rbonari
Hello,
I assembled the Adventure Robot and have it working with the RGB Animation Display and the Ultrasonic Sensor. All seems to be working for the most part but I have a few questions and concerns:
The camera has a green LED showing on the lower right inside case of the camera. Don't remember seeing this in any of the videos. Is this normal?
In the camera settings, the only resolution available was 320X240. Does this have to do with my laptop or am I missing something?
I tried going into the media settings for the camera to select different codecs and frame rates etc., and selected change and saved the settings but no changes were noticed with the video.
Sometimes the robot would make random movements with the servos without me actually controlling them. Sometimes the servos would make small step motions and sometimes longer duration motions and in random directions. I had speech recognition enabled so I put it on pause and things seemed to work o.k. Could the speech recognition being enabled all the time cause these random movements and if not what other issues could cause these random movements. Battery temp and voltage are o.k. as I charged the batteries before using. I have a strong good WIFI Connection.
In the mobile app for the Adventure bot all works o.k. but when I select stop the robot instead moves left continuously. Has anybody seen this before. Seems like maybe a good opportunity for me to learn from this and try and correct it by modifying the script?
I noticed when operating on the rug (not shag) that the tail behind the Adventure Robot would hang up on the rug and prevent proper movement. Was thinking that some kind of EZ-Bit that is in the form of a little caster wheel would solve this issue but I am not experienced with CAD Programs and don't have a 3D Printer. Maybe this is something that EZ-Robots can work on as a future EZ-Bit as it could be used in a lot of future creations that use a three wheel type of a platform and would work better on rugs. On wood floors and linoleum it isn't an issue. Another thing I thought of doing is putting wide rubber bands around the wheels for a bit better traction
I will be doing a STEM demonstration of my Heathkit Hero Robots and I will also be showing off the EZ-Robot Products that I have. The hardware and software is way awesome. I have been able to get speech recognition working pretty much flawlessly and all the other hardware is working good with just a few issues with the intermittent random servo movements and some camera setup issues that I am sure can be resolved.
Thanks for an awesome product at a great price. I now have the bug !
Welcome!
Yes. The LED is either blue or green depending on the model of the camera. The green is the latest camera. The LED is necessary for privacy concerns with consumer product certification to let you know the camera is recording - it also demonstrates that power is applied. You will find LEDs to be used on many electronic devices to demonstrate power. The EZ-B also has LEDs to demonstrate power.
Machine vision and computer recognition is a very high cpu intensive process. The cameras for computer vision are much less resolution than what you, as a human, would use for recording a birthday party. If you were to run computer vision to recognize objects and decode frames at HD quality, your computer would literally grind to a halt and not be able to do anything else. Welcome to computer and machine vision recognition and image processing...
160x120 = 57,600 Bytes per frame = 1,152,000 Bytes per second 320x240 = 230,400 Bytes per frame = 4,608,000 Bytes per second 640x480 = 921,600 Bytes per frame = 18,432,000 Bytes per second
So at 320x240, your CPU is processing complex algorithm on 4,608,000 Bytes per second. Soon as you move to a mere 640x480, it's 18,432,000 Bytes per second.
To expand on that, 4,608,000 Bytes per second is just the data, not including the number of CPU instructions per step of the algorithm. Do not let television shows, such as Person Of Interest, make you believe that machine vision and CPU processing is as accessible...
If you want to record a birthday party, do not use a robot camera - buy a real camera. Here is more information about the Camera: https://synthiam.com/Support?id=80
You can access information about any control by pressing the ? (question mark) next to the X (close) button - as mentioned in the software. The camera control is a good read!
The software is full of question marks. When in doubt, hover over blue question marks or read the manual pages for the software. The Media Settings is for video recording. Video recording is the act of recording video to a file. Back in the day, this term meant recording to a VHS tape. Now it means recording to a file. Unless you are actually pressing the RECORD button, the Media settings has no affect.
The speech recognition visually displays any commands that it hears or thinks it hears. It displays these so you can see them. You can read them, and see what it is doing. Most likely the speech recognition was thinking you said movement commands. Welcome to the limitations of speech recognition. As the manual states for the speech recognition control, it's recommended to use a real microphone.
I suspect you mean the iOS app? If so, the iOS app has a known bug currently and we're waiting for Apple to accept the review. I do not expect it to take much longer - Apple usually takes 6-7 days to review. Although today the review was rejected because sometimes they put a very inexperienced individual on the job and they hold up the process.
Yeah, that will happen as it wasn't designed for a rug. The Roli is "okay" for rugs. But these are not industrial sized robots and are recommended for surfaces which have no obstruction to learn and understand robot behaviors. Rugs, even to Roli, are a little challenging for the tracks. Robots generally don't like rugs
I'm jealous that you have a Heathkit Hero
Great to hear
. The learn section is your friend! Share your future projects with us - everyone would love to see them.
Wow, what a quick response ! That is awesome. Yes I have both a Hero 1 and Hero 2000 with all the accessories ! Working with the EZ Robots definitely shows how far technology has come ! I have a couple of clarifications:
I am using an android phone and all movement commands work. Just when you select stop it instead turns left continuously. Would this just be a scripting error in this case?
Concerning the video resolution selections, I noticed in the tutorials for the camera it shows in ARC that there is a drop down menu where you can select 320x240 and other sizes. I don't see the drop down selections except for 320x240. That is why I thought it might have to do with my laptop. They may not work with my computer very well but I thought I would see more selections?
Is there anything else that can cause random servo movements other than speech recognition and power source issues? Actually I was impressed with the speech recognition and speech synthesis capabilities. I imagine a poor wifi connection can cause the problem but I have a good strong wifi connection?
4 Do you ever sleep ?
Interesting - is this the latest app update? Use the Google Play app to see if there is an update for ARC Mobile. I will take a look tomorrow and see if that bug still exists in the Android app if i hear back from you that you are running the latest version.
You are not able to select the resolution while the camera is enabled. Press the STOP button before changing the resolution. Microsoft Windows is the operating system that your computer is running. The operating system provides graphical "widgets" that are universal across all programs. Such as drop downs, text boxes, buttons, etc.. The objects will sometimes be disabled due which prevent users from changing values. When an object is disabled, it will appear dark. The drop down for the resolution is dark when the camera is enabled because the dropdown is disabled.
Poor Wifi or power issues should not cause random servo movements. The only thing i can think of is if a Camera Tracking Type has been selected during accidental random clicks of options in the camera control. Read the Camera manual to understand tracking types. Ensure all tracking types are disabled (unchecked).
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If the servo plug connected to the EZ-B is a little loose, that will make the servos move a little. Ensure the servo plug is securely connected to the EZ-B.
Thanks Much !
Excellent - i'll wait for your answer regarding point #1
DJ,
One last question. The camera view looks a bit blurry and I checked the focus procedure. I don't see any cement or loctite around the ring. It also protrudes out of the camera a bit and the way it is made it looks like it can be adjusted. Do the newer cameras have the focus adjustment and is the cement that locks the lens on non adjustable cameras easy to spot or obvious?
I will be taking the EZ Robot to the next robotics meeting to show off !
I will check on the android ARC mobile update and get back with you. Everything works in the app except the stop button.
There was an update for the android ARC app so I updated and the latest version is V2016.03.12.00.
The lens on your camera is not focusable. The image appears blurry because it's 320x240. The EZ-Robot camera is not designed for HD quality video or recording family events, etc.. It is designed for computer vision. See the previous response regarding vision resolution
Always ensure you are running the latest versions if you find something unusual