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Supreme Being
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, April 22, 2011 6:18 PM
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Hello all, I am posting in this difficult to find Customer Projects forum as it seems the only
place to introduce ones self. I have read through most all threads on the RC forums site and
used that information and more on the main site to base my decision on using the Serializer WL,
Sharp GP2d12, GP2d120 and Maxbotix EZ3. These components have been intermixed with
the Lynxmotion Tri-Track and Pan/Tilt head.
Also I have been pounding away at writing a thorough Serializer demonstrator program
in C#. I am very new to c# but it is coming along nicely. I have full sensors ( for my
sensors ) support as well as the pan/tilt using sliders. I monitor the IR. Sonar and battery
on my panel. I was just starting motor support when I found my Serializer has a problem
in that area. I hope to get this worked out soon. And now a rear view of my new yet brainless robot.
I look forward to learning more and sharing experiences with all of you.
Don Lewis
Don Lewis
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Supreme Being
Group: Administrators
Last Login: Monday, October 31, 2011 9:18 PM
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Cool Don! Thanks for posting man! Keep the pics and info coming. It's a great help and inspiration to all customers.  Best Regards!
Jason Summerour
President,
Summerour Robotics Corporation
www.roboticsconnection.com
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Supreme Being
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, April 22, 2011 6:18 PM
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There are more changes to my Bot that I wish to contribute here. Having a rather large
piece (8' x 18" x 1/4") of Lucite acrylic I decided to make another deck for the Tri-Tracks
so I would have more space for payload. I have pre-drilled mounting holes and made
two servo cutouts up front. The second servo cutout directly behind the used one is in
case I want to recess the Pan/Tilt. I picked up the aluminum angle from Home Depot for
the IR sensors and other things as they come to mind. 36" of angle was about $4. When
the power switch is thrown to the outside the Battery charge jack is in circuit. To the
inside is normal RUN mode.
Having decided on low power (1mw) Xbee's the wire antenna made since. The range is
good line of sight but weakens through walls. This is no problem for me as I expect to
always have the control either local to the Bot or on a remote computer nearby for
autonomous operation. The XBee are really easy to configure. Now that Jason has
made available a really excellent XBee 'HowTo' there is no reason to hold back. You will
need the USB adapter he mentions if you don't go all out and get the XBee Dev kit as I did. XBee
works very well and is very inexpensive. I opted this route over Bluetooth as I only
have Bluetooth in my Laptop. Also I can move the XBee's to other projects later very
easily.
Using the provided examples Jason and RoboticsConnection http://www.roboticsconnection.com/t-RoboticApplications.aspx
have so kindly provided will have anyone up and running in no time. I have some rusty 'C' history and the Serializer examples
made it much easier to begin with 'C#'. My test application utilizes the sensors and servo examples copied from the
SerializerLibraryDocumentation and slightly adjusted
to fit in a simple Visual C# 2005 (FREE) windows form. I studied the slider and progress bar in VSc# for my app.
This next overhead view gives more details of the layout.
I will add that I waited far too long to delve into this exciting hobby. Men
gotta have their toys.
Don Lewis
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Supreme Being
Group: Administrators
Last Login: Monday, October 31, 2011 9:18 PM
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| Awesome Don! I missed this post until now. Thanks for the updates, and pics. Best Regards,
Jason Summerour
President,
Summerour Robotics Corporation
www.roboticsconnection.com
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Supreme Being
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, April 22, 2011 6:18 PM
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I have been tweaking my test application. Over the weekend I added a
serial port connect / disconnect though I like Wingers serial connection better.
I may borrow it and add to it as I don't like hard coding in things
like ports and their setup info.
Added graphic displays for ranges. My distance sensors are in inches
within their own ranges. Battery voltage is in volts DC.
' Home P/T' centers the Pan/Tilt servo's facing forward and upright.
'Disable P/T' is for conserving power. Once a servo has been sent a value it
stays loaded. For this application where there is no significant weight it is
ok to disable them when not needed to re-aim.
It is getting time to add some movement functionality but I am not too
excited about basic object avoidance where the bot wandera around
until out of power or I get bored and stop it. However, that being said,
I still must muddle through some object avoidance as it is a necessity for roaming.
More to come as I make progress.
Don Lewis
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Supreme Being
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, April 22, 2011 6:18 PM
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This weekend I got some very simplistic navigation code together.
It is made up mostly from bits and pieces of the Roboticsconnection
libraries. If not for Jasons efforts in supporting his product with sample
code this C# newbie would be up that creek without a paddle.
It is of course tuned for my TracksBot. Uses two front Sharp GP2D12
for leftIr and rightIr and a MaxEZ3 for front. rearIr is handled by a Sharp
GP2D120. Here is a image of the control running.
Just barely got it running for now. Those motor values are not correct.
It needs refined. In testing it did get trapped while running forward with
too much clutter in its path. This is more a problem with my sensor
placement or lack of more coverage. I used the 'space' bar to stop
Autonomous mode where the screen is above. 'Esc' would exit program.
The navigate subroutine or Methods in C# talk was taken from the MF library
'Navigation'. There are probably more efficient ways to do what I have and I
will be happy for anyone to show me their versions or suggestions.
It defaults to 'COM1' baud:19200.
Don Lewis
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Supreme Being
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Last Login: Friday, April 22, 2011 6:18 PM
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| It's been a while since I made an update. Most recently i have been working on my C# TracksBot testing application. I added a Sharp GP2Y0A02YK IR sensor to my Pan/Tilt assembly. This application has a radar like scan feature that pans with the Maxbotix Ez3 or Sharp GP20A02YK to record data for graphing for future navigation use. A bonus feature of this app is that it locates the nearest objects front center and reports that direction relative to TracksBot's heading. In the image the Pan IR is obviously the GP20A02YK sensor. In this sample I am scanning with the Sonar. I still need to modify the code to switch between the two sensors. With the IR's narrow beam I hope for better accuracy in TracksBot's autonomous navigation. I changed my power indicator to a continous bar which changed its accuracy. I'll be tweaking on that. 
As for TracksBot's "brain", how is this coming along, you ask? Well it has been slower than watching grass grow. I chose the dev board by beagleboard.org as my first brains option. This is a great little board with a omap3530 processor that runs up to 600mHz on my revC2 version. Shortly in this third qtr of 2010 they are releasing a Beagleboard XM that runs at 1Ghz. The big benefit of my BB is that it runs on 2 watts at 5vDc. 
I have worked with both Gnome http://www.sakoman.com/ and the Angstrom http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/ versions of the OS. Ubuntu is available as well. While I develop code in the GUI versions of the two file systems I will use a console only fs for TracksBot. These are both Linux variants. I have spent most effort in robotic visual navigation. There are webcam speed limitations of my current bot brain. I am considering a pair of the newer XM model for stereo vision as they have an onboard special camera interface. This should make image acquisition much faster. later,
Don Lewis
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Supreme Being
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, April 22, 2011 6:18 PM
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| I made a typo in the above post: Posted Wednesday, June 02, 2010 4:36 PM. All references to Sharp GP20A02YK should be replaced with Sharp GP2Y0A02YK.
Don Lewis
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Forum Newbie
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Last Login: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 6:11 AM
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| Can beagle board handle a webcam ?
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Supreme Being
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Friday, April 22, 2011 6:18 PM
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Yes it can handle webcams. The new latest BeagleBoard, the XM model has
a Leopardboard camera interface. See Beagleboard.org and leopardboard.org
Don Lewis
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