New here. Getting Activity Bot For Christmas
Hi all, first post here. My wife is getting me an Activity Bot for Christmas, and I have some questions already.....LOL.
1. Is the Activity Bot a good choice for someone just getting into robotics?
2. How difficult is the build? Many years ago I did successfully build a HeathKit Hero1 robot, but that was some 40 years ago.
3. I do have some electronics knowledge as I'm a home hobbyist, but no "c" programming experience. I did want a platform that was expandable, and programmable.
4. Any links to getting started would be great.
Thanks.
1. Is the Activity Bot a good choice for someone just getting into robotics?
2. How difficult is the build? Many years ago I did successfully build a HeathKit Hero1 robot, but that was some 40 years ago.
3. I do have some electronics knowledge as I'm a home hobbyist, but no "c" programming experience. I did want a platform that was expandable, and programmable.
4. Any links to getting started would be great.
Thanks.
Comments
Absolutely. Possibly the best[/b/] choice, not just a good one.
I haven't actual built an Activity Bot from a kit myself. Mine is an upgraded BOE-Bot.
Parallax excels at tutorials. There are step by step instructions for building the AB and I understand it's easy than it used to be since they now include a little Delrin wrench to make it easy to hold nuts in place.
Parallax has you covered here too. IMO, no one writes better tutorials than Parallax. The "Learn" site will have great tutorials on programming.
Here's a link to the Activity Bot tutorial on the "Learn" site.
I have a bunch of links to additional tutorials in post #3 of my "index". See my signature for a link.
IMO, The Propeller is a great microcontroller for robotics projects. I've listed many of my projects in post #2 of my index.
Thanks Duane for the quick response. I'm sure I'll be back with many more questions soon. Can't wait to get started!
I doubt it. There are a lot of tools which work well on many operating systems. I pretty sure Simple IDE works on a Mac.
I have a friend, an undergraduate at a local college with no robotics experience, who put together an ActivityBot ... no problem.
Ok thanks everyone I'll let you know how it goes.
Have a very merry robotic Christmas Tony 4d! You will love the Activity Bot and I promise that you will learn more than you can imagine.
See you back here soon! Till then, why wait till Christmas - head over to the Learn tab and start learning some fun stuff now!
I will have a look. Thanks. One question, just out of curiosity, what's the best robotic platform Parallax makes?
Lucky man! My gf is great at gift giving, but parallax.com is not on her list of stores to visit.
You won't have any trouble with the activity bot. You will find that the documention parallax creates is amoung the best you will find in the hobby market. In fact if you are programming her in C, you can visit here to get started today: http://learn.parallax.com/ActivityBot
Note that you don't have to use C if you dont want to. The Spin programming language (and a handful of other languages) can also be used to program your little bot. I use SPIN for all of my projects, not becouse it is better or worse than C, but becouse it is what I know and love...
Welcome to the forums. You won't find a friendlier bunch of folks anywhere online.
Thanks. Really looking forward to building this little guy. Is Spin a little easier to program than C ? I'm on a Mac so am I not limited to C? What other editors would be available to me?
Spin probably has more quirks and surprises than C, but overall it is a much better fit for the propeller - Spin was designed specifically for the propeller and fits almost perfectly, while C was forced to fit (and doesn't really fit well at all). For example, Spin has operators like >< (bitwise reverse) and -> (rotate right) that take advantage of the propeller's built-in assembly instructions, while with C it's often much harder to get the same functionality. I would say that, unless you already know C and just want to get programming, Spin is definitely a better language choice for the propeller.
The main editor for Spin on a Mac is PropellerIDE. I've heard good things about it but I've never used it. I personally use BST, and it works fine (on Linux and an old Mac with OSX 10.5), but it's been discontinued for a while now.
I'm inclined to agree with you on this except the tutorials for the ActivityBot are all in C.
I keep meaning to write a few Spin programs for the AB but other things keep getting in the way.
I did write and post some software for a PropBOE-Bot. The code should work on an AB after the I/O pin assignments are appropriately adjusted. One of the things my PropBOE code doesn't do is to monitor encoders (since my PropBOE-Bot didn't have encoders).
I think I may get around to writing some Spin AB once I'm further along with my part of the OPP#8 project. I don't think it will be very hard to adapt the revised Eddie code to an AB. The code to read quadrature encoders will need to be modified to read the single channel encoders of the AB, but I don't think that will be very hard.
Edit: I don't think I agree with your statement "C was force to fit (and doesn't really fit well at all)". I admit to often feeling that way but I think my preference for Spin on the Propeller has a lot to do with the amount of time I've spent using Spin rather than C. If I had started out learning C on the Prop (shudder), I may have had the same aversion to learning Spin on the Prop as I have with learning to use C on the Prop. Though as I type this it doesn't really feel true. I used C a lot before learning to use the Propeller and I was irritated to have to learn Spin but it didn't take long for me to prefer Spin to C. (Ug, who wants to type all those brackets and semicolons?)
how did you found out before Christmas, cheating?
