#robotics Logs

Aug 09 2015

14:05 zhanx ok then
14:50 ace4016 boom, shake-shake the room
17:57 rue_school hum
17:57 rue_school 34 minutes for laundry
17:57 Tom_itx but you're at skool now!
17:57 Tom_itx no time for laundry
17:57 rue_school if the time right now is 34 mins after the hour and the laundry will be done in 34 mins, what time will it be when the laundry if finished
17:58 Tom_itx 34 min later
17:58 rue_school 5 hours trip home, 3 hours back
17:58 rue_school I was going to bring myself an arduino to play with, but I dont know of any libraries I want to write, so I didn't
17:58 Tom_itx 8 after the next hr
18:02 rue_school I love, that, plug a mouse into linux and it just works, no popups about drivers and junk or nothing, iT JUST WORKS
18:10 nevodka evening
18:11 rue_school ITS MORNING SOMEHWERE, HAVE RESPECT
18:11 nevodka o-oh
18:11 rue_school oh, looka that, my caps was on...
18:11 nevodka but it's my birthday soon
18:11 nevodka so if it's morning there then it's also my birthday there and you should be extra kind :]
18:11 rue_school indeed
18:12 rue_school they shoudl tell you tommorows lottery numbers
18:12 nevodka lol
18:12 nevodka that would be nice
18:13 nevodka so i've never done robotics but have a programming background and i'm going to make a simple pick things up and move them type of deal
18:13 nevodka but i don't know what the new hip hardware is
18:13 rue_school excellent!
18:13 rue_school 3d printers
18:13 nevodka lol
18:13 nevodka less hip
18:14 nevodka :3
18:14 rue_school you want to buy or build a robot?
18:14 rue_school or neither, and borrow a robot
18:14 nevodka i don't know how ambitious building one is
18:14 nevodka probably just buy pre-made parts and mash them together
18:14 rue_school its been a long time since I was new at it
18:15 rue_school k, whats your budget?
18:15 nevodka i have no electrical engineering foresight
18:15 rue_school yea, how much you want to learn/
18:15 Tom_itx plug your finger in a socket and you will begin to have foresight
18:15 nevodka i'd like to learn a little but i'm more focused on the software side
18:16 nevodka but it feels like cheating to just buy a completely pre-made robot
18:16 rue_school ok, how are you at trig?
18:16 rue_school you want to own or use a robot
18:16 nevodka to own
18:16 rue_school what country are you in
18:16 nevodka i'm fine with math
18:16 nevodka in the US
18:17 rue_school you want to focus on a free-roaming rob, oh arm, yo ualready said that
18:17 rue_school well
18:17 rue_school what feels like a comfortable budget?
18:17 Tom_itx rue_school knows little about robotic arms...
18:17 rue_school hah
18:17 Tom_itx he's on what? #9?
18:17 rue_school 10
18:17 nevodka i don't know how expensive these things can get
18:18 rue_school just pick a number you think is good and I'll tell you what you would get
18:18 nevodka a couple hundred usd is probably a good range
18:18 nevodka $300
18:18 nevodka that seems like a lot but i'm not sure of the normal costs of these things
18:18 rue_school you might need to collect a number of toasters out of back alleys and assemble yourself if you pick a number too low
18:18 rue_school k, let me look
18:18 nevodka lol
18:19 rue_school http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Arduino-powered-desktop-6-axis-parallel-mechanism-laser-cut-acrylic-robot-arm-PalletPack-industrial-robot-arm/32220249396.html
18:19 rue_school no arduino on that one...
18:20 nevodka hmm
18:20 nevodka i failed to mention also that it would be able to move
18:20 rue_school you want an arm on wheels!?
18:21 Tom_itx move random or on a rail?
18:21 nevodka a little more complicated
18:21 nevodka my ambition is to recognize ping pong balls
18:21 nevodka and return them
18:21 rue_school so, you dont need an arm
18:21 nevodka not quite
18:21 nevodka maybe just a little bucket
18:21 rue_school you need a wheeled bot with a ball colelctor
18:21 nevodka yep
18:22 rue_school how many balls at once?
18:22 nevodka if it could do more than one that would be beneficial but if its going to adversely affect the cost then just one at a time is fine
18:23 rue_school there dont appear to be any non-assemble wheeled robot kits online
18:23 nevodka oh
18:23 rue_school http://www.aliexpress.com/item/caterpillar-Smart-Intelligent-Barrowload-tank-Car-robot-car-Crawler-chassis-wheel-track-Integrated-motor-16-steel/32251993340.html
18:23 nevodka that's possibly alright
18:23 rue_school hahah tom!, they make the frame the pcb!
