do is assemble it and it would work...no Spin to learn, nothing to download. They are using the Prop and they are barely aware of it. That to me might interest people that are afraid of programming but are willing to save a few dollars and put together a video switcher themselves. Who knows... it uses all radioshack parts right now... maybe RadioShack will carry it. Right now they don't carry any Props... maybe putting one in a kit surrounded by RadioShack Parts will do the trick.
Rich
I think you hit the nail on the head. There are many different types of propeller users.
There is the type that want a ready-made turnkey Propeller solution. They would primarily choose a product such as Parallax's Demo Board or the Hydra. But I have had a few customers buy SpinStudio and ask me to solder them together for them before shipping (I'm always happy to oblige)
There are some people that want to incorporate a Propeller into their own hardware designs, they are proficient at soldering, and have drawers of parts on hand to put their project together.
I aimed for the middle, Those that want to get their hands dirty, but want all the components they need on hand without shopping various online vendors, or multiple trips to Radio Shack. Something pre-designed, but not pre-assembled. Like rjo_ so aptly stated, It's not for everyone, but for those that do want or need it, I happily supply.
OBC and I are big fans of "repurposing" certain items, a year ago we were discussing a similar idea of plugging in a 4 wire jumper between the PropPlug header of 2 ProtoBoards for simple serial data transfer between the 2 boards. I just picked up a few of those same servo extensions in my last order from Parallax because I just designed a Keypad with a simple 3 wire interface, I was thrilled to add another idea for those jumper wires to the list of possible uses. I think I need to stock these things at uController.com now!
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Brian
uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller
PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!
SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board
That's me.
I didn't have the guts to post a video switcher with reed relays... but if you think about it a little... If you use a reed for the signal and a reed to pass the ground, you have pretty well isolated your circuit. Aside from the shame factor, a reed relay based video switcher ends up looking fairly menacing... I just gave a proto board to a Priest from Kenya... He was really nervous about going through customs with it... so I put it back in the package, with a Parallax catalog inside. Imagine a video switcher with a line of about 10 reed relays... the thing looks like it is just waiting to blow up[noparse]:)[/noparse]
Which brings me to another point... cables... why can't someone get some cables that have about the same spacing as a header on the protoboard... 10 wires and if you don't want all of them, you just peel some off. I know I could find them if I looked... that it isn't exactly rocket science, but I hate looking around like that... it gives me a headache.
The idea is rapid prototyping... making sure everything works OK before you try to figure out how to build a permanent version[noparse]:)[/noparse] SpinStudio is half way between[noparse]:)[/noparse]
Rich