#robotics Logs

Dec 12 2011

00:07 e_jester jumps up an
00:08 anx refuses the ow
00:10 the_jester so i went to see rue today, and brought home one of his rs232breadbard adaptors (un assembled), but i cant find a pinout anywhere nor a picture of what its supposed to look like
00:14 the_jester i ran across this:
00:14 the_jester http://www.robotic-lab.com/blog/tutoriales/como-construir-paso-a-paso-un-robot-arana/
00:14 the_jester seems to be in spanish but it is an interesting spin on the traditional 3 servo hexapod
00:26 rue_house yea, my buddywas just talking about that
00:28 the_jester ironic then
00:29 the_jester are there any pics of that serial stikker completed?
00:31 rue_house the line that lights an LED is the transmitt from the computer :)
00:33 the_jester i didnt even know to put a led on it..lol
00:36 the_jester my new digikey catalog is a mere 2896 pages
00:37 the_jester so there are nopics to assemble by?
00:46 rue_house betwen pin 5 and 2 or 5 and 3
00:46 rue_house how did you make your cable?
00:46 rue_house straight?
00:52 the_jester ya i was going to make the cable straight, should it cross over
00:52 the_jester I have better go grab wood, i will brb
00:57 rue_house straight is fine
00:59 the_jester ya okay, Is there anything else i should know?
00:59 rue_house only pins 2, 3 and 5 need to be connected
01:00 rue_house unless your making a funny programmer thing
01:01 the_jester i will want DTR which i belive is pin 2
01:02 rue_house no pin 2 of rx or tx
01:02 the_jester http://www.radianlabs.com/tutorials/building-a-breadboard-arduino-with-serial/
01:02 the_jester that answers all my questions
01:03 the_jester sorry pin4 i guess
01:07 rue_house the pins change if you a device or a computer
01:08 rue_house I'm a good hour and a half past bedtime
01:08 the_jester goto bed Rue :)
01:08 rue_house I bough a wireless keyboard|mouse, but its bluetooth and my machine is totally not set up for bluetooth
01:09 the_jester thanks for the goodies, any luck i can find a chance to do something with tem soon
01:09 the_jester you need a bluetooth dongle
01:09 rue_house I have two
01:09 the_jester ah
01:10 rue_house the microsoft one that came with the mouse/kb pretends it isn't, and the one I have works, but the subsystems aren't ther to find bluetooth devices
01:10 the_jester you dont want to have to recompile
01:10 rue_house thats np
01:10 the_jester to add proper support
01:10 rue_house I dont know what subsystems I use
01:10 the_jester btw, that pocket pc i gave you has blue tooth
01:10 rue_house I'v kept a lot of junk off my systemt hat makes stuff like this automagically work
01:11 the_jester ahh
01:11 rue_house this stuff will prolly work if I go plug it into the linux machine in the shop, its got all the junk
01:11 rue_house then I can see what I need to change on my system
01:12 zhanx house is not linux?
01:13 rue_house yea, but its a custom trimmed linux system
01:13 rue_house there is no automagick cr**
01:13 zhanx basic only
01:13 rue_house I compile that kernel with ONLY WHAT IT NEEDS
01:13 rue_house with onboard stuff COMPILED IN
01:13 rue_house no 50000 modules loaded cr**
01:14 rue_house lsmod is neat and tidy
01:14 zhanx my laptop is custom compiled
01:14 zhanx :D but i always do that
01:15 rue_house x aps aways complain I dont have a session manager, I DONT NEED A FREAKING SESSION MANAGER!
01:15 zhanx lol
01:15 zhanx i keep that
01:15 rue_house how many users you have on your computer?
01:15 zhanx one
01:16 zhanx i was ask what i code with and my response gedit
01:16 rue_house why do we need a session manager?
01:16 zhanx mind blowing i dont use an ide
01:16 zhanx to allow remote logins
01:16 rue_house I use nedit, I like its regex capable search/replace and its split window
01:16 zhanx i still an stuck on the basic
01:26 rue_bed the basics?
01:27 zhanx same thing
01:27 rue_bed hmm I may have to adjust the intensity of my new led room lights
01:27 zhanx too bright?
01:28 rue_bed I think they strobe too
01:29 zhanx bad power?
01:29 rue_bed I suspect they are far away from a few volts of zero crossing
01:29 rue_bed then again, the old ones were divided into two halfs
01:30 rue_bed + was one side - was the other
03:52 Kingsy yo guys, anyone in here know much about machine learning?
04:22 Kingsy quiet today?
05:39 Kingsy anyone around yet?