18:24 nevodka that looks like a good piece
18:24 rue_school its missing a lot
18:24 nevodka yeah
18:24 nevodka i'm trying to avoid the rookie mistake of getting parts that do not fit together
18:25 nevodka as i said i'm a total beginner to the hardware
18:25 rue_school heh, well
18:25 nevodka easier said than done possibly
18:25 nevodka :p
18:25 rue_school thats the difference between being a novice and having experience, after a while, you work out how to put *anything* togethor
18:26 nevodka yeah
18:26 nevodka i live with some engineers who can probably help me out with the hardware but they have no robotics experience either
18:26 nevodka so it will be a learning experience for us all :]
18:28 rue_school http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Table-Tennis-Ball-Easy-Pick-Up-Retrieve-Machine-Elastic-Ping-Pong-Ball-Collect-Catch-Net-Tenis/1678268361.html
18:28 rue_school well, your in custom land now
18:28 nevodka nice!
18:29 nevodka wait that hing looks huge
18:29 rue_school its not usefull, its just an idea
18:29 nevodka yeah
18:30 rue_school well, I cant help you with the direction you took that,
18:30 nevodka this is a neat site
18:30 nevodka thats alright you've helped quite a bit so far
18:30 rue_school if you just wnat ot program a robot arm, its easy, a driving platform is a big harder, one that picks up balls just isn't there
18:30 rue_school ok
18:30 nevodka hmm
18:30 rue_school for a fraction of your budget you can get the parts to make a robot platform
18:31 rue_school that is programmable and can drive around
18:31 nevodka yeah
18:31 rue_school if your into some self assembly I can help make sure you have everything that you would need to make it work
18:32 nevodka yeah i am, it might be quite awhile before i come back in here asking for specific help though
18:32 rue_school but it would be a do-it-yourself thing for sure, you would need some tools, I dont know if you would want to count the cost of them agianst the project or nt
18:32 rue_school hang out, see whats happening
18:32 rue_school is.... anyhting happeneing around here latley/
18:33 ace4016 just submarines
18:33 rue_school oh, missed that
18:33 blockh34d i'm working on that printable cnc
18:33 blockh34d kinda wondering who would win in a fight
18:33 blockh34d bill or ted
18:33 rue_school I think my lundry will be done, biab
18:33 nevodka i'm away from home right now and think it would be a good idea to have my enginering roommates help me before i start cutting anything up
18:33 nevodka i am definitely more software minded
18:33 nevodka lol
18:34 blockh34d lol my original discipline is/was art
18:34 blockh34d not academically just my personal focus
18:34 blockh34d but my exposure to programming plus my art background kinda got me into different areas that merge the two
18:34 blockh34d and that has somehow sucked me into 3d printing, which has bridged me into robots
18:34 nevodka i just have interest in computer vision
18:34 blockh34d i've always thought robots were cool though
18:35 nevodka and thought this would be a cool little side project
18:35 blockh34d oh cool i've done a little programming for that type of thing
18:35 nevodka robots are neato
18:35 blockh34d but now that opencv is around you should probably just use that
18:35 blockh34d i did a wavelet transform based outline recognizer
18:35 blockh34d it could pull out any letter in any size or rotation from an even background
18:35 blockh34d just a little test in flash etc
18:37 blockh34d basically you measure the distance from averaged center of pixel mass outwards in every direction and chart that so the distance is the X and the on or offness of the contrast region at that point is a contribution to the Y (sum total of all angles forms the Y of each X though)
18:37 blockh34d that forms a unique graph of any contrast region that is uniform regardless of scale or rotation
18:38 nevodka sounds neat
18:38 blockh34d this small bitmap that represents the outline can then be matched against a database to determine what it is
18:38 blockh34d it gets a lot easier to do that with more or less a thumbnail like you form with it
18:38 blockh34d yah i found the concept really cool but i never did much with it
18:38 blockh34d maybe you'll run with it, good luck!
18:38 nevodka do you know what kind of considerations go into buying an arduino or a pi?
18:39 blockh34d i like my pi's made in uk
18:39 blockh34d some are made in china
18:39 blockh34d i dont know how to determine which one you'll get but i would go for the UK option if you can, it doesnt cost more
18:39 blockh34d one of the arduinos is ARM based i think
18:39 blockh34d the due maybe?
