Hey everyone! I know it seems like I've been a bit absent - which is true. It doesn't mean that I'm not on the forum following your conversations. This is a very exciting time for EZ-Robot and the community. As the physical parts are being sent away for manufacturing, this leaves a bit of time for me to perfect the firmware and code.
It has been a really exciting few weeks - with great successes! The EZ-B v4 is absolutely amazing to work with. It has beautiful new functionality compared to the EZ-B v3, and is well over-the-top compared to anything else available. EZ-Robot is reshaping what the world thinks about robotics... And disrupting the industry while we're at it :)
Not only is the EZ-B v4 contained within a beautiful and stylish protective case - it is elegant and has a lot of thought put into how it works, how it connects, and how it can be used...
The bottom of the EZ-B v4 has a male/female connector which docks to the body inserts of your Revolution robots. The little feet protect the power connector from being bent or scratching your workbench. The sides host heat vents to let the 2 internal 32-Bit Arm Processors breath. Including the camera, the EZ-B v4 has three 32-Bit Arm Cortex processors totaling a staggering 280mhz of combined processing power.
The power connector mates with the power connector of your Revolution robot. The little holes let the EZ-B v4 fit securely in the body of your robot.
Easy to insert, easy to remove and securely held in place.
We have been exercising our creativity with more Clip'n'Play EZ-Bits. Including cubes, extenders and more!
Our 4 MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printers run 24 hours a day printing prototype designs to test. Once they are tested, the design files are sent to the manufacturing facility to be injection molded with durable ABS plastic.
The new EZ-Robot Camera is specific to the EZ-B v4. It has a new style and shape to compliment our soon-to-be-announced new logo and branding. The EZ-Robot Camera connects directly to the Camera Port of the EZ-B v4.
The top of the EZ-Robot Camera also includes a female EZ-Bit Clip'n'Play Connector. Your creativity doesn't stop at the camera, you can continue to connect more add-ons to the camera!
The bottom of the EZ-Robot Camera hosts a male EZ-Bit Clip'n'Play Connector.
The EZ-B v4 includes a Wi-Fi module for connectivity from your PC, Phone, or Tablet. Which means it has blow-you-mind features. First, it's an amazing thing to see the EZ-B v4 show up in your Wireless Network list.
A built-in webserver allows you to configure the EZ-B v4 over any web client, including your iPhone, iPad, or Android device...
The AP mode allows the EZ-B v4 to run as an access point. You can give it a unique wireless name and security settings.
The Infrastructure mode means the EZ-B v4 can be connected to your network. By opening a port in your firewall/router, you can control your EZ-B v4 from anywhere in the world! Including from your phone, from anywhere!
Finally, there is a basic diagnostics page. Which allows you to move a servo and trigger embedded audio files - simply for testing.
Now, the real strength is in the new EZ-Builder - which now uses the EZ-B v4 as a speaker! Any sound files or speech will play out of the 2 EZ-B v4 speakers. There is one speaker in the EZ-B v4 case, and another in the camera.
The new Soundboard for EZ-B v4 can now play files locally on your computer speaker, or through the EZ-B v4! This means full MP3/WAV audio streaming directly to the robot! Give it music to play as it dances. Or simply load the module with audio files for unique sound effects.
There are new EZ-Script commands for streaming speech to the EZ-B v4 speakers. The new script commands also allow you to adjust the volume.
And finally, the efficiency and speed of the new EZ-B v4 communication protocol is amazing. It operates over a two TCP connections. One connects to the EZ-B v4 for physical control of ports/servos/serial/i2c/etc, and the other streams the live camera feed - or other attachments that we will be announcing soon :D
The AutoPosition control takes advantage of the new network communication design to increase speed and efficiency. This means that behind the scenes, the servos and ports are controlled by single TCP packets that include the settings. So your behaviors are seamless, smooth and organic.
On the topic of organic, the servos now have 180 positions and increased speed ramping! This gives your robot life-like motions with amazing accuracy. The new servos we chose for Revolution can support up to 15kgs at 7.4v from the lipo batteries in our store.
We'll be creating many videos and a whole new tutorial section starting next week - when I return back home from some more traveling this week. The tutorial section is going to blow your mind also! I can barely hold back my excitement.
Last and not least, for all you hackers out there! The EZ-B v4 and Camera cases can be removed to expose their tiny beautiful PCBs. As you can tell by the camera next to the Canadian Coin, it is very tiny to fit in small places. We didn't forget about you hackers, so everything is designed to be taken apart and modified for your custom robots!
There is truly nothing else in the world that competes with the EZ-B v4 and EZ-Robot Revolution. And we owe it to all of you! I know you'll love it too... Oh and yes, the iOS version of EZ-Builder will be released soon! (Android will be coming right after)
"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day..."
What is my ultimate plan, you ask? I see a world full of creative-minded individuals, like yourself, with ideas for robotics. Some of your ideas may be new products - however, creating a product from scratch is very difficult. By building and prototyping new product ideas with EZ-Robot, you can focus on the creativity, execution and completion. We provide the style of Apple, the technical ability of Intel and the productivity of Microsoft... We've given purpose to robotics. There is no reason why new robot products should not contain an EZ-Robot Brain :)
Think of all the new robot products being released each day. Now picture those robots in your home... Doesn't work, does it? They lack elegance, design and functionality. Products built with EZ-Robot do not need excuses for their lack of functionality or lifestyle integration. Spend less time fiddling with electronics and programming... Spend more time on creativity, function and design!
Over the past year, EZ-Robot has been supporting new products designed by community members, just like you! When we are introduced to an idea that we like, we help make it a reality. That, is the future of EZ-Robot. Supporting your dreams of a science-fiction tomorrow!
It has been a really exciting few weeks - with great successes! The EZ-B v4 is absolutely amazing to work with. It has beautiful new functionality compared to the EZ-B v3, and is well over-the-top compared to anything else available. EZ-Robot is reshaping what the world thinks about robotics... And disrupting the industry while we're at it :)
Not only is the EZ-B v4 contained within a beautiful and stylish protective case - it is elegant and has a lot of thought put into how it works, how it connects, and how it can be used...
The bottom of the EZ-B v4 has a male/female connector which docks to the body inserts of your Revolution robots. The little feet protect the power connector from being bent or scratching your workbench. The sides host heat vents to let the 2 internal 32-Bit Arm Processors breath. Including the camera, the EZ-B v4 has three 32-Bit Arm Cortex processors totaling a staggering 280mhz of combined processing power.
The power connector mates with the power connector of your Revolution robot. The little holes let the EZ-B v4 fit securely in the body of your robot.
Easy to insert, easy to remove and securely held in place.
We have been exercising our creativity with more Clip'n'Play EZ-Bits. Including cubes, extenders and more!
Our 4 MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printers run 24 hours a day printing prototype designs to test. Once they are tested, the design files are sent to the manufacturing facility to be injection molded with durable ABS plastic.
The new EZ-Robot Camera is specific to the EZ-B v4. It has a new style and shape to compliment our soon-to-be-announced new logo and branding. The EZ-Robot Camera connects directly to the Camera Port of the EZ-B v4.
The top of the EZ-Robot Camera also includes a female EZ-Bit Clip'n'Play Connector. Your creativity doesn't stop at the camera, you can continue to connect more add-ons to the camera!
The bottom of the EZ-Robot Camera hosts a male EZ-Bit Clip'n'Play Connector.
The EZ-B v4 includes a Wi-Fi module for connectivity from your PC, Phone, or Tablet. Which means it has blow-you-mind features. First, it's an amazing thing to see the EZ-B v4 show up in your Wireless Network list.
A built-in webserver allows you to configure the EZ-B v4 over any web client, including your iPhone, iPad, or Android device...
The AP mode allows the EZ-B v4 to run as an access point. You can give it a unique wireless name and security settings.
The Infrastructure mode means the EZ-B v4 can be connected to your network. By opening a port in your firewall/router, you can control your EZ-B v4 from anywhere in the world! Including from your phone, from anywhere!
Finally, there is a basic diagnostics page. Which allows you to move a servo and trigger embedded audio files - simply for testing.
Now, the real strength is in the new EZ-Builder - which now uses the EZ-B v4 as a speaker! Any sound files or speech will play out of the 2 EZ-B v4 speakers. There is one speaker in the EZ-B v4 case, and another in the camera.
