New Take on Pings for the Stingray

Tony B.

Instead of mounting 3 pings on solid bases on my Stingray I decided to mount two Pings on Parallax's mount kits #570-28015.· You can see in the pictures that I used Parallax's L-mounting brackets as well.· You can also see in the one picture I can check for side objects or follow a wall and know if the side is clear or I have cleared the wall.· I hope by moving the Pings and not having to move the Stingray its self to do Ping searches will help in navigation and maintaining a set course by minimizing object avoidance movements.· As far as I know I am the first to do this and just got them mounted tonight so code and test results aren't available yet.
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I also mounted a HM55B Compass #29123 like shown in the mount kit manual
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Note the use of neon zip ties to mark which wire goes with what servo. Very helpful when trying to diagnose hardware and programming errors.
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Tony

ratronic

Tony, now thats creative! I hope you share code with us when you get it up and running.

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D Rat

Dave Ratcliff N6YEE

Tony B.

ratronic,

Thanks! I will share my code as soon as I have it working. I sure hope it doesn't take·too long.

Tony

Post Edited (Tony B.) : 6/26/2010 3:23:34 AM GMT

Whit

Tony,

Looks great!

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Whit+


"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney

erco

Sure makes sense to me. I'm still waiting for an explanation why the Parallax plywood robot platform comes pre-drilled for TEN stationary Ping))) unit$$$.

$illy me, I just an$wered my own que$tion!

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·"If you build it, they will come."

ratronic

Tony I really like this idea. I am going to order a couple of these next week and try it out. If anything it will sure look neat with those pings looking around. (maybe not so good on the batterys though!) I will share any code I come up with. Thanks for this great idea.

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D Rat

Dave Ratcliff N6YEE

Tony B.

ratronic,
Great! I was hoping others would like the idea and come on board.· When you order don't forget four (4) of the L Shaped Mounting Bracket.· I used them instead of the ones that come in the bracket kit.· You will also need some 4-40 bolts and nuts to mount the servo/L-Brackets to the front panels.· I used my own supply, but Parallax or your local hobby shop should have some. I found it easiest to just take each panel out attach the servo to each panel and then replace it making sure to run the servo wire up the center hole.· That makes me think you might want to order three (3) Rubber Grommet-13/32" hold·for the wire holes in the front panels.·
You’re right on about battery usage.· That's why I am going to do like others have down and switch to an R/C car battery that I can easily recharge with the equipment I own.· It's what I used on two of my other robots I have designed.· http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=876789· http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=894042
What language are you programming your Stingray in?· I really like PropBASIC, but am also writing/translating code into Spin and·Spin into PropBASIC.· It can't hurt to be proficient in two languages and I hope it helps more individuals to get involved with writing code for the Stingray and Propeller chip.
Thanks,
Tony

ratronic

Tony,
I will be using spin. I have tried propbasic, but it has been so long since I have used my bs2 that I'm just used to spin/pasm.

Edit: Although I am just doing the pings, I have a different compass chip (hmc6352) and will put on the breadboard if I use it.

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D Rat

Dave Ratcliff N6YEE

Post Edited (ratronic) : 6/27/2010 2:17:41 PM GMT

ratronic

Ok, I've installed my two pings per your intructions Tony and they work excellent! I've attached my version of simple obstacle avoidance. In a few days (in a new thread) I will demo it working with a sony tv remote with the pings and also operating the arm you see attached in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlGdk_FWJiU

Edit : fixed the descriptions for the right and left pings and wheels in the program

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D Rat

Dave Ratcliff N6YEE

Post Edited (ratronic) : 7/4/2010 7:56:30 PM GMT

erco

Nice, Dave! Def want to see your arm working, that's a first! Keep it up!

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·"If you build it, they will come."

Martin_H

Nice front gripper on that Stingray!

ratronic

Thanks erco, I am in the middle of incorporating the ir, pings and arm now. Here is a video of the stingray without the pings using a sony tv remote to operate the stingray and arm/gripper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARj0CknHp-w



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D Rat

Dave Ratcliff N6YEE

Whit

Awesome work ratronic! It is great to see what you guys are doing.

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Whit+


"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney