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Penguin on a Leash — Parallax Forums

Penguin on a Leash

HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
edited 2011-02-22 15:53 in Robotics
Penguin on a Leash
No Repair, Don't Despair!


attachment.php?attachmentid=78375&d=1296079353

If you were lucky to take advantage of this special Penguin offer, you got a great deal with two new style Penguins. These Penguins come with a board repair kit so the robot will function without the USB cable. However, for those that did not install the repair, don't despair!

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?129018-The-March-of-the-Penguins-Closed!/page8
http://forums.parallax.com/entry.php...-some-Penguins

It's likely that Penguin will spend the majority of his life on your desktop, and, if your desktop is an average one, the roaming distance of Penguin will be under 3-feet. Welcome to the USB shade-cable. This is the cable that retracts like a window shade. It's 2-feet 8-inches long, which is 32-inches, almost a full yard. Plus this cable is thin and light weight! It's perfect for running Penguin on the desktop!
Default.aspx?txtSearch=usb+cableMakeThumbImage.aspx?ID=%2fPortals%2f0%2fImages%2fProd%2f8%2f805%2f805-00010-M.jpg&PORTALID=0&W=120&H=120
http://www.parallax.com/
Penguin's USB shade-cable is light-
weight and thin, perfect for running
the new style Penguins without the
board fix in place.

Comments

  • aaren253aaren253 Banned Posts: 4
    edited 2011-02-16 23:17
    #1: A kangaroo kept getting out of his enclosure at the zoo. Knowing that he could hop high, the zoo officials put up a ten-foot fence. He was out the next morning, just roaming around the zoo. A twenty-foot fence was put up.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-02-17 01:03
    Humanoido,

    That's a spam post you're responding to.

    -Phil
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-02-17 17:13
    Penguin on a leash? Sailboats are safe in a harbor, but thats not what they are made for. :)
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-02-17 22:57
    erco wrote: »
    Penguin on a leash? Sailboats are safe in a harbor, but thats not what they are made for. :)
    Oh, indeed, not sailboats! But dogs, cats, gators, and even Penguins can make good use of their owner-provided leashes. :)
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-02-18 09:18
    And if the Penguin is leashed on a sailboat anchored in a harbor?
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-02-18 19:41
    erco wrote: »
    And if the Penguin is leashed on a sailboat anchored in a harbor?
    That gives me some ideas for a "water sports" Penguin. Since Humanoids can skateboard, an amply watertight Penguin could water ski. The boat could contain the battery pack and tether which supplies power to Penguin and doubles as the "lanyard." A ballast can help keep Penguin from sinking, a gyro and accelerometer to keep orientation, and a ski program to move the ski's properly.
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-02-19 09:41
    I've assembled one of my Penguins. If I plug in the USB cable and turn on the Penguin it runs properly. I can then remove the cable and it continues to run normally. If I power cycle the robot that's when the defect occurs. However, just plugging in the cable allows the program to start running normally.

    So no leash is needed, just plug in the bird and it starts running. This will make it slightly hard to work up the courage to put him under the x-acto knife.

    I also need to tweak the length of the control rods as I think they are a smidge to long. I scratched one foot slightly adjusting it earlier, so courage is need here too.

    Looking at the pin assignment, I notice that the compass and the LED each have their own clock and data lines. I thought with three wire serial you could share those with more than one device. It was only the enable line that needs to be unique per device.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-02-19 18:47
    Martin_H wrote: »
    I've assembled one of my Penguins. If I plug in the USB cable and turn on the Penguin it runs properly. I can then remove the cable and it continues to run normally. If I power cycle the robot that's when the defect occurs. However, just plugging in the cable allows the program to start running normally. So no leash is needed, just plug in the bird and it starts running. This will make it slightly hard to work up the courage to put him under the x-acto knife. I also need to tweak the length of the control rods as I think they are a smidge to long. I scratched one foot slightly adjusting it earlier, so courage is need here too. Looking at the pin assignment, I notice that the compass and the LED each have their own clock and data lines. I thought with three wire serial you could share those with more than one device. It was only the enable line that needs to be unique per device.
    Martin, thank you for this valuable Penguin info! It looks like there are now several options to running the new style Penguins.
    • on a leash
    • with a motherboard modification
    • by judiciously unplugging the leash
    • attaching a power boost battery to usb port
    Zappman has added a USB battery so enough power is delivered to the motherboard and thus the mod can be averted.
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?129738-Get-your-Penguin-working-without-modifing-the-circuit-card.

