Greetings! I don't come here very often, but tonight I just happened onto your project and read the entire thread. Really interesting and it's especially nice how well you are documenting what you're doing. I decided to post for a couple reasons. First, I noticed a comment you made back in entry #111 that said "I would love to use HB25's but they are only RC pulse". I don't know if you have used HB-25's before, but if not, I thought you might not realize that you can send them a single pulse. You don't have to keep sending them pulses every 20ms like you would a servo. Also, you can daisy chain them so that you can just send two consecutive pulses on a single I/O pin to control both your motors. I'm not clear what all your issues are so maybe this doesn't help, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.
The second reason I posted is that I thought you might enjoy seeing a tracked robot that I made a long time ago using many of the same parts you are using. Mine in fact uses two HB-25's as you'll see. I was going to shoot a couple pictures of it for you and then I remembered that I had a YouTube video that's kind of fun.
Thanks Tiger, I have actually seen you video on youtube already The J5 chassis is pretty sweet!
I think it's great that the HB-15 doesn't need continuous pulses, there are pros and cons to that but it does free up a cog for something else which is great. I was mentioning servo pulses vs PWM though. I'd rather work with PWM at this point only because I want to understand it a little better.
I added a couple of sensors; PiR and Ping. I also added a standard servo for panning the two sensors.
A couple of things in the video:
The LEDs should all flash red when the EMIC speaks. I turned down the EMIC volume and forgot to adjust the ADC levels to compensate, so only a few words set it off. When reading the EMIC's speaker output with an ADC there is a very fine line between on and off so I may need to use a separate ADC with a lower reference voltage than the other ADC I want with a higher reference voltage.
I have the PiR detector reporting motion only when the robot and panning servo are both stopped. You'll notice that it is powered on the entire time, this is to circumvent the 40 second warm up time. When the pan servo moves, or the robot moves even if there is no external movement the sensor triggers, I figured that would be the case and have only added this sensor to be used when stationary.
It's somewhat ready to go autonomous, as you can see I need to start transferring stuff to protoboard and cleaning up wires before I can send it off on any missions. So I guess that will be the next few steps. I'll also need to figure out a better place for the Ping as the tracks set it off.
Raw 6 DOF manipulator routine. I think I may use the arm to host the Ping sensor, providing I can park it in a low power position. Not entirely functional but seemed kinda cool picking up a dual relay board and putting it back down for a couple hours.
Thanks Tiger, I have actually seen you video on youtube already The J5 chassis is pretty sweet!
I think it's great that the HB-15 doesn't need continuous pulses, there are pros and cons to that but it does free up a cog for something else which is great. I was mentioning servo pulses vs PWM though. I'd rather work with PWM at this point only because I want to understand it a little better.
Please tell me what are some cons to using the HB-15 with non-continuous pulses. thank you.
Your Project is wonderfully documented and is a great project. Thanks for doing this.
Please tell me what are some cons to using the HB-15 with non-continuous pulses. thank you.
Thanks George.
I'm thinking without continuous pulses it would be easier to have a runaway situation.
Comments
The second reason I posted is that I thought you might enjoy seeing a tracked robot that I made a long time ago using many of the same parts you are using. Mine in fact uses two HB-25's as you'll see. I was going to shoot a couple pictures of it for you and then I remembered that I had a YouTube video that's kind of fun.
Good luck on your project! ...Tiger
I think it's great that the HB-15 doesn't need continuous pulses, there are pros and cons to that but it does free up a cog for something else which is great. I was mentioning servo pulses vs PWM though. I'd rather work with PWM at this point only because I want to understand it a little better.
[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79058769/pics/robots/AR1/dc power bus/IMG_0646.JPG[/IMG]
$418.76!! Wow.
So here's my plan:
Take this 8 block-
[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79058769/pics/robots/AR1/dc power bus/1.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79058769/pics/robots/AR1/dc power bus/2.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79058769/pics/robots/AR1/dc power bus/3.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79058769/pics/robots/AR1/dc power bus/IMG_0645.JPG[/IMG]
Red = cut these off
Orange = input fuse
Yellow = connect these
Blue = output fused bus
A couple of things in the video:
The LEDs should all flash red when the EMIC speaks. I turned down the EMIC volume and forgot to adjust the ADC levels to compensate, so only a few words set it off. When reading the EMIC's speaker output with an ADC there is a very fine line between on and off so I may need to use a separate ADC with a lower reference voltage than the other ADC I want with a higher reference voltage.
I have the PiR detector reporting motion only when the robot and panning servo are both stopped. You'll notice that it is powered on the entire time, this is to circumvent the 40 second warm up time. When the pan servo moves, or the robot moves even if there is no external movement the sensor triggers, I figured that would be the case and have only added this sensor to be used when stationary.
It's somewhat ready to go autonomous, as you can see I need to start transferring stuff to protoboard and cleaning up wires before I can send it off on any missions. So I guess that will be the next few steps. I'll also need to figure out a better place for the Ping as the tracks set it off.
[video=youtube_share;DqQswr5wbJ0]
[video=youtube_share;4Tbez3oxFNk]
Raw 6 DOF manipulator routine. I think I may use the arm to host the Ping sensor, providing I can park it in a low power position. Not entirely functional but seemed kinda cool picking up a dual relay board and putting it back down for a couple hours.
Please tell me what are some cons to using the HB-15 with non-continuous pulses. thank you.
Thanks George.
I'm thinking without continuous pulses it would be easier to have a runaway situation.