Methods of control for BOE-Bot
i was wondering differnet ways to control my boe-bot. its it at all possible to control my boe-bot thru the serial port? can you giveme some example code, i get get anything to work for me.·you guys have been giving me lots of help, but i still cant get it to work. i was wondering if its possible to control thru ethernet or radio frequency as well. my ultimate goal is to be able to control my boe-bot remotley from my laptop,·and navigating·with a camera of some sort. i want to be able to move the servos with WSAD and move a pan/titlt asemblt with the arrow keys or a joystick. do they make a mini web-server that i could acces from a remote location over my dad's wireless g network to control it like that? what all is involved? and can you be really specific, you guys have given alot of help, but have been very vague.·thanks for your help.
(W=FWD S=LEFT A=REV D=RIGHT)
(W=FWD S=LEFT A=REV D=RIGHT)
Comments
1. Yes, and you know this from your previous post about controlling something from com port 1.
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=516224
2. There are quite a few RF solutions for BOTS and microcontrollers, take a look at the parallax main site for a few, they basically replace the serial cable. If you want bidirectional comms use 2 tranceivers, for 1 way a transmitter and receiver will do just fine. Google "serial RF" for some options. Also take a look at the newer "easy radio" modules, also found on google, these look pretty cool and you can get a bidirectional link going for about $140 for a one USB tranceiver and 1 serial, less for 2 serial, most of the other options start at $200 or so for a pair of tranceivers.
3. Nothing that I am aware of in the hobby price range will get you wi-fi connectivity with your bot.
4. For real time control of a bot from a remote location you are going to have to roll your own interface in something like visual basic or real basic, not an easy task for a newbie coder. You mentioned WASD, I assume you want real time control akin to the controls of a first person shooter game.· Start by getting your program to communicate witrh your bot, then add connectivity to it later. You could also take a look at microwebserv http://www.csmicrosystems.com/Product.aspx?productID=4&CategoryID=
What you are trying to accomplish is a semi complex project with many components and custom software. It is easily doable but you will have to do some legwork, in otherwords THIS IS NOT A NEWBIE PROJECT!!. If you are interested in interfacing your bots to a PC, you should pick up a copy of visual basic or real basic and work through some of the zillions of tuts out there on the net.
Break this project down into small pieces and attack them 1·at a time, good luck!
PS If you want specific answers post specific questions with supporting code, many people here are more than willling to help, they are not willing to do it for you.
Post Edited (KB3JJG) : 5/7/2005 3:54:56 PM GMT
you use vb to develop the pc based gui. you use pbasic to program the bot. the two components will communicate with each other via serial communication. you should spend some time on msdn.microsoft.com reading about serial communication. most notably the mscomm object.
you definitely are going to have some page turning to do before you jump into a project of this complexity.
good luck. you have an inquisitive nature and thats the first positive step.
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daniel woolston
Teksystems Inc.
www.danwoolston.com
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