Light Commander success!
Nitro Blast
Posts: 2
First post on the forum and complete newb here...
I want to tip my hat to the guys at Parallax, at the last "Multi Rotor Challenge" in Fallbrook CA, they were kind enough to hand me a Light Commander. The guys in the booth were showing off some super cool stuff and I was floored by the radio they had.
Well it took me long enough to finally have some time to spend with it, and during the holiday break I spent a few nights with the soldering iron, some ribbon cable, and my LHM 650 Hexi (which I won at the event).
I maidened the flight, it went superbly, so next was the light commander. I think it looks great, and maybe I can learn some basic stamp programming to really make it work great.
Thanks again Parallax!
I want to tip my hat to the guys at Parallax, at the last "Multi Rotor Challenge" in Fallbrook CA, they were kind enough to hand me a Light Commander. The guys in the booth were showing off some super cool stuff and I was floored by the radio they had.
Well it took me long enough to finally have some time to spend with it, and during the holiday break I spent a few nights with the soldering iron, some ribbon cable, and my LHM 650 Hexi (which I won at the event).
I maidened the flight, it went superbly, so next was the light commander. I think it looks great, and maybe I can learn some basic stamp programming to really make it work great.
Thanks again Parallax!
Comments
The youtube link brought me to my own uploads page. Do you have a direct link to your video?
Searching for "Light Commander LHM 650 Hexi" gave me this video. Is this yours?
How difficult is it to program? I believe I need the Basic Stamp Serial, and then the Serial to USB adapter, then the Basic Stamp editor?
There are Propeller controlled quad and hexacopters.
I didn't spend as much time with the Basic Stamp so I don't have nostalgic warm and fuzzy feels about it. A single cog of the eight cog Propeller has much more processing power than a Basic Stamp. And get this, the Propeller costs less than the Basic Stamp.
I'm a big fan of the Propeller. I've collected links to many of my Propeller projects in post #2 of my index.
There are lots of people to help with either processor.
I didn't even know Parallax was at Multi Rotor Challenge, pretty cool!
...Tiger
PS: Just looked up the Prop Plug to save anyone searching. The Product ID is 32201 ($14.95). Also... I agree the Propeller is awesome, but this isn't a good application. You'd have to add a ton of money, bulk, and other hardware to make it do what the Light Commander does so elegantly.
Update: Was just looking at the USB2SER ID# 28024 ($13.49) and it's the same as the Prop Plug except that a couple of the wires are switched around. If you are going to solder wires on like I did, you could use either (correctly wired). If there is a Propeller in your life, you might want to stick with the Prop Plug to simplify using it for both applications.
other junk?
OTHER JUNK!?!?!?
Okay, trash talking Tiger, let's see some of your amazing stuff.
So you're telling us you have amazing light shows?
Let's see how they compare to the "junk".
Before continuing my rant I need to pause to relate a humorous anecdote.
When I saw "Product ID is 32201" my mind interpreted it as "Pocatello ID 83201" which is just one zip code over from Chubbuck ID. Kind of freaky.
Where was I? Oh yeah textually accosting Tiger (he could probably bet me up so I'll leave it at textual).
Tiger, as long as you were looking up the zip code product number, why not provide a link to the Prop Plug?
But Nitro, you don't need that junk*. If you don't need the reset line you could use this $2 device from ebay.
If you mean using the Propeller to communicate the the Light Commander then you're probably right. It looks like the Light Commander doesn't need a companion microcontroller.
However, if you want awesome light displays on your aircraft then the Prop and some individually addressable LEDs can out perform anything the Light Commander can do.
I assure you there are plenty of ways to do this with a Prop that would be less bulky than the Light Commander.
A Propeller Project Board (PPB) costs less than the Light Commander/Prop Plug combo. One could certainly make a Propeller board on their own for less than the PPB (or Light Commander) costs (though I'd only suggest doing so if the PPB didn't suit your needs). Individually addressable LEDs can be had for $0.57 each (there are probably many places where they can be purchased for less than this).
I don't know if you can attach an ultrasound sensor to the Light Commander and have it use the lights to display the altitude but this can (and has) been done with the Prop. You could use the Propeller to monitor a variety of sensors and provide visual feedback using the lights. I personally like to switch between a light pattern to help me visually orient the aircraft and fun display patterns.
The Light Commander looks like a convenient way to add lights to a project. I'm very doubtful it can come close to the light displays the Prop is capable of.
The Light Commander has ease of use going for it and I remain very unconvinced of any of the other reasons why it's superior to using a Propeller.
Other junk? Other junk? mumble, mumble, mumble. (Where are my blood pressure pills?)
* I don't consider the Prop Plug junk. I have several myself.
Use mouse to select area below:
In case it's not clear, this post was intended to be a humorous way of stating my objections to Tiger's comments. I certainly have no ill feelings towards Tiger. I just refuse to put smiley faces after sentences to show they shouldn't be taken at face value. After all I did mean most of what I said but I did so in a mock angry way.
Ugh, explaining a joke sure kills the humor.
Make sure and take a look at the ebay link in my above rant. I think the $2 gizmo would work with the LC. It wouldn't work as a substitute for the Prop Plug though. With so many Propeller boards (PPB and QuickStart) having their own USB connection I'm not sure how useful a Prop Plug would be.
If you're happy with the way your quad looks obviously none of that matters. The best thing is, once you want to make changes the Propeller is going to be awesome, and you can re-purpose the Light Commander onto something else.
I heard a rumor that Parallax is making a Propeller based lighting controller that could be used in RC applications, but I haven't heard much on the status of it. Parallax has p2orities I guess...
I second this, and mainly because of the wide input voltage range this board can handle up to 16v which means I can plug it directly into the 3S lipos.