07:01 Kingsy anyone around yet?
07:08 parag0n nope
07:09 Kingsy parag0n: yo
07:09 Kingsy and very funny :S
07:10 parag0n :P
07:10 Kingsy parag0n: you know anything about machine learning?
07:10 parag0n not really, touched upon it at uni
07:11 Kingsy never tried to incorperate it into any of your projects?
07:11 parag0n http://www.ml-class.org/course/auth/welcome watch the videos here maybe
07:11 parag0n well, most of my robotic stuff is fairly heavily algorythmic, so i've preprogrammed it mostly
07:13 Skwint learning as in generic neural net stuff, or learning as in specially programmed to map out mazes and find short routes?
07:13 Skwint I'm not a huge fan of neural nets except for very specific problems like reading handwriting
07:14 Kingsy Skwint: tbh, I don't know alot about it but I find the idea of it very interesting, so I guess I am just looking for learning sources
07:15 Skwint it was an option for my third year project at uni
07:15 Skwint I took quantum mechanics instead
07:15 Skwint so I know a bit, but I'm no expert :p
07:16 Skwint there are quite a lot of neural net open source thingies lying around, including a few games that play themselves and "learn"
07:17 Skwint but they tend to take a long time to learn anything useful even on a modern CPU - running them on a little AVR would probably not be productive :p
07:20 Kingsy yeah I can see that.. I mean I am not going to be putting these things into practice I just find them interesting to learn about..
07:20 Kingsy my robot hasnt been delivered yet so until then I don't have any hands on experience
07:24 Skwint I suppose some problems could be trained on a modern CPU and then the finished net frozen and put onto an AVR
07:27 Kingsy yeah thats what I was thinkin..
07:30 Kingsy parag0n: wow that site is really really good
07:30 Kingsy parag0n: the preview video list tells you ALOT...
07:32 Kingsy tbh I am a little confused about that website.
07:32 Kingsy it syas you can do the course for "free" ?
07:33 Kingsy I have just signed up and literally its free..
07:37 parag0n yeah, its an experiment stanford uni are doing
07:37 parag0n they put 3 of their classes online
07:37 parag0n AI, ML, and Databases
07:37 Kingsy wow AWESOME..
07:38 Kingsy man loving that..
07:38 parag0n i think they're putting even more online next semester
07:38 Kingsy just enrolled
07:38 parag0n i was following AIclass, but had to drop out due to lack of time :(
07:38 Kingsy what happens if you miss your deadlines? do you get booted?
07:39 Kingsy lol the deadlines are out of whack anyways.. my introduction deadline is Due Sun, Oct 16 23:59 PDT heh
07:40 Skwint so long as there is no year mentioned you are OK :)
07:41 Kingsy hehe naa it does say The due date has passed. so it is passed but it says I can still complete it.. :)
07:41 Kingsy man this is awesome
07:46 parag0n Kingsy, the course started 3 months ago
07:46 Kingsy I know,
07:46 Kingsy you can still do it tho
07:46 parag0n yeah
07:46 Kingsy which = AWESOME :P
07:48 Kingsy there are loads of cool courses they do for free.. man
09:15 rue_house 2013?
19:42 Tom_itx rue_house
19:42 Tom_itx http://tom-itx.dyndns.org:81/~webpage/boards/USB_Breakout/USB_Breakout_index.php
19:43 Tom_itx read that about dfu
19:43 Tom_itx you may need to mod a config file or something
19:44 Tom_itx http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/midimonster/
19:44 Tom_itx talks about it there
19:49 zhanx Tom_itx: can i have the files for hte usb breakout board so i can make them myself?
19:52 Tom_itx which files?
19:52 rue_house zhanx, they use vias, your hooched
19:52 zhanx dang
19:55 Tom_itx z, which board? the U2 or the U4?
19:56 zhanx the u2
19:57 Tom_itx i've got lots of those printed
19:57 rue_house I dont have an oven, and I'm low on patience and time latley, so I bought toms
19:58 Tom_itx i have about 80 blanks here
19:58 zhanx k, tom i will think on it
19:58 zhanx just mainly want practice
19:59 zhanx might do up a board just for that
19:59 rue_house how about a motherboard to take apart and put back togethor?
19:59 Tom_itx i got a partlist here somewhere
19:59 Tom_itx yeah :)
19:59 zhanx i can do that as i have a desoldering station
20:00 rue_house you could turn it into a tamper proof event timer
20:00 rue_house but you want a hotplate too
20:00 rue_house about 150c iirc
20:00 zhanx k let me go google some hot plates
20:00 Tom_itx a bit more for reflow
20:01 zhanx or would a regular old hotplate work?