The new Soundboard for EZ-B v4 can now play files locally on your computer speaker, or through the EZ-B v4! This means full MP3/WAV audio streaming directly to the robot! Give it music to play as it dances. Or simply load the module with audio files for unique sound effects.
There are new EZ-Script commands for streaming speech to the EZ-B v4 speakers. The new script commands also allow you to adjust the volume.
And finally, the efficiency and speed of the new EZ-B v4 communication protocol is amazing. It operates over a two TCP connections. One connects to the EZ-B v4 for physical control of ports/servos/serial/i2c/etc, and the other streams the live camera feed - or other attachments that we will be announcing soon :D
The AutoPosition control takes advantage of the new network communication design to increase speed and efficiency. This means that behind the scenes, the servos and ports are controlled by single TCP packets that include the settings. So your behaviors are seamless, smooth and organic.
On the topic of organic, the servos now have 180 positions and increased speed ramping! This gives your robot life-like motions with amazing accuracy. The new servos we chose for Revolution can support up to 15kgs at 7.4v from the lipo batteries in our store.
We'll be creating many videos and a whole new tutorial section starting next week - when I return back home from some more traveling this week. The tutorial section is going to blow your mind also! I can barely hold back my excitement.
Last and not least, for all you hackers out there! The EZ-B v4 and Camera cases can be removed to expose their tiny beautiful PCBs. As you can tell by the camera next to the Canadian Coin, it is very tiny to fit in small places. We didn't forget about you hackers, so everything is designed to be taken apart and modified for your custom robots!
There is truly nothing else in the world that competes with the EZ-B v4 and EZ-Robot Revolution. And we owe it to all of you! I know you'll love it too... Oh and yes, the iOS version of EZ-Builder will be released soon! (Android will be coming right after)
"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day..."
What is my ultimate plan, you ask? I see a world full of creative-minded individuals, like yourself, with ideas for robotics. Some of your ideas may be new products - however, creating a product from scratch is very difficult. By building and prototyping new product ideas with EZ-Robot, you can focus on the creativity, execution and completion. We provide the style of Apple, the technical ability of Intel and the productivity of Microsoft... We've given purpose to robotics. There is no reason why new robot products should not contain an EZ-Robot Brain :)
Think of all the new robot products being released each day. Now picture those robots in your home... Doesn't work, does it? They lack elegance, design and functionality. Products built with EZ-Robot do not need excuses for their lack of functionality or lifestyle integration. Spend less time fiddling with electronics and programming... Spend more time on creativity, function and design!
Over the past year, EZ-Robot has been supporting new products designed by community members, just like you! When we are introduced to an idea that we like, we help make it a reality. That, is the future of EZ-Robot. Supporting your dreams of a science-fiction tomorrow!
Awesome, that's just the info we all wanted (and more).
I cannot wait for the V4s to hit us, such an awesome board and so simple to use. I thought the V3 was something else when I started using it 12 months ago and it didn't take me long to become familiar with it, the V4 looks even easier. No mp3 triggers, no messing with the bluetooth modules and setup.
Extremely well done to everyone involved at EZ-Robot!
BaJinga!
I am not even spelling it right. It is something that Sheldon from the BigBangTheory says it once in a while. I don't even know what it means. ha!ha! He is usually happy when he says it.
Those of us with preorder for robots
Are we getting this camera setup?
The more info provided for the V4 sure gets the creativity portion of the brain running in fast mode. I can hardly wait
@slim6072
All Revolution Robot pre-orders will include the new camera setup
first word... WOW. Thanks so very much for the update @DJ Sures.
:)
j
eek...
(say this really fast)DJ, you just blew my mind. This looks AWESOME! I'm literally shaking with excitement right now. I can truly say you've redefined robotics. Now I can finally put my router hacking to the test!
By the way, I think I see the new logo!
There's really no way to describe what this feels like to all of us. Wait... I know!(oh no)
blush confused cool eek
mad eyeroll sick sleep
tired
One idea in case you change the logo ever again is why not hold a designing contest?
LOL, thanks everyone! I love the enthusiasm I receive from you when I open up. We're preparing to begin filming this week. Lots of videos demonstrating how amazingly cool this thing is! Also many new tutorial videos - which are going to be a lot of fun and educational.
I was in California this past week doing a few demos. I have to say, the excitement I receive from people who see it is overwhelming. You can literally show EZ-Robot Revolution to anyone and they want one! That's the kind of feedback I like to hear!
It's time to change the world
Toot Toot!
Slightly modified poem snip-it by John Masefield
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a EZ-B v4 to steer her by"
Holy Molely! Thanks so much DJ! Awesome product keeps getting more awesome! I ditto all the previous comments and extra to technopros head blowing up!
Quack!Quack! Hooray!
Truly an amazing accomplishment. I can't wait for the videos and then receiving my 2 new boards in the mail. My mind is doing back flips! Well done.
I love the advancements , so many things I can do with this new equipment.
Thanks for fixing password recovery. I can now ask some burning questions. I have ordered a developer kit in order to build a Wall-E robot.
I assume that the camera to be supplied will be one detailed above? Will this fit into Wall-E's head?
The battery that is supplied is now a Battery Holder. Is it 5 or 6 AAs? The picture shows a 5 battery holder but description is 6 AAs. Which is correct?
I also assume that the kit will include one voltage reduction board for the distance sensor?
Are there any other changes to the development kit since September?
thanks
The new camera that's shown here comes with the dev. kit.
I think the battery holder is 6AA, or 9v. it you decrease by one you can run the heavy duty servos.
Yes, it was said somewhere that a regulator would come with the kit for the ping.
I don't believe there are any other changes.
Sorry I'm late to the party but that was an awful lot of awesome info. Thanks DJ.
Thanks for the info Technopro! Looks like I will just have to wait and check the camera size for myself and see whether it fits into Wall-E's head It's too hard to guess the size of the camera from pics in this forum As a last resort I could mount the camera in Wall-E's body. Not sure whether Wall-E's trick of.following a face with head could still work as well Can't wait to get my hands on this new, more technically advanced development kit!
Just to point out that you wont run many HD servos from 5 AA batteries, they will be flat pretty quickly and probably will struggle to provide the required current.
I would advise spending a little more and getting the LiPo battery too.
Rich, if he parallels 2 he could get more AH. they are easy to find.
LiPo is the way to go... AAs, even paralleled still will lack the ability to output.... and not to mention the bulk and weigh of them. Not very efficient...
It's not the Ah that they hold it's the total amps they can provide in a burst, AA batteries are not nearly as good as LiPo for those high demands. Also the weight and size will be a huge issue. I have some 2000mAh AA batteries which have a bigger capacity than the LiPo but they cannot provide the amps required to drive everything at once.
It's always exciting to read the first post on the V4! I can't wait to get it!
Rich, thanks for the info re the LIPo battery. I was looking forward to getting one in my pre-ordered kit, but I guess the new camera, V4 board and cases cost them more to develop & manufacture. An email explaining things would have been nice, as I would have coughed up the extra $s to get the LIPo battery & Charger I will source one from the eBay minefield. Lots available with different mAh, C rating and connector types. Would be nice to know which connector is on the board. Anybody know?
Tony1952 The power connector is a "dean" connector. This Thread has a picture that will help you see the connector.
Many thanks Robot-Doc! That makes my search so much easier! Although it looks like most batteries come with other connector types, so I'll probably have to get one and replace with a dean connector myself Thanks, again!
lol, I'm thinking about desoldering the dean connector and put a standard 2.5mm power jack on the PCB. Then I can use the power plugs I already have for the EZ-B(3). I don't plan on using the EZ-bits robot parts so the dean connector is not a requirement on the robots in my shop.
@Robot-Doc - We are working on a deans to barrell jack adaptor so you wont have to worry about soldering. EZ-Robot wouldn't be EZ if we forced you guys to solder just to use an old adaptor
That would be very handy Alan as we all have old plugs lying around but I bet nobody has a mini deans plug! Does the AA battery holder that comes with the Development Kit have a mini deans plug?
The development kit will be shipped with the barrel jack to micro deans adaptor. This will allow you to use the 6AA battery pack with other projects that don't have a micro deans plug ie. EZ-B v3's
Good news Alan! Great to see Ez-Robot one step ahead!
So, I see DJ is working with the camera crew.
