Its a good kit i have the same kit i bought awhile back ,i will did it out and retest it and see how it works for this project,i know it will not work in the dark.

Hope in a few days i will have my laser project up,that seems to be the lowest cost design,mostly because it works in low light.

Some low at low cost,i know that can be a problem with some us because of a tight budget.

But using a lower cost design has uits problems too,not working great.

So you need to balance both of them.

@Bravia

Hello,

Is the IR Sensor kit easy to use? Do you have any example scripts on making you robot follow you? I am very interested in this. I have been looking for a way to do this for a long time. This seems like the perfect solution.

Rich,

I am going to order a set of the IR Beacons soon to use for testing. I am really excited about this. It looks like it has great potential of solving some of our items for this project.

Thanks to all who are helping with this.

A sharply focused mind is a powerful tool. Skill is merely focus, when focus is achieved you need to only release it. When you gather several focused minds together on a project great things will happen.

From what i remember about this item is has 4 digital outputs like a compass ,n,w,s and e

So should be to hard to make a script for it,its been while since i worked on it and dont remember what i saw bad about it.

I know one is lighting.

@ Rgordon My script is a few years old and needs some updating will re write and submitt Connection to Ez-b is through the adc ports Ir beacon has output pins so one can use two servo cables,its that simple All thats required then is to read the four inputs, only one is high at any given time.

As my robot is large I de soldered the ir sensors from the card and extended the connection so I could place the ir sensor in a more suitable position.

Getting back to you initial request Not sure if it would guide Robot back to charger on its own,it certainly could be a line of sight guide in conjunction with obstacle avoidance ( ultrasonic sensor) ets.

Looking forward to where this is all going ,with everyone chipping in with their ideas , it could be of great benefit to all robot builders. Keep it going

@Bravia

Thank You! I am looking forward to your contributions.

All ideas are welcome here.

Lets help lead our robots into the future!

I'll look in to purchasing the Pololu IR beacon, from the quick look I just had these have to work in pairs right? So would also need 2 EZBs?

It'll be easier to write the script(s) etc. if I have the sensors required but don't want to get 2 of them and an extra EZB if I don't need to.

I still think some kind of compass and wheel encoder setup would also be a great solution but my knowledge in those areas is very limited, I plan to read up on it all after the weekend though.

Hi Rich,

They are sold single for $27.95 or as a pair for $49.95 Here is an excerpt from the User Manual.

"There are two sets of electrical connections to the IR beacon. Three pins on the "west" side are for power and an optional enable input. Apply 6-16 V across the + and - pins; making the enable pin high (5 V) will enable the beacon (both transmission and reception). The four directional outputs are located on the "south" side of the PCB. Each pin is normally high (5 V), and it will go low (0 V) if the other beacon is detected in the corresponding direction."

When watching the video I posted, it looked like they were just providing power to the home base Beacon (I think).

I would also like to experiment with a compass module. Then the EZ-B could be directed to go in a certain direction.

Just had another idea to throw in to the pot for having the robot find out where it is... (I have some of my best ideas when I am sleep deprived, but also some of my worst, I don't know which this is yet...)

Items required; Distance sensor.

Script would measure the distance in front of the robot Rotate 180 degrees Measure the distance again The robot would know the width of the open space it is in Robot rotates 90 degrees Measure distance Robot rotates a further 180 degrees Measure distance The robot knows the length of the open space it is in

With some clever maths and a list of room/area dimensions the robot will know which room it is in and be able to pin point it's exact location.

Would be easier to use if the room was clear, which obviously isn't going to be often but even with furniture and objects this may work (but would need a much bigger list of areas). I guess each area would also need to be a different size. And the distance sensors would need to be accurate.

Tie it in with a compass and it would make it a bit easier.

Edit: It would need a compass otherwise it would have a choice of two points it could be in unless in the dead centre of an area.