#robotics Logs

Nov 22 2011

08:51 rue_house Tom_itx, their straddeling a divider
08:51 rue_house their odd breadboards
08:51 rue_house kinda
09:18 parag0n started the CAD work for my next robot :D
09:18 parag0n http://thinkl33t.co.uk/uploads/r3/r3.png
09:26 rue_house hmm
12:26 coppermine if i want 4 DC motors to support a total of 100-150lbs, is there anything less expensive than 4 NPC-41250 motors? they are lik 180$ each
12:27 coppermine and a bit overkill
14:07 thylyne don't blink http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nF4iUwWw-Yg
14:40 KongfuPanda what is that mouse doing?
14:40 KongfuPanda isn't it supposed to explore all possible ways?
14:43 thylyne KongfuPanda I guess this speed run is done after an exploratory run that came before
14:43 KongfuPanda I see
16:44 zhanx evening
16:44 Tom_itx yup
16:45 zhanx ok tom what was i missing from my control system
18:22 Tom_itx zhanx, vfd for the spindle
18:23 zhanx vfd?
18:23 zhanx or do you mean the spot i am missing a 4x7 digit display for the z axis
18:24 KongfuPanda zhanx, hello :)
18:24 Tom_itx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable-frequency_drive
18:24 zhanx sup panda
18:24 KongfuPanda nm, just chilling
18:24 KongfuPanda you?
18:24 zhanx Tom_itx, verison 2.0 for that
18:24 zhanx reading datasheets
18:25 zhanx as it standing now
18:25 KongfuPanda cool cool
18:26 zhanx pa9/ pa10 usart 1 pa2/pa3 uart 2 pb10/pb11 uart 3 tx/rx
18:27 zhanx looking at sc card pins now
18:27 zhanx sd
18:28 Tom_itx spi or data lines?
18:28 zhanx spi
18:29 zhanx thinking pa5 -7
18:29 zhanx and pb9
18:29 zhanx nope
18:30 zhanx pa4-pa7
18:31 zhanx which kills ethernet but oh well
18:32 zhanx the rest are basically gpio so i should be ok
18:34 KongfuPanda zhanx, any new cool robots?
18:35 zhanx working on this https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hQaucftBhTI/TsssldvsWAI/AAAAAAAAC-4/65l4Hu1rhgA/s800/IMAG0670.jpg
18:36 KongfuPanda oo ,looks nice
18:37 KongfuPanda I had similar drives for my internship in 2010. It was n't a robot, just 3D stages
18:37 KongfuPanda microstepping ones
18:39 KongfuPanda and euro206 board
18:40 KongfuPanda zhanx, what is that btw?
18:40 KongfuPanda :D
18:41 orlok CNC router/mill it would seem
18:41 KongfuPanda what is CNC, if not a secret?
18:42 orlok or, a 3 axis movable CNC system to have some sort of head attached anyway
18:42 Tom_itx computer numeric control
18:42 orlok Computerised Numerically Controlled
18:42 KongfuPanda oh I see
18:43 lok swears at pci
18:43 KongfuPanda so maybe my 3D stages setup was similar ? :)
18:44 zhanx https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f_Bh4OCobfA/Tsw_yJidqYI/AAAAAAAAC_M/mm89GJ9ZBkQ/s800/IMAG0672.jpg
18:44 zhanx that is my whole system minus one 4 diget display i can't find
18:45 KongfuPanda but what does it do?
18:45 zhanx cnc / printer stand alone
18:45 zhanx no pc needed
18:46 KongfuPanda oh I see
18:46 zhanx i have lots of extras most people dont need but i am learning arm so
18:46 zhanx EVERYthing will be used for learning
18:51 KongfuPanda I got some news screws from e-bay with big hats. Hopefully it will make my robot legs less flexible
18:54 KongfuPanda although I should have made a more sophisticated robot. The one I'm making is nothing new.
18:54 KongfuPanda I'd like something that can jump maybe
18:54 zhanx that would be cool
18:55 zhanx i set aside all projects till this one is done
19:02 Tom_itx doin it in asm?