On a side note, I know you guys at ez-robot have been asked a lot, but when will the stuff ship? Im still at step 1.
@Technopro - DJ will be emailing everyone with shipping updates later today. Stay tuned and watch your inbox
Alan Thanks for the info about the power adapter add-on. That will be handy for many folks.
Man! It really seems that the EZ crew is on top of everything. Are you guys spying on us?
THANK YOU! DJ Sures for the very informative update on pre-orders along with your extremely generous gifts - the EZ-Robot Power Shell and Key Chain and in particular the store credit which I have just used to buy a LIPo battery and charger to go with my Development Kit. The transaction went smoothly and postage was calculated as "free" My battery & connection concerns of earlier this week have been solved! Christmas has come early with Ez-Robot Again, very appreciated thanks, DJ !
@Tony1952 and @DJ Sures I second Tony1952 post. I just order my stuff and all went so very easy. Just like my EZ-Robots...
:)
J
my robots are saying:
gb - I am being upgraded to v4.... zip jr - I am being upgrade to v3 from a broken arduino controller...
I third that jdebay i have just ordered another ezb4 so i can build more i cant wait for them to arrive so i can complete my projects.
Andy b uk
I did the same thing. I ordered another ezb4 so I can have a project to go along with my JD
I'm even more excited to see what everyone else does with their V4s and Revolution robots. That little extra credit should allow people to add a few more brackets or grippers
I also thank EZ Robots for the credit gift and Key Fob. I'm going to hold on to the credit till I get my pre order of 3 EZB boards. I'm sure I'll need a few things after I find out everything they will do.
I dont want to open a can of worms here but in my updated notice I read that the plastic production is behind schedule now because the first vendor could not keep up. It said shippments would now be delayed anouther 4 - 6 weeks because they needed to find a new vendor. This puts shipping dates towards the end of January. Looks like the Christmas promise to us pre order fokes is not going to happen? Is this delay only for the plastic parts or does it include all else like thouse of us that only ordered the EZB v4?
If I now have to wait till late Jan I'll be so disapointed. I ordered the first day the pre orders were being taken more then 3 months ago and thought I would see my new V4 boards any day now.
The worm can is open, it appears that there is now an additional delay of around 6 weeks. I just don't know if that is from the date we received the EZ-Robot email greeting with the freebe info or if the additional 6 weeks clock has not even started yet.
I am sure they will respond. Seem like a great company
I see the gifts as a peace offering and compensation for the delay. They are not obliged to do this but they want to build a reputation and maintain a relationship with us. Have any of you pledged on Kickstarter? I have, a few times. Each one of those had long delays (without compensation!) while they fine tuned the product or had difficulties with manufacturers, etc, etc. Communication was poor and, worst of all, the after sales service was non-existent. I bet that won't be the case with Ez-Robot. Yes, there will be delays but I'm sure we'll be satisfied with what we get and there will be long term support for this product I am a very impatient person but I'm willing to take a chill pill. There was not much chance of playing with my new toy before Xmas/New Year anyway as I have to prepare for the festivities & family visits, etc
I agree with @Tony1952 last reply. I also would rather have a quality product, so I am chilling too. Planning GB upgrade and so on with credit items.
:)
j
Don't misunderstand me. I'm cool with the delay, just disappointed and little flustered on a personal level.
I understand totally the delays that can and do happen when a young and brilliant company starts growing faster then they can keep up with. Managing all this, keeping the employees happy and paid, your past loyal customers calm and happy and still attract new business (even though you don't have products ready to sell) has to be overwhelming and scary for everyone involved.
I have no doubt I'll see my new boards and the rest of the order someday sooner or later. When they arrive it will be a step into the future for me and my robot who is waiting on this new technology. I'm really looking forward to no more dropped Bluetooth connections, smoother servo and position control , better camera response and learning all the different ways I can integrate them into my B9.
It's just that waiting sucks and these truly understandable delays put us on a roller coaster. Kinda like looking forward to Christmas as a kid and having your parents tell you it's been delayed because dad has to work to afford it. Good part is that you all go to church anyway and learn the true meaning of the day. My apologies to those of other faiths or lack there of. Insert your own analogies that have meaning to you here.
