Park Zone
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Posts: 46,084
I have just purchased a device on sale at Sears called Park Zone for $15.00.
It is designed to help you park in a garage without the old tennis ball on a
string. The Park Zone has an ultrasonic transducer by Polaroid and three
LED's (red, yellow and green) and is controlled by some type of
microprocessor. The range of the sensing unit is adjustable from 0.5 to 16
feet.
I think this could be cheap and ready made solution for object detection in
a mobile robot controlled by a BS2. The problem is the Park Zone has three
modes of operation.
1) Home mode - This mode is used for calibration. Turning the unit off and
then back on sets the distance of detection. Charging the batteries on a
mobile robot would mean having to recalibrate each time.
2) Away mode - The ping rate is only every two seconds until an object is
detected. This is too slow ping rate for a mobile robot.
3) Park mode - An object has been detected and the ping rate is escalated
to a much higher rate.
Has anyone ever hacked this device? If it could stay in the park mode
(rapid ping rate), it would be ideal.
Thanks for any ideas or help
Rusty
It is designed to help you park in a garage without the old tennis ball on a
string. The Park Zone has an ultrasonic transducer by Polaroid and three
LED's (red, yellow and green) and is controlled by some type of
microprocessor. The range of the sensing unit is adjustable from 0.5 to 16
feet.
I think this could be cheap and ready made solution for object detection in
a mobile robot controlled by a BS2. The problem is the Park Zone has three
modes of operation.
1) Home mode - This mode is used for calibration. Turning the unit off and
then back on sets the distance of detection. Charging the batteries on a
mobile robot would mean having to recalibrate each time.
2) Away mode - The ping rate is only every two seconds until an object is
detected. This is too slow ping rate for a mobile robot.
3) Park mode - An object has been detected and the ping rate is escalated
to a much higher rate.
Has anyone ever hacked this device? If it could stay in the park mode
(rapid ping rate), it would be ideal.
Thanks for any ideas or help
Rusty
Comments
It seems that you can buy input devices like those for a lower price when
you get them in ready made gizmo's than when you guy the input device alone
from a supplyer. *shrug* Let us know if you have any luck!
Cy
www.pasqualy.com
Original Message
From: "Rusty" <lineman@m...>
To: <basicstamps@egroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2000 8:56 PM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Park Zone
> I have just purchased a device on sale at Sears called Park Zone for
$15.00.
> It is designed to help you park in a garage without the old tennis ball on
a
> string. The Park Zone has an ultrasonic transducer by Polaroid and three
> LED's (red, yellow and green) and is controlled by some type of
> microprocessor. The range of the sensing unit is adjustable from 0.5 to 16
> feet.
>
> I think this could be cheap and ready made solution for object detection
in
> a mobile robot controlled by a BS2. The problem is the Park Zone has
three
> modes of operation.
> 1) Home mode - This mode is used for calibration. Turning the unit off and
> then back on sets the distance of detection. Charging the batteries on a
> mobile robot would mean having to recalibrate each time.
> 2) Away mode - The ping rate is only every two seconds until an object is
> detected. This is too slow ping rate for a mobile robot.
> 3) Park mode - An object has been detected and the ping rate is escalated
> to a much higher rate.
>
> Has anyone ever hacked this device? If it could stay in the park mode
> (rapid ping rate), it would be ideal.
>
> Thanks for any ideas or help
> Rusty
>
>
>
>
>
like to see a schematic.
Regards, Theron Wierenga