ALSO take RICH says with A PINCH OF SALT,HE HAD no right to say that or make a comment like that.

THIS post is about posting ideas of finding home base charger,not about putting bad remarks to others.

this is not a fighting forum,only here to share other ideas only,so posted great ideas,and some not tested yet.

ONLY thing i said that the chirping noise may be a problem,design looks like it may work ,but so far NOBODY as tested them yet

Major problem for most will be the programming as another person mention on the sound design

NOW maybe can use the EZB ($60) added to the cost and may be it will work

Every design has good points as it has bad points.

on the IR beacon looks to be a good idea so far,i just ordered 2 of them to try my test

ALSO RICH if you add a remark to it and i guess i will this will keep on going and never stop So please stop verbal fighting with me and just post your ideas and i will post mine and not make bad verbal comments like the last one

MMmmm

Ok heres what i was thinking .

Base charger is just listening for a chirp. ( so is silent ).

Robot going about its duties . ( also silent ).

Robot needs to charge so lets out a few chirps. then listens.

Charger ears chirps and starts to chirp at a set rate. ( 1 chirp every 5 seconds) .

Robot homes on charger , and when docked switches off the chargers chirps.

The base charger only chirps for a few minuets if it does not stop you will no that the robot has got stuck. and needs help , if you dont go to help the chirps will drive you quite mad so its a kind of cool " GET UP AND HELP ME HUMAN " sort of thing. :-).

Steve_c

That way would most certainly require an additional controller on the base, EZB or other controller. But a good take on the sound idea.

Yes a controller will be needed on the charger . I will use my old LEGO NTX controller for that job.

Steve_c

From info on it you need to build 3 circuits maybe more,2 ears left and right and 3rd transponder as he calls it,and then a transducer at 4500 hz

also unknown is A-D value he is using to the microcontroller he is using and adapted to EZB,SO So that needs to be work out

I see iam not the only one that doesnt use spell check ,LOL

Someone with more electronic skills than I- maybe an expert on sensors if only we had one will need to determine if this is possible, but could't the ultrasonic distance sensors that come with our ez-b be hacked to separate the transmitter and receiver and use the pair to measure the distance between them? Get a second set, and you should be able to triangulate for direction. This is another solution that probably requires two ez-b's or another microcontroller to get both signals to the same computer for processing.

Alan

As an aside: despite distractions and occasional jibberish, this is the best thread ever. I am really enjoying how we are all brain storming solutions together.

Off the top of my head, and I may be wrong, but 2 EZBs, have the ping sensor on one and echo on the other. You can link the 2 EZBs in one ARC. Set Ping to say board 0 and D0, echo to board 1 and D0. The closer the robot gets to the dock the distance reported by the ultra sonic detector would become... Although the sensor probably couldn't be taken apart too easily but a second one added and just use half on each EZB... or use separate sensors (I built an ultra sonic sensor circuit at college which used separate sensors but that was over 15 years ago so I have no idea how that worked)... It's an idea at least.

And you are right, this is a great thread although I slipped today but am getting better But that's what it's all about, everyone brainstorming ideas to find solutions.

@ Robotmaker

I wont be using any of his circuits or code, Only the idea of the sound direction finding and homing . And i will use line following for the final last few feet onto the charger.

Steve_c

PS . Great thread rgordon , rich ,Its got my robot making senses a tingling