Presently in another venture of my life I'm also doing the waiting game for a intensely anticipated item. It's a Newly built Pinball Machine being built by another brilliant up starting company. It also involves new and innovating over the top technology that has never before been seen in the pinball world. It's called The Wizard Of Oz and is being made by Jersey Jack Pinball. I mention this because the story of JJP and the people waiting for their games parallels ours. Even though games are shipping slowly to pre order customers, a lot of the customers that are still waiting are getting nervous and want answers and timeliness . Sometimes that's just not possible and some don't understand. I personally don't expect to see my game till April 2014 or later. You can read the frustration and bad feelings on their forum from time to time. It's amazing how that growing panic is ebbed and quilted by calm and honest comments on progress by Jack himself. People truly understand when they know what is going on, why its happening and that they are cared about. I hope DJ and company continue to make personal and honest comments here on this forum about what is going on. After all, we and future customers pay the bills for them. Without us there would be no reason for EZ Robots.
Sorry for the long ramblings. These are just my own thoughts and feelings so take or leave them as you will. cool
Thanks for everything EZ Robots and members of the group. Dave Schulpius
Very well put Dave I'm also waiting on a new product that will be offered on my websites. The goodies are being built in Taiwan and slowly being released to me for resale. Kinda frustrating but that is the climate in new tech offerings.
Thanks for the kudos and validation Robot-doc. Good luck on your wait. I'd like to visit your web site. Can you share the link?
As far as me, I'm thinking of changing my screen name to "Order Awaiting Review".
lol Dave, Here's one of two sites: www.Robot-Doc.com, thanks for the interest.
Well said Dave! Your sentiments are shared by many and I keep singing ...inner singing! ....Carly Simon's song " Anticipation" Perhaps a diversion? Think about , and plan a smaller robot. With your advanced building skills, it just might be what the " Robot-Doc" ordered
Nice sites full of good info. Now I know where to go when my Roomba takes a crap.
DaveMy main hobby project is to build a mini Roomba with a EZ-B(4) controller.
@Dave, Very well thought out post and I agree 100%. If DJ could have, he would have given it to us weeks ago. There were many things outside his control I'm sure but I'm glad he was honest and put more thought into telling us than a simple "sorry its delayed". I'm sure the news bothered him too.
dschulpius i about spewed my milk about the name change lol
I'm sure all of us are excited about the coming products. I can understand your frustration expecially if this is a Christmas gift. I was just showing my daughter ez robot videos last weekend because she loves making things and didnt know what to ask for on her Christmas list. Im one of the biggest fans of ez robot products and I tell everyone about them. The thing we forget is ez robot is still a start up company and it takes time to establish affiliates to get the product produced. There has been so much progress since V3 was introduced we forget that ez robot is still new. Kinda crazy right? I'm sure the ez robot products pre ordered and being currently ordered will be out of this world even if we wait until January.
If we want to replace or customize the firmware on the EZB v4, is the process documented? What toolchain is used?
I understand how the EZ robot software works and I understand how the .net SDK works and we'll probably use that to take advantage of the image processing capabilities etc, but we'd also like to implement our own autonomous behaviors on the EZB itself w/out a network connection to a host PC.
We're familiar w/embmedded development in C/C++/assembly (e.g. arduino, net burner) and even C# w/the .net micro framework (e.g. netduino 2 +). Is the equivalent process documented anywhere for the EZ-B?
Also, if we order the EzB on the web site now, do we get the v4? Thanks
The EZ-B isn't open source. Replacing the firmware is only supported for official firmware upgrades, there is no support for custom firmware. You'll also find that the firmware is not for reverse engineering/altering. You'll most likely void any and all support and warranty by using firmware other than officially released.
If you order the EZ-B now you will be pre-ordering a V4.
Ah that's a shame. I had read DJ saying that the only part of the system that wasn't open source was the DLL that the SDK used to talk to the EZB. I had preordered a DigiX but was going to get an EZB since it adds the local camera interface and I assume local encoding for streaming over TCP, and that's a nice advantage, but I am interested in local autonomous control. The EZB w/ARC system is great, and gives people the ability to do from the EZ SDK what they had to use opencv for locally before, which makes a lot of new capability available for hobbyists with much less effort. It would just be nice for more advanced hobbyists to be able to get at the guts of the EZB firmware and modify/update it for use on their own platforms.
