VEX compatibility?

Hi Jay,

I've developed an MSRS interface. I've been hoping to post and release it, but I keep getting distracted by life. To use it, you need a bluetooth modem or some other way to talk to the second COM port.

So much for the good news.... If you are looking to use this for FIRST competitions, you will be disappointed. The bluetooth modem is out of bounds as is the PC. If you are interested in working with the kit outside of the competitions, then let me know.

If you just want a better IDE, you can use Visual C++, but tell it that you are using a MAKE file, not a C++ project. You'll get the syntax highlighting, but several keywords specific to the Microchip will not be recognized.

Ed

Sorry about the delay in responding....

How about we take this conversation offline? I'm not sure most of this forum wants to here about the hardware specifics and other issues or about FIRST.

Contact me at:

EdHarfman

@

InsightBB

.

com

(Loose all of the whitespace. I just want to make the spam engines work for their dinner.)

I can e-mail you the projects to play with. It mostly works, but has a few issues with subscriptions that I've not figured out yet.

I use the BlueSMiRF from SparkFun http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=582 and a bluetooth USB dongle to connect to the robot. Up to 115Kb and TTL IO so that it can be connected directly to the RS232 port without level shifters.

The MSRS 1.0 platform is NOT compatible with the PocketPC, but I believe the 1.5 is supposed to be. That would be an interesting platform.... Direct connect to the controller and WiFi/Bluetooth to a PC. Really distributed computing.

My target is to build a Mars Rover for outreach therefore the FIRST rules don't apply to me :>. It's mostly working. Right now, it's a matter for convincing Windows to do the rest of the job. (I can live with the quirks.)

Robot Interfaces that are implemented:

LEDArray (See Ben Axelrod's site - http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/grads/b/baxelrod/MSRS/index.shtml)

Contact Sensor

DigitalOutput (Predates Ben's interface)

Drive

Encoder

LightSensor

Motor

Sonar

Rover interfaces:

RoverDrive (6 wheel drive)

AirlinkWebCam - Wireless IP camera since I couldn't get the IP camera supplied with MSRS to work with a camera that is not 'connected' to the PC. (Enumeration and selection assumes the camera is connected, but a wireless camera is not 'connected' until you try to connect to it!)

SquareBot configuration files

That all being said for things to look forward to when playing with MSRS.... Try REALLY HARD to get into the competitions. I am not a mentor, but going and watching these kids makes me want to be one. I've gone to the Purdue Regional Contest for the past two years for inspiration. I've not been disappointed. Remember, the FIRST competition is more than building a robot and programming it. Fund raising, outreach, teaching, learning teamwork are a part of it too. (Pick up the April issue of Servo if you haven't done so yet and read Dean's comments.) FIRST is really well designed (IMHO) to give the kids a good taste of all parts of a technical business.To help them appreciate management desires for a schedule and the engineering side of wanting it figure out how to make it work right.

Ed

"Life... ignore it or hate it. You can’t like it." - Marvin the Paranoid Android

It was an interesting interface and appropriate to my robot. There needs to be an 'output' description in MSRS. Yours is a good binary interface and very appropriate for my implementation, but if I could suggest a few changes having implemented it:

1) Names - You describe a binary interface. For a generic interface, leave it generic (Binary or Digital Output). Describing as a specific type of output can led to confusion when trying to origanize a real application. I could see it being used for valves, turning on compressors, lights, power to other devices.

2) In the generic sense, 'true' on the processor may cause the lights to go off, not on. After I implemented the interface, I was working with my light and found that my driver circuit did not fully turn on. My initial thought was to add an NPN driver onto my circuit, but that would have inverted the logic. Then my application would need to remember that on was actually off. (Confusing)

3) You should declare an analog output device as well as the digital. (There are D/A converters as well as A/D after all!) Something akin to your output, but with a range in addition to the value. Range is static for the device (0 to 255, -512 to 511) and value is whatever you set.

Grousing aside (more than a few people think of me a a 'black hatter' - looking for all the problems with a solution), I think it is a very good interface and well worth implementing. You did better with your interface than I did with my first interface. (I also didn't have the guts to actually post it. - Yes, that is meant as a compliment.)

I haven't done anything with the tone interface. That is more than I want to get into for my robot and I suspect a bit of a black hole in the generic sense. e.g. How far do you take the interface? Is single tone sufficient or should it support N tones each with a duration? Should it support WAV/MP3/? Is the robot the target for generating the sounds or is it the console? I'm not in the camp that the robot is just a series of motors/sensors connected to a USB box into the PC. I want the robot to be a structured 'intellegence':

Sensors on the robot

Reflex reaction on the robot (via micro controllers)

Command intellegence on the PC

This is for me playing with it (emphasis on playing :>) - a learning experiement about hardware, robot behaviour and robotic intellegence.

Take the comments above as ramblings that can easily be ignored. ;>

Thank you for your interfaces and your web page. I check it for updates every so often.

Ed

This is great! This is exactly the discussions that should be happening. I think we should move it to a more appropriate place though. I want to move it to the wiki, so that we can actually post the code, and edit it. but I fear it will not get the traffic there. If anyone is feeling motivated, please take the initiative and start a thread, or wiki page.