SX-52 Demo Board for the Toddler

LoopyByteloose

I have a Toddler I bought some time ago·and I recently bought 8 of the SX-52 Demo Boards.

Now, I am thinking that I really would like to use one on my Parallax Toddler to replace the BS-2 board.
I have always wanted to integrate ultrasound and IR to make the little guy able to wander without disasterous collision.
I have the twinkle toes, the ultrasound, serveral Ir options [noparse][[/noparse]one pair are on the toes looking downward for a drop off, others are looking forward for an obstacle.

Has anyone tried such a change over? Has anyone suceeded?

I had previously looked at PWM on the SX-28, but found that the examples were a bit hard to comprehend.· It seemed that they were mostly about·mutiple outputs, not a complete concept.

Any suggestions about seting up the PWM output for at least two servos?

Actually, I am looking forward to this as I really need the challenge to get me fully into the SX-52.

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G. Herzog in Taiwan

LoopyByteloose

Update.

It may be more appropriate to move this whole thread to Robotics. I cannot really decide where it belongs.

I got started. I drilled two additional holes in the SX48/52 Proto Board to mount to the Toddler.
[noparse][[/noparse]I know... this voids the warrenty , but just about everything we do does that. It's part of the fun.]
One is between the capacitors and the voltage regulator whilst the other is across the board has demolished the P in Proto. Handily, nothing is in the way.

So the SX-52 is now in place atop the Toddler.

I located code for PWM in Gunther's book, but it is for rotating servos. I have been pondering backing off a bit and using the original Toddler board for purely locomotion with the Twinkle Toes for immediate collision and the two downward IR sensors for immediate dropoff.

Then the SX48/52 Protoboard could really be dedicated to mapping the world about it and some form of navigation. It could redirect the Toddlers walking routines at anytime or it could just observe surroundings and progress.

Eventually, it might even be given tasks or objectives [noparse][[/noparse]like go hide and rest, seek out a recharge, greet intruders..]

The reasoning behind this is that it seems similar to biological brain and locomotion relationships. We keep moving along, sensing, and thinking at the same time. Locomotion is more reflexive and not really cognitive, so having the Toddler do its thing independent of higher functions will allow 'cognitive' portion to avoid interuptions from the locomotion task.

And yet the cognitive could interrupt the locomotion at anytime.

While in some ways, it seems an 'easy way out', I really feel that having one centralized processor handle everything is a computerized ideal. There seems to be a natural division of tasks that robotics should recognize. BEAM robotics seems to contribute a lot of support to this as they have pretty well demonstrated walking to be a relatively reflexive task that can been done blindly.

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G. Herzog in Taiwan

Post Edited (Kramer) : 8/21/2005 4:03:57 PM GMT

Jon Williams

I "liberated" some code from Guenther's book and converted it to SX/B -- it takes care of two servos (Toddler has two) and modulates IR LEDs.· It should get you started.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax

LoopyByteloose

Thank you very much. I spent the day getting back into Al Williams' text as well as Gunther's.

One really needs to read the tutorials. Also, your on-line Senix document about the Virtual Machine concept and how to properly impliment it.
While I have the code in the text, this will allow me to edit it rather quickly.

Eventually, I expect to have a SX-28 drive the locomotion whit the SX-52 handling the sensors and navigation. This will help the SX-28 get going.

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G. Herzog in Taiwan