You can program the Propeller Chip in various languages. Spin and Pasm are the native languages with support of the build-in Spin Interpreter built into ROM.
Then there is the PropGCC project allowing you to use C/C++ (and even other languages supported by GCC) on the prop.
There are also a couple of FORTH projects running very successfully on the Propeller. (PropForth, Tachion, Pfth)
And don't miss them BASIC variants (Femto-Basic, PropBasic, and other).
Overall this little critter is able to run a lot of stuff. There are even some projects running CP/M on a emulated Z80 chip. Right on that Propeller Chip.
But - you have to remember that this is a MicroController and not a general purpose CPU. So size does matter.
Here my PERSONAL view:
I think SPIN and PASM are not just native to the Propeller (aka build in) but also made by the same guy who created the propeller itself. And it is a - hmm - holistic solution?
The Propeller is quite different from other MCs because of not having interrupts, but using multiple cores and polling/writing of 'mailboxes' to archive timely responses in a complex environment.
I personally hate to throw words out like this, but programming the Propeller is a paradigm shift compared to other programming.
You need to think different to archive your goals. And at that point Spin and Pasm make a lot of sense. Spin for the low speed UI/Interface to humans and Pasm for the high speed interface to devices.
I think the choice of your language has to fit the project you want to do. All of them have pros and cons.
Anyways, as a MAC user you have the following choices, I guess:
SimpleIDE is for C/C++ mostly but can also use SPIN (and PropBasic?).
PropellerIDE (a similar Project) is more focused on SPIN. It is also made by Steve Denson, but now managed by the LameStation Guy.
The main difference is the handling of projects. SimpleIDE uses a .side file for a project and PropellerIDE uses the source of the first (main) object to obtain the needed files, like the PropellerTool on windows does.
There is also BST, a nice multiplatform IDE for SPIN, but - sadly - not supported anymore by Brad.
There may be more things out there ...
just chiming in her
Mike
That's the way I started, then I started learning spin and a little PASM, and some forth (pfth) since I've always had a fascination (at a distance) with forth. Now I try to convert a number of the spin objects from the OBEX into C so I can use them easily with the SimpleIDE library functions.
Tom
Hey Tony... Welcome to the forums!
I have the little brother to the Activity Bot, the Boe Bot and it was pretty easy to assemble. The AB has a few more parts, but it shouldn't be too difficult at all. Parallax has some great documentation.
I'm in the process of upgrading Bob, my Boe Bot, to be an Activity Bot.
You don't have to program in C, but I believe all the tutorials for the critter are presented in that language. (C is somewhere below the bottom of my list of favorite programming languages, but I'm forcing myself to learn.)
I have the Ping kit for Bob. It was a ball to let him loose to roam and see how long he could go without getting stuck behind or under something in the apartment. His record was almost an hour! :-)
Again... welcome. I think you'll really enjoy your new "toy"!
Amanda
will get you started.
#include <simpletools.h> #include <servo.h> #include <abdrive.h> #include <ping.h> void findClearPath(void); #define CENTER 1500 #define PINGSERVO 16 #define PINGSENSOR 17 int a, b, c, dist; int main() { servo_set(PINGSERVO, CENTER); pause(750); while(1) { dist = ping_cm(PINGSENSOR); if (dist < 20) { drive_rampStep(0, 0); drive_goto(-10, -10); findClearPath(); } drive_rampStep(50, 50); } } void findClearPath() { a = ping_cm(PINGSENSOR); servo_set(PINGSERVO, CENTER - 500); pause(250); b = ping_cm(PINGSENSOR); servo_set(PINGSERVO, CENTER + 500); pause(500); c = ping_cm(PINGSENSOR); servo_set(PINGSERVO, CENTER); pause(250); if (b > c) { drive_goto(25, -25); } else { drive_goto(-25, 25); } }Like this?
#define CENTER 1500
All this does is create a symbol called CENTER that you can use in code that is defined as 1500 (it is a constant changable only at compile time). While it may look complicated for a beginner, it is a good practice that will save you time to use the symbol than to add the number in several places. Other languages have similar conventions. Using it is up to you.
All of the #include statements used in the activity bot tutorials cause the ide to add libraries for you.
I'm not sure if by 'ping bracket' you mean a Ping mounted on a servo which the program I posted above is meant for. If you are just starting programming you
can mount the Ping on the breadboard and there is a program in the Learn/Examples/ActivityBot folder called "Follow with Ping.c" and try. Don't hesitate
to ask questions. Happy Holidays!
Please use the release candidate.
Got it up, and running with your code. Woks great! I'll really learn a lot from this code. Thanks again!
http://vid46.photobucket.com/albums/f132/2001as/FullSizeRender.mp4