19:02 Tom_itx that would be a learning curve
19:04 zhanx verison 1 no
19:04 zhanx verison 2 maybe i want to learn asm
19:04 KongfuPanda what's "asm" ? :)
19:05 zhanx assembly code
19:06 Tom_itx i did the tiny10 with asm
19:06 Tom_itx since you have to
19:09 KongfuPanda I had an electronics practical once where we had to type machine code on a hex keyboard, then the next step was to use an assembler to produce machine code for some division operation or something :D it gave us like 110 lines of code to type
19:09 KongfuPanda (well, 8 bit hex symbols)
19:10 zhanx i need to find my resistor box so i can wire these buttons
19:13 zhanx rue_house, home yet?
19:17 zhanx i got like 8 million wires to cut and strip and tin
19:17 Tom_itx and make sure they're all good breadboard connections
19:17 zhanx i am
19:17 zhanx hate to have that as an issue
19:18 Tom_itx me too
19:18 zhanx so you like or no?
19:19 Tom_itx something that complex, i'd make a board or solder wires probably
19:20 zhanx this is the first test
19:30 zhanx sup spacekitteh
19:30 spacekitteh skyrim
19:30 spacekitteh :3
19:30 zhanx make a robot like i am
19:31 spacekitteh nah
19:31 spacekitteh over the holidays i'm gonna make a tracking beacon + servo controlled antenna though
19:31 spacekitteh maybe
19:35 coppermine for indoors since gps doesnt work is there a way for a robot to return to a known location?
19:35 zhanx ir?
19:35 coppermine create a virtual map of the area somewhat?
19:35 coppermine ir?
19:35 zhanx beacons
19:35 coppermine not familiar with that
19:36 coppermine RFID tags?
19:36 anx points at google again ir beacon
19:37 coppermine one from pololu is only 15 feet
19:37 coppermine so if the robot needs to return to its base location > 15 feet
19:37 coppermine it wouldnt work
19:37 zhanx but
19:37 zhanx what if they blinked a pattern
19:37 zhanx giving directions
19:38 coppermine still out of range
19:38 zhanx and not just one
19:44 rue_house zhanx,
19:46 zhanx yes
19:48 zhanx rue_house,
19:48 Tom_itx zhanx
19:48 zhanx me!
19:48 Tom_itx rue_house
19:48 Tom_itx taking roll call
19:49 zhanx spacekitteh, IS AROUND
19:49 zhanx oops
19:49 Tom_itx and fixing a board file
19:49 zhanx hackkitten,
19:50 acekitteh lixes hackkitten's
19:52 rue_house zhanx, the sensors
19:52 rue_house did you see the datasheet?
19:52 zhanx yes
19:52 zhanx can use them
19:53 rue_house so how many did you need?
19:53 zhanx 6
19:53 Tom_itx at say 6000 rpm, how many ticks do you think an avr could keep up with to display the rpm?
19:53 rue_house your not using ne for each end right?
19:53 Tom_itx @16Mhz
19:53 zhanx self center
19:53 rue_house Tom_itx, suprizingly many
19:54 rue_house zhanx, 2/axis?
19:54 Tom_itx 1024?
19:54 zhanx 3 axis
19:54 rue_house 2 er axis?
19:55 Tom_itx for limit switches??
19:55 rue_house 2 per axis?
19:55 rue_house he only needs one per axis less something I dont know
19:55 zhanx bounce front and back
19:55 rue_house na youuse a flag that changes in the middle
19:56 zhanx on what magic
19:56 rue_house so the interruption isn't at 0 , but a known positive number
19:56 rue_house just a sec
19:56 rue_house !assost robots/arm4
19:56 rue_house !assist robots/arm4
19:56 tobbor Possibly http://eds.dyndns.org/~ircjunk/robots/arm4
19:57 rue_house http://eds.dyndns.org/~ircjunk/robots/arm4/p1010486.jpg
19:57 rue_house see, if your in the interrupter, you go one way,
19:57 rue_house if your not, you go the other
19:57 rue_house the actual switch point is in the middle
19:57 rue_house so you want your flag like __________________---------------------------
19:57 zhanx k.....
