It's here!
Get the latest EZ-Builder and experience the most powerful EZ-Robot Software to date!
Are you ready for the greatest EZ-Robot update? We have a huge list of features and enhancements for your robots! The Firmware, SDK and EZ-Builder are available for download. I personally can barely contain myself from telling you how excited I am! These new features and enhancements are going to blow your mind! The speed increase in the camera tracking alone is very exciting. Plus servo speed and higher servo resolution... Wow, it's gonna be a great release!
Some new features:
Full Screen Camera View
The camera control can be maximized to full screen. Your entire screen becomes the view of your robot's camera. Great if using the Vuzix Augmented Reality Headset!
Amazing Fast Vision Tracking (up to 60% speed increase!)
I had a sudden moment of clarity one evening - and BANG! It hit me... I had a great idea to speed up the vision tracking processor. It takes a bit more RAM, but it'll save your CPU! Now even my little AMD C-50 netbook is processing high vision tracking at low cpu usage.
High Resolution PWM
Pulse Width Module has been used more and more lately. Due to our 2.5 Amp motor controller, the PWM can be connected to control the speed of your motors. I recognize the value of higher resolution PWM control. I've also added PWM control as an EZ-Script command.
New EZ-Script Commands
A few new commands and functions to our EZ-Script. Adding more power to the scripting engine enables more customization. And of course, more customization means more robot personality!
Customizable Vision Tracking Modes
The old tracking type drop down has been replaced with checkboxes. Now you can select tracking types on demand. This means you can mix face tracking with color tracking, or motion tracking with glyph tracking. More control means smarter robots!
Double Servo Position Resolution
You've asked for higher resolution servo positioning, and you got it! Watch your robot move smoother, track more accurately, and most of all have higher control.
Individual Servo Speeds
No longer do servos move at the same speed. Now each servo can have its own specified speed. Smoother movements and more control will add to your robot's personality.
Smarter Self Navigation
The radar controls have new a few new features which enables hallway navigation and smarter object avoidance. Your robots will now cruise around the environment in a convincing manner. So convincing that others may even think the robot is remote controlled!
Vision Correction Adjustments (brightness, contrast, sharpness, tint, etc)
Your robot is not always in the most optimal lighting condition. We know how poor lighting can be embarassing when demoing your new bot. I've added a few new controls to fine-tune the camera picture adjustments. You may even find some interesting uses with these settings.
Auto Positioning Controls for Hexapods, Bipeds and Custom Robots
This features allows servo position frames to be defined. You can play the frames back like a movie, one by one by one. The servos move at a relative constant speed between frames. This is a great feature for defining custom hexapod or biped movements.
Biped Support with User Defined Framed GAIT Positioning by Wave Calculations
Much like the Auto Positioning Control, this feature allows you to customize servo position frames. An assembly of frames creates a GAIT. Different GAITs can be defined for movements, such as Walking Forward, Stopping, Crouching, Turning Left, Turning Right, etc.. This enables your robot to be controlled by a movement panel, which also means compatibility with joysticks, Wiimote, speech recognition, and more.
Speakjet Support for Voice Synthesis and 4 Channel Synthesizer
Have you seen the Speakjet chip? If not, this is a great little unit! It's affordable and easy to use. Plus, I've already drawn up the PCB schematic to have these included in EZ-Bits. When will EZ-Bits be released? Soon as I send the schematics to the printers!
Third Party Platform Support Without EZ-B
Controlling third party platforms (such as AR Drone and Brookstone Rover) required a connectiont to the EZ-B. This was due to the software being very tightly connected with the EZ-B. Now that I've spent some time re-writing the back-end, I've allowed connectivity to these devices without the need of the EZ-B. Of course, we still want you to purchase an EZ-B to support our development and add fantastic new features to your AR Drone or Brookstone Rover.
New EZ-SDK
Of course, all of the features found in EZ-Builder are always available in the EZ-SDK. We want to support custom user development and extensions of the EZ-Robot Platform functionality. The EZ-SDK allows full access to EVERY feature of the platform. I don't hold anything back!
Realtime Scripting
The EZ-Script engine is great for some things.. But this new feature is great if you're looking to fully customize the EZ-Builder interface with your own controls. The realtime C# or VB actually compiles your code into memory and executes it against the EZ-Builder EZ_B library. That means you can control the EZ-SDK functions from within the EZ-Builder software! Now you're playing with power :D
Get the latest EZ-Builder and experience the most powerful EZ-Robot Software to date!
