New project help
BattleGoose
Posts: 6
Hi Guys, I posted this in the sandbox forum, but was told I'd get more help here. Here is the project I need to do:
I have 8 motors that I need to send instructions to and receive responses from. Based on date and time of day, I instruct each motor to move to a pre-defined position. I will have up to 32,000 date/time/position points that I need to store. Probably more.
I would also like to play with some kind of LCD display, wireless communication with the device, and GPS capability. And, now that I'm thinking about it, some way to manually move my motors using the device. Ie: one switch to take a motor offline, another switch (3 position) to move the motor (1 axis).
Trying to figure out what hardware I need to get started. Your advice is appreciated.
Also, are there folks out there that do this professionally? Not above paying someone to do this for us.
I have 8 motors that I need to send instructions to and receive responses from. Based on date and time of day, I instruct each motor to move to a pre-defined position. I will have up to 32,000 date/time/position points that I need to store. Probably more.
I would also like to play with some kind of LCD display, wireless communication with the device, and GPS capability. And, now that I'm thinking about it, some way to manually move my motors using the device. Ie: one switch to take a motor offline, another switch (3 position) to move the motor (1 axis).
Trying to figure out what hardware I need to get started. Your advice is appreciated.
Also, are there folks out there that do this professionally? Not above paying someone to do this for us.
Comments
Harprit
Welcome to the Prop Forum. Here you will find all sorts of help. It is a very active forum.
Yes, there are professionals who lurk here. But let's see how much we can help you first for free!
I am a little lost with your motor requirements. I presume you will use a stepper motor and this will require a stepper driver. There is a lot of info regarding driving stepper motors on the www.reprap.com forum and also try the cad forum. The robot section of the prop no doubt also has info on this, depending of course on the size/power of the motors.
As far as adding LCD, GPS, etc to the prop, this is done all the time and quite easy. There are kits here (just search this forum or look at a few of the older pages). There are examples and code in the OBEX (object exchange - and it's free) for this.
Hope this helps for starters. Perhaps you can describe in a little more detail exactly what you are trying to do and we can help some more.
I've been extremely busy for a while, which only means this project has become more time sensitive and important.
I'm working with a slew drive that looks like this:
and an actuator that looks like this:
I will have a list of pre-determined values so that every 5 minutes all day long I will have a new value that will move each motor just a tiny bit (ie: read 3 fields from a file, move the motors). Then at the end of the day they will reset and will not move all night until the next morning. A digital display would be nice. A clock that sets itself to some broadcasted time device would be nice. A way to upload a new table (file) of values would be nice without actually having to plug in. A method to put the motors into manual mode and manually move them (buttons, dials, knobs) would be nice.
I will definitely be paying someone to do this for me as I just don't have the time to learn this and do it myself. If you think you're this person, PM me with your experience and a ballpark of what you think it would cost.
A) move 8 satellite dishes (most likely)
or
If it is a linear actuator for moving a dish, you could get one of those a box that would let you issue DISEQ commands to move each dish to any specified position on the arc. Actually, you would need eight boxes.
Don't forget to make absolutely sure that your poles are plumb, and to calibrate the dishes to your true south sat.
I wouldn't have thought that the solar would have to use any sort of slew control, or have you got access to those IR wavelenth polymers that form a multiple array ??
Sounds like a fun project. I would say that the Prop would have enough processing power to do all of that. Cluso makes a good point about Parallax's OBEX and how the bulk of the driver objects are already written for you. You will, however, have to write a good deal of "glue" code to define exactly how the prop is going to use these drivers to make your application work.
I am curious on a few things about your application. What is the GPS for? Is your device going to be stationary? I.E. GPS isn't much use on a stationary object. Er, I havent found a good reason to have GPS on something that isn't going to move. Also, how far away is your project going to be from its base station or the computer? What are the voltage/current/power requirements of your motors or actuators?
You made mention of reading a file with the exact position that your motors should take at each interval. Might I recommend using an SD card as that storage medium?
Stationary GPS also look at the GPS 'grid' and see how it's moving. This is how differential GPS works. One sits still and reports grid movements to the ones close by but moving. They subtract out the grid error and get allot more accurate.
Seems to me I remember reading that the big Christmas tsunami in the south pacific a few years ago caused the earth to wobble for a few weeks and the DGPS systems were all seeing it.
One of my good friends is a wireless internet service provider. He uses GPS units at each of his tower sites across Southern Illinois. If I remember correctly, it is used to sink each towers signals so that they all do not try and "talk" over one another. With each tower knowing each others location and all being on a very exact time code, it greatly improves the speed and accuracy of his network.... or something like that... -Alex