#robotics Logs

Jan 12 2013

00:12 Ademan shuggans: what type of motor do you want to drive?
00:23 shuggans THere re 2 DC motors from an electric wheelchair as the ultimate goal: for now, 2 dc motors from a PS2 controller
00:24 Ademan shuggans: sure why not? You could drive them with any microcontroller although I suspect you'd want to NOT connect them directly
00:25 shuggans This is my first delve into microcontrollers etc.
00:25 shuggans Found alot of infdo on the PIC microcontrollers
00:25 shuggans Are they a pretty common standard for this type of thing?
00:26 Ademan shuggans: I'm fairly new myself, you'll have a fair bit of electronics to learn to make this work well I think
00:26 Ademan PIC is fine as far as I know
00:27 shuggans Do you have to buy the pickit or is there a way to make one?
00:37 shuggans So I thought that the MAX232 board got the signals fro ma serial port ready for the motor driver board
01:25 Triffid_Hunter shuggans: get an arduino. the atmegas are significantly faster than pic 16f or 18f series for the same clock speed, also there's more support for arduino in the wild
02:57 IndianaRonaldo Does anyone have a ITHENTICATE account? I want to use it for a couple of hours to submit my paper, please
03:33 RifRaf ah nothing like an afternoons fishing to unwind, and even more fun when they are biting
07:12 RifRaf !assist projects
07:12 tobbor Possibly http://eds.dyndns.org/~ircjunk/projects
11:16 rue_house TI is making cheap wifi modules for $10/1000 this means they should soon be avalable from dk for $100ea
11:17 theBear hmm, and that's good ? :)
11:17 rue_house good? hmm
11:37 hackkitten I guess so :o
11:53 rue_shop3 hmm
12:39 rue_shop2 Tom_itx, hey manufacturer, what -c name do I use?
12:39 rue_shop2 usbtiny?
13:45 Tom_itx rue_shop2, avrisp2
13:46 Tom_itx usbtiny was for the bitbanged one
13:48 Tom_itx avrdude -c avrisp2 -P usb -p t10 -vvvv -U flash:w:C:\avrtest\Tiny10_asm\t10blink.hex:i
13:48 Tom_itx you don't need the -vvvv stuff
14:32 rue_shop2 ah
14:34 RifRaf are atmega32 still used these days?
14:43 Tom_itx by rue
14:45 DagoRed avr32 you mean?
14:47 Tom_itx no
14:47 RifRaf no just the old atmega32, have a bunch of them and hope they are still gonna be usefull
14:47 Tom_itx they are
14:48 RifRaf everything seems to be arduiono now. ok cool, so i just use winavr to make code for them?
14:48 RifRaf since this is a windows pc
14:49 Tom_itx only reason is there aren't any hard core builders like there used to be
14:49 Tom_itx yes
14:50 Tom_itx i use winavr and programmers notepad
14:50 RifRaf k well i cannot find any code for these motor controllers so gonna have to start from scratch
14:51 RifRaf they should be usefull, mega32 with 2 hbridges on board and rs232, and seems like i have a bunch of inputs for pots
14:52 RifRaf breadboarding the outputs and to leds now so i can start doing something
14:52 Tom_itx still using your parport programmer?
14:52 RifRaf i used the usbtiny from adafruit the othere day
14:53 RifRaf it worked so will keep using it for now
14:53 Tom_itx ahh that's right.. i forgot you had that
14:53 RifRaf my hasn't adafruit gone forward in leaps and bounds, they have 35 employees now
14:54 Tom_itx i figured you'd be on the reprap bandwagon by now
14:55 RifRaf nah, as long as i have this router handy can make lots of parts
14:55 Tom_itx at work?
14:55 RifRaf have to go back to work in the morning but has been a good week of designing parts
14:55 RifRaf yeah
14:56 RifRaf back to life in glasses and earmuffs again most of the day, is a noisy machine
14:56 Tom_itx i bet
14:57 Tom_itx open workspace with a vaccuum on the tool?
14:57 RifRaf but cannot wait to produce some new parts
14:57 RifRaf yeah big vacuum on tool and 2 giant motors to drive the vacuum to hold parts on the bed
14:58 RifRaf holds stuff down tight even though 16mm mdf
14:59 Tom_itx we used a vaccuum fixture on the mill a couple times for some long aluminum parts
15:00 RifRaf gets better as the bed goes lower, i have to skim it a couple of times a day
15:02 RifRaf gonna enjoy me last day off and forget work for now though
15:48 FreezingCold Sorry for the weird English question, but does "no practical limit" mean really high or really low?
15:49 Tom_itx could be either one
15:49 Tom_itx depending on the context
16:37 FreezingCold Tom_itx: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearing_(mechanical)#Types
17:01 Tom_itx non contact bearings
17:01 Tom_itx no practical limit
17:02 Tom_itx the limit would be the point the metal flew apart
17:05 FreezingCold Yeah, thought it meant high
17:06 FreezingCold I just did a practice SAT test the other night and I'm all out of trying to read lol
19:20 RifRaf rue_mohr does this code work? http://eds.dyndns.org/~ircjunk/avr/code/flashportb/main.c my leds won't blink
19:32 RifRaf all good, found a working example
19:50 RifRaf cannot blink leds on ports pc4 and pc5 but they work on pc6 and pc7, could it be a fuses thing? both boards doing the same and wiring from avr to led is good
19:51 ace4016 maybe the pins aren't set correctly to be outputs?
19:51 RifRaf DDRC=0xFF;
19:52 RifRaf using the same lines of code that work on portb
19:52 ace4016 it's been a while since i've done avr stuff...i think i remember one set of pins that required other settings (to disable adc and such) to get to output properly
19:52 shuggans On an H-Bridge motor driver board - is the MOSFET what determines max amps?
19:53 RifRaf shuggans yes
19:53 ace4016 and the heat sink they put on it :P
19:53 shuggans So I could essentailly upgrade a driver board by upgrading the mosfet?
19:53 shuggans + cooling?
19:53 ace4016 yea
19:54 shuggans and bigger amps mean bigger wires/terminals needed etc?
19:54 RifRaf yep
19:54 shuggans Has anyone ever used a FEZ board (microcontroller)
19:55 shuggans found this for $30: http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/133
20:01 shuggans So using something an arduino as a microcontroller...
20:01 shuggans I still need a TTL converter board(MAX232)?
20:03 shuggans if controlling through serial port?
20:10 RifRaf yep
20:10 RifRaf there would be arduino sheild for that to make it easy
20:11 shuggans and then there is some kind of a Rx port on the microcontroller, or you can define to be, and then If I send, say the integer, 200 TO the Rx on the TTL converter board, then out the Tx TO the microcontrollers Rx, it will receive the integer 200 still?
20:11 shuggans Im confused how this works...
20:19 RifRaf atmega32 high fuse 0x99 , low fuse 0xEF , do these seem correct for standard use with a 16mhz xtal?
20:32 RifRaf well this sucks, 2 boards with the same fault, all seems identicle for the non working pins
20:38 RifRaf it was jtag
20:40 RifRaf ok now tho try again from scratch, what a headache
21:27 Tom_itx RifRaf:
21:27 Tom_itx http://www.engbedded.com/fusecalc/
21:27 Tom_itx that helps with the fuse confusion
21:39 RifRaf yep cheers, used that one