19:58 rue_house so at any tme you know if your ahead or behind zero
19:58 zhanx i got you
19:58 rue_house and you know what way to go to get there
19:58 rue_house it can be completely lopsided
19:58 rue_house _____----------------------------------------
19:58 zhanx yep
19:58 rue_house on the crossover you know your at 1"
19:58 rue_house etc
19:59 rue_house so you want 6 or 4 (one to blow up or step on)
19:59 zhanx k
19:59 zhanx 4
19:59 rue_house ok
19:59 rue_house do you want ap paradrop in to pick them up or for me to mail them out
19:59 Tom_itx so what are they for?
19:59 zhanx limits
20:00 rue_house ....
20:00 Tom_itx this medical focus ring used those for limits
20:00 e_house opens the window and look
20:01 zhanx rue pm you tomorrowi need to be up at 3am
20:01 rue_house ok
20:01 rue_house if your gonna paradrop in then ok, but otherwise I'll need a mailing address
20:02 zhanx k
20:02 rue_house "us military, zhanx, USA"
20:02 Tom_itx http://tom-itx.dyndns.org:81/~webpage/motors/focusring11.jpg
20:02 rue_house mmm optics
20:02 Tom_itx i should repurpose those
20:02 zhanx lol
20:02 zhanx pm seny
20:03 zhanx senty
20:04 Tom_itx rue i'll send you a mailing label for him
20:19 Tom_itx it doesn't matter what side of an led the resistor is on does it?
20:19 Tom_itx i knew that...
20:21 coppermine Tom_itx: i have to ask, u use mini-itx motherboards on your robot?
20:22 Tom_itx no
20:28 coppermine would a robot use alot less power if it had 2GB ram vs 4GB?
20:29 orlok not noticably
20:29 coppermine would I see a benefit?
20:29 coppermine if it ran linux
20:37 orlok coppermine: What is your storage?
20:38 coppermine planning to use a usb 32gb flash drive
20:39 coppermine i have an old pata drive but its heavy and mechanical
20:40 orlok it will likely be worth it to have the extra 2 gig
20:40 orlok just to prevent swappage
20:40 coppermine from the slow disk i/o
20:40 coppermine usb 2.0 is slow
20:41 orlok latency is the killer, and flash can be slow
20:42 orlok make sure you set noatime
20:42 coppermine will it make a difference?
20:42 coppermine cause i tried to install gentoo last week and it was so slow
20:42 coppermine i had noatime on
20:42 orlok well, it will once its running
20:42 orlok and gentoo.. doesnt that compile itself?
20:42 coppermine so i remove noatime?
20:42 coppermine yes
20:43 orlok well, of course it will be slow
20:43 coppermine noatime is there by default
20:43 coppermine in /etc/fstab
20:43 orlok and ynoatime prevents it from updating file access times
20:43 coppermine when it mounts the drives
20:43 orlok flash is slow to write to, so updating the access time every time a file is accessed kills the speed
20:43 coppermine noatime is always there
20:43 coppermine so it was set already
21:17 rue_house tom, the resistor needs to be between the led and the battery
21:17 rue_house :)
22:08 Tom_itx rue_house i was routing a board and it just made me stop and think
22:12 rue_house mhm?
22:13 rue_house you see my point? do you understand!?
22:21 theBear you're not pointy
22:24 rue_bed hmmm
22:58 The_jester greets to room
22:59 e_jester waves at tom_itx, theBear and the various rue_n
22:59 The_jester hi tobbor
23:00 e_jester grum
23:00 The_jester Rue, your bot should say hello back
23:02 Tom_itx it does sometimes
23:02 theBear hi there jingle-bells-hat :)
23:02 theBear he says hello when he's in a good mood
23:03 Tom_itx hi
23:03 Tom_itx hello
23:03 tobbor hi Tom_itx.
23:04 e_jester grum