20:01 Tom_itx sure
20:01 rue_house from what I saw, you use a wand to knock what your working on over melting point
20:01 Tom_itx ppl use frying pans
20:01 Tom_itx i've use a clothes iron to desolder
20:01 rue_house was a hot air gun , in small scale
20:02 zhanx k
20:03 Tom_itx you wanna bring it up to temp and get it done quick
20:03 rue_house if the board is alrady 150cm its quick and easy to knock a controlled area over melting
20:03 Tom_itx once it melts take it off the fire
20:04 zhanx will take a bit of practice is all
20:05 zhanx i am now allow to have small quantities of pcb etchant chemicals now
20:05 zhanx i.e only 1 pint
20:09 Tom_itx what about dry chems?
20:12 zhanx never seen them
20:12 Tom_itx rue_house, if the way the reset is wired, you can remove the resistor on the HWB pin on each board
20:12 Tom_itx zhanx, sodium persulphate or ammonium
20:14 zhanx k looking for a how to on it
20:14 Tom_itx getting link
20:15 Tom_itx http://www.circuitspecialists.com/photo-chemicals
20:15 Tom_itx gawd their new site sucks
20:16 Tom_itx that's where i get mine
20:19 zhanx food is here bbl
20:27 rue_house foood, that sounds nice
20:27 Tom_itx rue did you catch that on the reset button?
20:27 rue_house yes, I see it perfect,ly
20:27 Tom_itx it's wired right now to put the chip into program mode
20:27 rue_house I'v installed the debnian version of dfu
20:28 Tom_itx if you want it to act as a reset remove that resistor
20:28 rue_house I'm trying to step back and do something I want to do for amin
20:29 rue_house what I want tis to be abel to concentrate on ONE thing, without a bunch of clutter shifting around in my head
20:29 rue_house it takes _3_ DAYS for my head to clear
20:29 rue_house now I'm slated to go help someone fix a welder tommorow after work
20:29 rue_house ARG
20:29 Tom_itx by then you'll have 3 days of backlog
20:30 rue_house I want to work on te airmuscle more
20:30 rue_house I need to sit downa nd make forcfe sensors
20:30 rue_house and I want to play with lufa
20:30 rue_house and I need to do some coding for the boiler
20:31 rue_house and I'd like to get my editor working
20:31 rue_house and I need time to decorate the christmas tree and put up lights
20:31 rue_house see the problem?
20:32 Tom_itx yeah,
20:32 Tom_itx i just got one too
20:32 Tom_itx another laptop just died
20:32 Tom_itx virus
20:32 rue_house ugh and I have to fix that gus laptop
20:32 Tom_itx guess i'll be busy a while
20:33 Rayston ahh, looking for a robotics platform that is cheapish, relatively extensible, good for newbies, and good starter kit available, a good community around it would be good too, I already have an Arduino Uno so one that used that would be good
20:33 rue_house Rayston, I"ll build you one, $400
20:33 zhanx what about photo etching that seems like a better way for me. ie i have tons of transparent paper
20:34 rue_house zhanx, chems!
20:34 zhanx d@mn
20:35 rue_house how can I use my slave, er, I mean non-rent paing room-mate to make my life easier
20:35 Rayston kinda want to build it myself, to learn
20:35 rue_house ok, I'll take it apart before I sent it to you
20:35 rue_house you want a battery powered wheeled platform right?
20:36 rue_house cheaper than a boebot?
20:36 rue_house but otherwise the same size/ shape?
20:37 Rayston do not know boebot, but battery powered wheeled is good
20:37 rue_house google boebot
20:37 rue_house by image
20:37 rue_house about 4x4"?
20:37 rue_house 12x12cm
20:38 Rayston that looks pretty promising
20:38 rue_house whats your price cap?
20:39 rue_house I think I can do you one for about $60
20:40 Tom_itx ok rue
20:40 e_house escapes from being overloaded with things to do by not doing any of them, but finding someting
20:40 Tom_itx i need to find some files here
20:40 Rayston had not really thought on price cap
20:40 Tom_itx favorites and email
20:40 Tom_itx 7
20:40 rue_house Tom_itx, square? round? bastard? crosscut?
20:41 rue_house there are two repositories, I always get mixed up
20:41 Tom_itx can't get to it with the current user, it's all borked
20:41 Tom_itx i keep another user on all machines for this reason
20:41 rue_house documents & settings/users/foo/....
