Yo matt (or anyone else :) )

I don't suppose you've ever looked at using a pocket PC to serve as a brain for these things? I only ask as they have a serial port, good processor, and a fairly easy interface. I have no idea what writing software for them would be like, but i can't imagine it would be impossible. It might make quite a nice brain. You could also quite easily develop bluetooth/lan control given it all comes built in nowadays.

Ed

Yo Ed ! :)

I am answering your call to the 'anyone else' category!! I have a little experience of doing what you suggest. I haven't tried using WiFi, but I have tried Bluetooth, and a very horrible experience it was - mind you this was two years ago - bluetooth stack on WinCE was very nasty and buggy. I gave up on that and used the IR port instead. Idea is to use the PPC as a kind of 'sonic screwdriver' for tweaking roboty things. The IRDA hardware layer is cheap to implement on a Microcontroller (PIC for instance) - you just need a couple of quids worth of components and 2 free port pins to have yourself a bi-directional interface. The software is a bit more of a challenge, but do-able. I have uploaded a photo ( sandywhite.co.uk/tronics/IRTweaker.jpg ) if you are interested to see what I have done. The sliders contol the servo positions, calibration etc. -the PPC could easily strap to the back of a robot, and if you had one with a built in camera you could do vision stuff - and have a lovely debug readout of what the robot was seeing - how it is being interepreted etc... hmmnnn. I wrote the PPC applet in C++ using Visual Studio .NET - I believe Microsoft have a free Embedded Systems Devkit also. The HSR8498 servo you have mentioned elsewhere sounds very interesting - I'm wondering if its postition feedback facility would allow 'lead by nose' programming? !! I must go and find out what HMI protocol is!! Do you know of a good link to info? Oops this should probably go on another thread !! ;)

Sandy

Hi sandy, that's brilliant! Useful info there. My current thinking is that is this HMI interface allows daisychaining (sure i read somewhere that it does) then you could use the serial port on a PPC and effectivelly plug it straight in to all your servos and you're away! Basically it would be a PPC based version of matt's pBrain. I think it could be quite a nice simple way of going about things. I'm looking for some HMI info now and will post it if I get some. Do you have any more info on writing apps for the PPC?

Cheers,

Ed

You will need Visual Studio .NET, you then have a choice of Basic or C#. The PPC runs what Microsoft calls the Compact Framework - their .NET platform for mobile devices (nothing can have a simple or a single name it seems!) An idea of what's involved at: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Code/2003/Oct/UsingCompactFramework.asp. I used an open source framework extention which makes it easier to code for things like GPS, serial port etc - all those juicy connections our robots will need ;) see: http://www.opennetcf.org Once installed on your PC, you simply create an OpenNetCF Application and you're off. There is example code on their site. I just checked, sadly Microsoft's free embedded Visual Basic is being phased out according to their site. Perhaps some 3rd party has come up with another solution? I'm happy to help if you have trouble setting the thing up - mind you I'm sure there are squillions of dedicated forums poulated by bods who know far more about this than I do! It was quite thrilling getting something to run on my iPaq though - for a brief moment I thought I'd write a game - then I came to my senses!

I have always used simple serial interfaces for my robotics and animatronics. Although the Wifi or bluetooth is an atractive option, it seems overkill for most of my applications. However, if your using a PDA type device and it has bluetooth/wifi built in, then why not. Certainly gives you loads of bandwidth to play with.

I guess I'm just a PIC fanatic ;-)

I'm very fond of PICs too. Have you played with the tiny 10f series? I tried to make an etched PCB birthday card, with a sot23 10f206 surface mounted to play a tune, and lost my first chip somewhere on the end of my soldering iron! The second I managed to attach, but I think I'd killed it... never got it working properly... they're like grains of sand!

LOL.

I have not played witht he 10F series yet.. but I love the idea of emedding tiny microcontrollers in electro mechanical devices. The 10F takes the possibilities to a new level.. just need to think of something ludicrous enough to use one on?

I use a Pace iron with a hollow tip. Great for SM components. If you load up the tip and brush some flux onto an SOIC, you can solder right down one side in one sweep without joining any pins up.. takes a little practice but very satisfying when it goes right :)

Ludicrous eh? ;) Yes.. it would have to be something tiny... a brain extentsion for a spider maybe so you could get it to weave customised webs with your corporate logo! I always fancied the idea of steering sparks from a big firework so that they would write words or patterns in the air. Golly, hollow iron tip, I didn't know you could get such things. Does the solder go *inside* the hollow tip of your iron?

I like the idea of the Spider brain extension!! If you could produce enough silk.. you could be on to a winner, a friend and I were jsut discussing ways in which to harness spiders web spinning powers.. hmmm???

The tip of the iron is slightly concaved, only a small amount of solder is held in the tip. But thats all you need for SM soldering.

I just recently got a Gumstix computer. They are Linux computers that are fairly inexpensive and easy to use. The one I have is 600Mhz and just much bigger then a stix of gum. I plan to use it and the Robostix for a hexapod. You may be interested in one of these.

Justin

The one I have is 600Mhz and not* much bigger then a stick of gum.

Hi,

These Gumstix devices look very interesting. However, I know nothing about Linux, so how easy are they to write software for? I presume they run in an GUI less environment similar to DOS? Any info in your experience with these devices would be appreciated.

Matt.

I would appreciate and info about your experiance with the Gumstix as well, I have been really considering getting one as they can run C/C++/C# and java code apparently? And windows CE? theres a real time version of Linux as well which im sure could be made to work and might be ideal for precision timed robotics...