My plan w/the DigiX was to buy a 5.8GHz micro FPV camera, tx, rx for the video feed and bypass connecting to the onboard MCU, but with the EZB I could have skipped the camera/tx/rx and just bough the ez-cam and hooked it up to the ez-b and gotten the video stream that way.
Get a cheap android tablet and embed it in to the robot. The iOS and Android versions of ARC will be with us shortly which can be used for that local autonomous programming and can be set to kick in should connection to another source be lost (I expect, it's something I plan to look at when I get my V4).
Sure, i could just stick a tiny SBC that runs Windows on the robot and run ARC or use the ez-sdk, if what I wanted was to control the EZ-B over a TCP connection. That's what the android tablet solution is suggesting.
That's a fine and good way to work with this system and is obviously great for the entry-level user (which is what EZ-robot is about), but DJ stated he didn't want to leave out the "hackers" (so he made it so you can pull the EZB and camera out of their plastic shells). That gives me hope that he also gives us a way to use the EZB as a development target since it has a leg up on some of the other alternatives out there with the integrated video encoding.
Boards like the EZ-B, the Arbotix, etc. are unique in that they bring together everything a hobby roboticist wants. It's easy enough to cobble together the parts (H bridge to drive motors, microcontroller for PWM generation and quadrature encoder inputs, and serial IO to a zigbee or separate wifi chip etc, a SPI interface for a camera etc. or an ADC for frame grabbing etc) but it's just great when someone puts all this stuff on one board for roughly the same price!
Now we just need a way to get at it at a lower level (say I want to add a few more PID loops to control my own motors in addition to the 2 on the roli, or say I want to use the 4WD version of the rover chassis with the Dagu 4-ch motor controller etc). Even just the basic use case of running w/out the network up.
Just to point out that EZ-Robot isn't only about entry level, it is suitable for entry level all the way up to advanced.
By having the Android version of ARC running the robot and controlling that ARC via another instance running on a PC you should easily be able to achieve most of what you want to do. The PC isn't just a remote desktop share, you can use every single control in ARC on the PC even if it's not on the project running on the tablet.
So in other words, you have the tablet with the emergency code running on board the robot, you have it monitor for connection to the other instance of ARC running on the PC, which is doing the more involved tasks. If it fails to find the connection it runs the emergency code until connection is re-established.
Not really sure where you see a problem in your last paragraph. The Dagu 4 channel motor controller is easily used with the EZ-B. Many of us run multiple motors from one EZ-B.
Rich, thanks for taking the time to post. Maybe I can just pose you a challenge that may help you understand why ARC or EZ-SDK isn't always the answer.
Think about implementing an inverted pendulum on top of a platform like the Roli using ARC or the EZ-SDK.
Here's the first video result that came up on a web search http://vimeo.com/2952236#
No swing up, assume you start almost balanced.
So we add an inverted pendulum on top with an encoder or pot to measure the angle of the pendulum. You balance it by moving the the Roli back and forth.
There is simply too much lag and nondeterminism in the transport and the host OS (windows / android are general purpose operating systems w/no latency bound guarantees). You would want to close the control loop locally on the EZ-B.
Why would anyone ever want to do an inverted pendulum? Rockets, segways, etc aside from just cool fun
does the ezb provide connections excample to connect a led on? or is there another board for it. blush
Well, the pre-order credit had what I am sure was the desired effect. $50 credit, $97 order. But now I can stop trying to mess with an H-bridge, hobby motors, and scripting to add an arm to track-bot and just bought the 3 servo arm with gripper, a spare LiPo battery, and a few other bits and pieces.
Alan
@nomad , you can connect a single led to each signal pin or you can utilize a switching transistor to control groups at a time.
@ncostes , looks like you want to do a balance bot ! I know Rich is perfectly capable but I wanted to assure you EZB is up to the task. One of the advantages of have 3 , 32 bit processors on board the ezb is the increase in response to accelerometers used for feedback on a balance robot. I'm not saying it's easy , as you said smoothly running a balance bot is a challenge but hardware will not be the hold up. I would love to do a balance bot but they can be impractical so maybe next year