Are you ready for the greatest EZ-Robot update? We have a huge list of features and enhancements for your robots! The Firmware, SDK and EZ-Builder are available for download. I personally can barely contain myself from telling you how excited I am! These new features and enhancements are going to blow your mind! The speed increase in the camera tracking alone is very exciting. Plus servo speed and higher servo resolution... Wow, it's gonna be a great release!
Some new features:
Full Screen Camera View
The camera control can be maximized to full screen. Your entire screen becomes the view of your robot's camera. Great if using the Vuzix Augmented Reality Headset!
Amazing Fast Vision Tracking (up to 60% speed increase!)
I had a sudden moment of clarity one evening - and BANG! It hit me... I had a great idea to speed up the vision tracking processor. It takes a bit more RAM, but it'll save your CPU! Now even my little AMD C-50 netbook is processing high vision tracking at low cpu usage.
High Resolution PWM
Pulse Width Module has been used more and more lately. Due to our 2.5 Amp motor controller, the PWM can be connected to control the speed of your motors. I recognize the value of higher resolution PWM control. I've also added PWM control as an EZ-Script command.
New EZ-Script Commands
A few new commands and functions to our EZ-Script. Adding more power to the scripting engine enables more customization. And of course, more customization means more robot personality!
Customizable Vision Tracking Modes
The old tracking type drop down has been replaced with checkboxes. Now you can select tracking types on demand. This means you can mix face tracking with color tracking, or motion tracking with glyph tracking. More control means smarter robots!
Double Servo Position Resolution
You've asked for higher resolution servo positioning, and you got it! Watch your robot move smoother, track more accurately, and most of all have higher control.
Individual Servo Speeds
No longer do servos move at the same speed. Now each servo can have its own specified speed. Smoother movements and more control will add to your robot's personality.
Smarter Self Navigation
The radar controls have new a few new features which enables hallway navigation and smarter object avoidance. Your robots will now cruise around the environment in a convincing manner. So convincing that others may even think the robot is remote controlled!
Vision Correction Adjustments (brightness, contrast, sharpness, tint, etc)
Your robot is not always in the most optimal lighting condition. We know how poor lighting can be embarassing when demoing your new bot. I've added a few new controls to fine-tune the camera picture adjustments. You may even find some interesting uses with these settings.
Auto Positioning Controls for Hexapods, Bipeds and Custom Robots
This features allows servo position frames to be defined. You can play the frames back like a movie, one by one by one. The servos move at a relative constant speed between frames. This is a great feature for defining custom hexapod or biped movements.
Biped Support with User Defined Framed GAIT Positioning by Wave Calculations
Much like the Auto Positioning Control, this feature allows you to customize servo position frames. An assembly of frames creates a GAIT. Different GAITs can be defined for movements, such as Walking Forward, Stopping, Crouching, Turning Left, Turning Right, etc.. This enables your robot to be controlled by a movement panel, which also means compatibility with joysticks, Wiimote, speech recognition, and more.
Speakjet Support for Voice Synthesis and 4 Channel Synthesizer
Have you seen the Speakjet chip? If not, this is a great little unit! It's affordable and easy to use. Plus, I've already drawn up the PCB schematic to have these included in EZ-Bits. When will EZ-Bits be released? Soon as I send the schematics to the printers!
Third Party Platform Support Without EZ-B
Controlling third party platforms (such as AR Drone and Brookstone Rover) required a connectiont to the EZ-B. This was due to the software being very tightly connected with the EZ-B. Now that I've spent some time re-writing the back-end, I've allowed connectivity to these devices without the need of the EZ-B. Of course, we still want you to purchase an EZ-B to support our development and add fantastic new features to your AR Drone or Brookstone Rover.
New EZ-SDK
Of course, all of the features found in EZ-Builder are always available in the EZ-SDK. We want to support custom user development and extensions of the EZ-Robot Platform functionality. The EZ-SDK allows full access to EVERY feature of the platform. I don't hold anything back!
Realtime Scripting
The EZ-Script engine is great for some things.. But this new feature is great if you're looking to fully customize the EZ-Builder interface with your own controls. The realtime C# or VB actually compiles your code into memory and executes it against the EZ-Builder EZ_B library. That means you can control the EZ-SDK functions from within the EZ-Builder software! Now you're playing with power :D
Someone has been busy!
Alrightttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so ready for this release! I have "Project Gizmo and something I'm calling my "Desktop Trio" waiting for it! I'm really needing the servo speed; but I'll take the rest as well!!!!!! Way to go DJ!!!!!
Ughhh going to be a long week!!! But fantastic new additions. I hope there are a ton of new videos showing off the new features
Can anyone say value for your money, I don't think I've ever seen such growth in a product I've purchased before. Way to go DJ!
You said it...development is amazingly fast!
Truely a product I believe in , can't wait to buy another ezb kit.
Speakjet is awsome! Some great voices in there! Cannot wait for EZ Bits..come on get them boards printed!! My wallet is burning up!..lol
I'm really excited. Very good progress
Way Awesome!!!
Amazing!!!
I'm really glad you are excited
I just added a new feature to the bottom of the list on the first page. It's for the realtime scripting control - I finally just finished the beta test and it's ready to be included in this next release also!
Are you going to open the vision engine so we can do custom object detection?
Real-time scripting control!!! Love it. Just what I was asking for a few months ago. Now any device with an SDK can be included in my EZB projects.
Alan
Jcrupi, the bitmap for the camera control is exposed in the sdk. You can do any detection that you'd like
Great. I suspect it's 2D (X/Y) and doesn't include Depth like Kinect.
I am waiting the new version!!!!! hahaha!!
@jcrupi the kinect is two cameras that determines depth by overlaying the images to determine the positioning difference between pixels of the two images. It also uses an IR sensor for calibration. We only use one camera, and i can't see a reason to re-invent a kinect anytime soon.
However, kinect support is on the road map for the future
dj sures.. when will you upload the new version?? haha i want to sleep... but first i have to test the new version of ARC==??
This is exciting! Good thing I have to work or the anticipation would be killing me! Come on "HIFIVE"
JW
OK D.J. We're all waiting out here on pins and needles!!!!!!!!! The day is half over. When you gonna launch "High Five"? We're all more then ready!!!!!!!!! I have two projects waiting on the new release! This prob means I'll be up late tonite.
Haha in m time zone it's still morning
Let me finish my breakfast first haha
Even though they're necessary, i hate time zones.
It's 8pm in my zone
I'M FROM THE FUTURE
i am in the middle of you! jajaja... here is 12pm....
still waiting
haha
10 am cali
18.30pm Ireland Its been a looooooong day
10:41 am..".oh the pain " <------(best Dr. Smith impression)
Hifive!! Where are u !!!
Are you ready?
Butt of Horse we are.
Well then, what are you waiting for?
Go get the latest ARC!
Yippie!!!
Awesome.
Did the Server Blow up?:( I clicked to Download and it says: Page is Missing or moved":( Aw,Man!
Thank you DJ, all works for me. You know what ? I'm happy.
I get the missing page error as well, I was able to Download the SDK no problem though. Just the ARC page is giving an error.
Now stating that there might be a bug, try back later.
what bug??? can someone explain me what happens???
If you try to download you get this message: "The ARC download is currently unavailable. There has been a bug report that we are investigating. Please check back later."
There is some talk about connecting issues. Be patient, DJ is looking into it.
Will
It's strange, I have no bug. confused. One little thing. Remember to recalibrate the servo of your projects. Now there is 140 positions.
@wofty can you send me the new version of ARC?? because now we can not download it....???
Yeah I'd like to try it too! Seems the bug is fixable.
Oh real nice you guys ! All I can think about all day is getting home from work and downloading the new 15.3 version. I get home and you all broke it already ! I can only look at picture of Hifive.
joking of coarse !
J.W.
everybody connects to chat!! i am boring... while hifive is fixing
HiFive is back
good work!
@DJ SURES please check the link of ARC.... I can only donwload ARC 2012.02.17.00.. Thanks!
Edit:
Something wrong with my web browser.... I think that is the cache... I have to use another web browser to download it... Thanks!
Nice work DJ! Love all the new features
ant one having issues with servos being glitchy?
With the new firmware 15.4, servos tremble like a leaf. Do other people have the same problem ?
My robot has parkinson.
Edit : I tried the beta version 15.5 and I have the same problem. So I reinstall the firmware 15.3 and everything is OK. Now, my robot has no Parkinson
.
I have the same issue, pulled apart my robot arm to find the case was cracked after the shaking. How did you go back to 15.3?
15.3 it is.....Sirlal go to the download page......old versions are there too.
right now in china its about 8am thursday and in fla where i live to 8pm
why are you in china?
shenzhen, China for work