20:41 Tom_itx it'll be locked though
20:42 Tom_itx and i don't remember how to unlock or access them
20:42 rue_house settings and something/microsoft/explorer
20:42 Tom_itx i've done it but i forget
20:42 rue_house oh they turned on seccurity, their scerwed
20:42 rue_house I cant help you out of a windows mess that thick
20:43 Tom_itx i'll work thru it
20:43 zhanx http://www.circuitspecialists.com/416k.html
20:44 zhanx think that is a good starter kit and rue, i like the idea of the photo/uv etch as i can use the templates over and over
20:46 rue_house I shoudl build that robot before the next person asks
20:47 rue_house I could do it tonight, I could satay up all night working on it
20:47 rue_house build a few of them
20:48 Tom_itx it erased C
20:48 Tom_itx it got to the spare user before i could stop it
20:50 rue_house what erased C?
20:50 Tom_itx the virus
20:51 Tom_itx or at least the headers
20:51 Tom_itx i did a dos shell and c says it's empty
20:51 Tom_itx ran a utility to stop the malware
20:51 Tom_itx but i get access denied if i try to do anything now
20:52 Tom_itx i can probably put it on another pc and maybe find a few files
20:53 rue_shop ok, ots 6:43
20:53 rue_shop make space, pile parts, assemble
20:53 rue_shop easy
20:53 Tom_itx the directories are still there but i can't see them
20:54 rue_shop dialing the music up
20:55 rue_shop give them the good and bad news, the operat6ing system kept their files secure just like it promised
20:55 rue_shop bad news, it shredded them
20:56 rue_shop TURN IT UP i CAN STILL HEAR MYSELF THINK
21:00 rue_shop ok wheels, motors, just need a frame
21:03 rue_shop frame...
21:06 rue_shop something that follows the rest of it and is insultingly simple
21:06 rue_shop and commonplace
21:13 Tom_itx rue_shop would linux be able to see that file system?
21:13 Tom_itx i just wanna move maybe 3 or 4 files off it if i can find em
21:15 rue_shop but distictlivy canadian by mixing as many imperial and metric dimentions as I can
21:15 rue_shop if its an encrypted fs, no
21:15 Tom_itx i'm not sure
21:15 Tom_itx do i need to mount the drive?
21:15 rue_shop to read files, yes
21:15 Tom_itx i'm gonna try and see if it will recognize it
21:16 Tom_itx or will ubuntu mount it automatically?
21:16 Tom_itx it mounted it already
21:16 Tom_itx i think
21:18 Tom_itx rue_shop, do you remember where email is stored?
21:54 rue_shop settings and data microsoft
21:54 rue_shop butthere are two of theose folders one is hidden and I cant remember where it is cause I get the two mixed up
21:58 Tom_itx i got most of it already
21:59 Tom_itx it came right up in ubuntu and i moved it to a thumbdrive
22:20 zhanx umm this outlook?
22:20 anx ordered the leds for his uv
22:23 Tom_itx ok i think i got all i needed
22:23 Tom_itx i'll pull out the image tomorrow and restore it
22:24 zhanx i got a bunch of 5mm uv and some red ones so i can turn out all the lights and see in the box, it will be double sided
22:24 rue_shop I'm almost done his robot
22:24 rue_shop its bullet proof
22:24 Tom_itx i just wish these atom boards had one more sata port
22:24 zhanx wanna bet?
22:25 rue_shop I thought it would be a nice extravigant feature
22:25 zhanx Tom_itx: get an add on card
22:25 Tom_itx meh
22:25 Tom_itx i could i suppose
22:25 rue_shop zhanx, keep you armour piercers to yourself
22:25 Tom_itx actually i may have one now that you mention it
22:25 zhanx rue, they are standard issue now :D
22:26 Tom_itx i think i got some free with some hdds a long time ago
22:26 rue_shop so now I need reactive lexan?
22:27 Tom_itx sata 150
22:27 Tom_itx should do ok
22:28 Tom_itx or is that extremely slow now?
22:28 rue_shop Tom_itx, zhanx would you both like to build and sell these robot platforms with me?
22:28 Tom_itx i guess it should get the job done
22:29 Tom_itx ?
22:29 Tom_itx which ones?
22:29 zhanx rue pics?
22:29 Tom_itx zhanx is that card too old?