    The rods in the feet were too long in my Penguins too. With only hand tools, it's a challenge to get the ends flat and at 90 degrees to the rod side. I tried sandpaper and a metal file. Finally I used a board to hold the rod perpendicular and this was helpful.

    Martin, is it possible to use the existing port to attach more than one device?


  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-02-20 03:25
    The rod fix turned out to be trivial.

    Humanoido, by port do you mean the two free I/O pins? I would guess that you could use them to create an I2C bus and hook up multiple I2C devices. The 2PX contains support for it, so it should just work. All the Lego NXT stuff is really I2C, so a Penguin using a Lego color sensor seems doable. I've been meaning to try Lego to Propeller for a while now.

    But I was talking about synchronous serial pin sharing. Let's say you want to hook up multiple synchronous serial devices. Each device needs a clock, en, and data in. According to the HM55B's documentation, it can share clock and data in, as long as it has its own en line. Basically it ignores clock and data in if en isn't set. So after reading the schematic I found it interesting that they weren't shared given the docs I read.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-02-20 09:28
    Martin_H wrote: »
    The rod fix turned out to be trivial.
    Humanoido, by port do you mean the two free I/O pins? I would guess that you could use them to create an I2C bus and hook up multiple I2C devices. The 2PX contains support for it, so it should just work. All the Lego NXT stuff is really I2C, so a Penguin using a Lego color sensor seems doable. I've been meaning to try Lego to Propeller for a while now.
    Martin, Yes.
    Martin_H wrote: »
    But I was talking about synchronous serial pin sharing. Let's say you want to hook up multiple synchronous serial devices. Each device needs a clock, en, and data in. According to the HM55B's documentation, it can share clock and data in, as long as it has its own en line. Basically it ignores clock and data in if en isn't set. So after reading the schematic I found it interesting that they weren't shared given the docs I read.
    Martin, that's fantastic! Maybe you can work up a circuit for us and test it?
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-02-20 17:25
    Humanoido, the schematic for an I2C circuit is simple. The bus has four lines: power (+5 or +3), ground, serial data line (SDA) and serial clock line (SCL). The data lines are pulled up with resistors connected to the power line. The bus has a master and at least on slave and each slave devices has an ID, and only responds to data sent to it. So the mechanics of wiring are pretty simple. If I'm not mistaken I2C is used to communicate with EEPROMs, so you've likely seen the schematic on many microcontroller boards.

    The hard part is knowing the protocol for the device you want to exchange data with. To that end I checked the Lego web site for the technical docs for their color sensor. Unfortunately, they only have the docs for their old analog light sensor, not the new color sensor. They do have the docs for their version of Ping which is I2C, so maybe I can try it with that if I get time.

    As for synchronous serial sharing data lines. I have two synchronous serial devices. My compass and line scan camera. I never had cause to hook them up at the same time, but I suppose I could give it a try. The rest of my sensors are async serial or I2C.

    BTW The documentation issue is one reasons I switched from Lego to Parallax gear. It's not that Lego is closed and doesn't like you poking around. But they often have annoying gaps which leave you hanging when you want to leave the walled garden.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-02-22 15:53
    Martin, thank you for the I2C info and this spectacular revelation. Your circuit and experiment will be a very big advancement and contribution to Penguin!
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