18:39 blockh34d i dunno that might be worth a look
18:39 nevodka yeah
18:40 nevodka lots of research to do still
18:40 blockh34d otherwise i guess i'd go with the ATMEGA 2560 that is used commonly with RAMPS in 3dprinting
18:40 rue_school gee, I like some of that stuff, if I had some scrap money I'd totally get some of those tracked kits
18:40 nevodka i'll write that down
18:40 blockh34d because that has a large base of developed add on boards for controlling steppers and other elements
18:40 blockh34d you migh tlike RAMBO if you know you're always using the arduino for robotics
18:40 blockh34d its basically like RAMPS + arduino on the same board
18:41 blockh34d i think so anyways i'm honestly not sure if its an arduino compatible chip on that or not
18:41 rue_school ok, lets write some software
18:41 rue_school you into graphics programming of any kind?
18:41 blockh34d rue_school: yes i do panda 3d game dev stuff
18:41 blockh34d its fun
18:41 blockh34d also pygame for simple stuff
18:42 rue_school is that linux or iwndows?
18:42 rue_school ah
18:42 rue_school k
18:42 blockh34d both
18:42 nevodka i've got to run right now but i will be back sooner or later
18:42 nevodka thanks for the help gents
18:42 rue_school ah
18:42 blockh34d cool have a nice day nevodka
18:42 nevodka yep likewise
18:42 rue_school I'm gonna see if I can write a program to draw gears
18:42 rue_school proper ones
18:42 blockh34d rue_school: how about robotic air hockey
18:42 blockh34d so we put two H bots on either side of an air hockey table
18:42 blockh34d and see how fast we can get them playing air hockey
18:43 blockh34d i bet ridiculous speeds could be achieved
18:43 blockh34d scary fast etc
18:43 blockh34d gears sounds cool too
18:43 blockh34d i need some of that how about an inkscape plugin
18:43 blockh34d python :)
18:43 blockh34d or openscad or freecad
18:44 blockh34d my 10 hour print came out really nice :)
18:46 rue_school inkscape makes pretty crude gears, less than 6 lines per tooth
18:47 blockh34d rue_school: panda3d is pretty nice, i can help you get started with it some too if it helps. I made a pretty sweet maze generator with it that you can run aroun din like COD :)
18:47 rue_school linux?
18:47 blockh34d oh i meant a custom plugin
18:47 blockh34d yeah i guess it would probably run in linux with some adjusted paths
18:47 blockh34d but i made it on a little cruddy windows tablet
18:47 blockh34d its python and panda3d is on everythign including macs
18:48 blockh34d no real android support yet i guess, but some people have h acked it together anyways i think
18:48 rue_school I'v given up finding gear genorator programs, I printed a 176 page manual on making gears and I'm gonna write my own code
18:48 blockh34d do it
18:48 blockh34d sounds fun
18:48 rue_school but I need a way to export dxf
18:48 rue_school eventually
18:48 blockh34d oh theres a nice python package for that
18:48 blockh34d it basically save/loads in everything
18:48 blockh34d also can show you the model pretty well too
18:48 blockh34d wtf was the name of that... i'll see if i can dig it up
18:49 rue_school well, make a program that generates a dxf with a layer called "1" that has a line from 0,0 to 10,10
18:49 blockh34d what language are you going with?
18:49 rue_school I'm going C, but thats not an issue
18:49 blockh34d you can use panda3d from C if you want too
18:49 blockh34d i dunno that its really that great for this though honestly
18:49 blockh34d it generally uses mesh elements from external files
18:50 blockh34d you can generate the mesh algorythmically but its kind of a pain
18:50 blockh34d yeah i gotta write a IGES viewer for KICAD anyways
18:51 rue_school give it a go
18:51 blockh34d how about pygame/python? that works on everything
18:51 blockh34d and then the python could be dropped into other stuff as a plugin
18:51 blockh34d or you could just port th epython i guess, easy enough
18:51 rue_school call it main.dxf, make the layer name "1" and make it contain a line from 0,0 to 10,10
18:51 rue_school thats your mission
18:51 blockh34d hmm
18:52 rue_school I'll work on all the ugly math to generate a gear in numbers
18:52 blockh34d i'm kinda loaded up with missions righ tnow if i'm being honest
18:52 blockh34d people that paid me too so i have to give them priority
18:52 blockh34d but i will try to fit it in
18:52 blockh34d i like the idea of pygame/python cause i could code it on this rapsberry pi as i'm screwing off on irc wasting time
18:52 blockh34d i could waste more time than ever that way, effecient.
18:54 rue_school m = P/Pi