22:29 Tom_itx maxtor sata 150
22:29 Tom_itx 2 ports
22:29 Tom_itx and a parallel one
22:29 Tom_itx free
22:29 zhanx Tom_itx: its old but not bad
22:29 Tom_itx i'll see what the bios says about it tomorrow
22:30 Tom_itx i've got another pc i can use
22:30 Tom_itx i'd like to use the atom
22:30 rue_shop its buildable for about $20, you can sell it for $60 easy
22:30 rue_shop I have to eat
22:31 rue_shop back at it in a bit
22:31 zhanx Tom_itx: i think the stm32f4 is over my head right now
22:31 zhanx great idea but to advanced for me
22:31 zhanx so i am gonna stay with avr for a while longer
22:31 Tom_itx it's way over mine for sure
22:31 Tom_itx good plan
22:31 Tom_itx it looked like alot to absorb to me
22:31 zhanx after the guys at leaflabs port over their bootloader i can pick it back up
22:31 zhanx it was killing me
22:32 Tom_itx early day.. gotta sleep
22:32 zhanx so i am gonna learn a lot more basics ie board making since i had a two hour talk with my csm at the clinic today i can make boards now
22:33 Tom_itx files copied, have a recovery plan now
22:33 Tom_itx minimal time i hope
22:33 zhanx ok good luck
22:33 Tom_itx i try to keep good backups on the important pcs
22:33 Tom_itx the ones i play on i don't care so much
22:33 Tom_itx like this one
22:34 Tom_itx i wish i could ghost more than one drive to a big drive
22:34 Tom_itx k, gnite
22:34 zhanx you can but its been years since i used ghost
22:34 zhanx nite
22:34 Tom_itx glad you got your stuff rue_house
22:36 rue_house me too!
22:36 rue_house rayston_, still here?
22:37 rue_house its ok, in the next week another person will ask, they wont wanna pay $60 so they will wait for 3 weeks cause the parts they wnat would take a week to arrive
22:38 zhanx true
22:38 zhanx 60 is still cheap
22:38 rue_house I swear we have had 1 person/week interested in finding a robot platform
22:38 rue_house I know
22:38 zhanx and we can include a board for it also
22:38 zhanx either a full solder kit or soldered
22:38 rue_house 2 hs311 servos
22:38 rue_house is about $20
22:38 rue_house a scrap peice of lexan is $5 of less
22:39 rue_house I'm using HP printer rollers for wheels, their subject to supply
22:39 zhanx i got a 4x8 sheet of that :D
22:39 rue_house 4xAA battery holder ~$2
22:39 rue_house castor wheels, $5/set (tiny ones)
22:43 rayston_ im still here, thinking about it, 60 seems reasonable, kinda was thinking of a kit I could build myself, with documentation, a community of users I could fall back on when i get lost, that kinda thing, think arduino, but purposely for a robot, boe-bot seems along those lines
22:44 zhanx yep
22:44 zhanx i was thing a board like the boe-bot also
22:44 zhanx it would sell for 60
22:44 zhanx as a kit and 80 for the board soldered
22:46 Rayston would be extra awesome if it used an Arduino as the brain, but thats mostly because I already own one
22:46 rue_house better, its brainless!
22:46 zhanx yep and people will buy it cause of that
22:47 Rayston brainless?
22:47 zhanx you can add your own uC to it
22:47 Rayston just plug in your own board? picaxe, gumstix, beagle, whatever?
22:47 zhanx yep
22:48 Rayston that would be attractive, you should write that up and kickstarter it
22:49 zhanx rue how big? roomba or half that?
22:49 Rayston that actually would be very cool the more I think about it, having the option to upgrade to a more serious dev board when you need more processing power or different ports or whatever
22:49 Rayston or custom PCB of course
22:57 rue_shop damn I dropped a wheel and broke it
22:57 zhanx bad
22:57 rue_shop 14cmx14cm
22:58 rue_shop well the servo horn broke
22:58 zhanx not good
23:20 rue_shop "this 'assemble yourself' robot comes pre-assembled, please be aware that some dissassembly is required"
23:21 theBear heh
23:21 zhanx lol
23:33 rue_shop ok, less modifying the servos and peeling the lexan, its done
23:38 zhanx cant do that its a diy kit :P
23:38 rue_house heheh I could build hundreds of these
23:41 rue_house processing images
23:48 rue_house Rayston, http://eds.dyndns.org/~ircjunk/robots/flatbot/p1030679.jpg
23:48 rue_house modified servos you dont need motor drivers
23:48 rue_house 6V battery pack
23:49 rue_house 4x AA
23:49 zhanx http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYDPrD4Njko&feature=related
23:58 rue_house Rayston, ?
23:58 Rayston sorry, afk, very cool
23:59 rue_house http://eds.dyndns.org/~ircjunk/robots/flatbot/p1030678.jpg
23:59 rue_house is it what your looking for?
23:59 Rayston wait a sec