Little World

jcferguson

Hi, I'm pretty new to basic stamp, working through tutorials right now.

I have an art project that I would like to control with the basic stamp - it is a little robot with a pan/tilt camera and locomotion motor that runs through a diorama, controlled by the viewer sitting at a control panel (with two joysticks and a video monitor). Right now this is controlled by an rc unit.

These are some videos from the diorama:

http://www.carlosferguson.com/2005.html


My question - is it feasable to wirelessly control three servos with a couple basic stamps and an rf link? My thought is that this could later be adapted to run over the internet.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Carlos

jcferguson

Anyone?

My main question: is an RF link practical for controlling 3 servos via a couple of BS2's? One BS2 would be hooked to joysticks, the other to the servos. Is an RC set better?

Thanks!

Carlos

Mike Green

Martin Hebel is selling Zigbee adapters (see http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=15&m=144979) for the Stamp AppMod socket and a simpler SIP version. This is a simple RF network system that could work very very nicely for this project.

Kevin Wood

You can aslo find some posts in the Robotics forums on modifying Boe-Bots to work with remote control, playstation controllers, etc.

You could also look at the Microsoft Robotics Studio kit for the Boe-Bot for some ideas.

jcferguson

Thanks for the advice! I haven't worked much with SERIN and SEROUT and just wondered if that method of transmitting data would be "fast" enough to give me seamless control over three servos using an RF connection. It will take me some time to get it all working and if it is going to be stuttery and jerky after spending the time to get it set up, I would rather go a different route...

So can serial data transmitted over an RF link move "fast" enough to control three servos? Most of the projects I have seen use the type of control to run relays - like this project:

http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Orchard/6633/rfremote.html

Thanks again for any help, it is much appreciated.

Carlos

Kevin Wood

The Microsoft Robotics Studio Boe-Bot kit uses a Bluetooth connection between a Boe-Bot & PC for remote control. It uses a standard Boe-Bot with the Bluetooth appmod, so it's not overly complicated (generally speaking).

You might want to consider using the Parallax Servo Controller to off-load as much servo control from the Stamp as possible. It should improve overall performance to some degree.

jcferguson

Thanks for the reply Kevin,

I played with some code to drive servos today and think it should work ok to control 3 servos with a stamp - and the psc should make this even faster?

I was thinking about the two possibilities I have for my project: straight rc with digital servos (so I can set the deadband, endpoints) or ... joysticks/bs2/rf/bs2/psc

What do I gain and sacrifice? Obviously I can gain bi-directional info exchange with the bs2 and tranceivers, but at the cost of a lot of interfacing it seems... I think it would be worth it (I have a month to get my rig working before an exhibition) but I still worry that I will get it all set up and find out that the RF link and the basic stamps aren't "fast" enough to drive the servos.

What is the difference between the Parallax RF system and a typical RC system? Do they both transmit serial data in the same way, same speed? Is an RC system just basically a joystick hooked to a microcontroller, to an rf link to another microcontroller and servos?

Thanks so much for any thoughts.

Carlos

p.s. this is my control panel, meant to look somewhat futuristic, somewhat 60's. I attach it here in the hopes that someone "in the know" will be interested enough to help me.