RoboHappy
So I finally ordered my very own V4 development kit, and was happy to receive it the other day. Nice packing, and have already powered it up and connected to the computer with ease, amazingly.
The only thing I'd have to say I was little disappointed with, is that the camera and the ultrasonic sensor do not arrive in their own plastic enclosures, yet if you buy these two items separately, they do come installed in their proper enclosures.
On a different note, I understand one can send voice/and or sounds thru the speaker on the EZB instead of my pc? I'm sure I've seen this mentioned before but can't find it on here.
I also see why its recommended to use a lipo battery instead of the typical AA batteries. It seems just after having the sonar sensor, the camera, and just one servo connected, that the AA batts I used (new ones too) were being drained rather quickly, as I was getting the "low battery" alarm voice after a short time of use.
Really pleased you got your kit and are enjoying it so far. :)
In regards to the sound coming through the EZ-B speaker, on the ARC menu ribbon, when you click on audio you will see two soundboard options. One is for playing sounds, music ect through the PC, and the other (soundboard EZ-B) plays sounds through the EZ-B speaker. Another thing you can try is opening up a scrip control. When you type in the following...
it will play through the PC's speakers. But changing the code slightly to read...
the phrase will be spoken through the EZ-B speaker.
In regards to batteries, the AA ones don't really supply enough amps to power things like servos and the camera ect (as you have noticed), where as the LiPO's or Nimh batterers packs supply much more of a punch in regards to power and are by far the much better option.
Anyway have fun and happy building. :)
Steve.
@RoboHappy So glad to hear you are please! And I am happy to hear you liked the packaging. ;)
The Developer Kit is generally for those that aren't using the Clip'n'Play Revolution platform, or are doing a different custom project. The plastic enclosures were meant for users to be able to clip the pieces onto their Revolution robots (like JD, ROLI, and SIX).
Regardless, thanks for your feedback!
Enjoy. :)
@Robohappy,
Although I knew going in that the developers kit didn't have the enclosures for the camera and ping, I agree it would be nice to be able to order them as add-on's.
Alan
Oh, yeah... Batteries. For my little box bot, I use 6 eneloop rechargeable NiMH AA's and they do get about half the run time of Roli on a LiPO with far less servos and other devices connected (just 2 continuous rotation servos and a ping). It is enough to quickly test things, but for any real use I recommend getting a LiPo either from EZ-B or your local hobby shop. I plan on ordering a couple shortly.
When I had a V3 board, I used 5 non rechargeable Lithium AA batteries and they actually lasted several hours in the same boxbot, but much more expensive over time and wasteful compared to rechargeables.
Alan
Hi Guys, thanks for the feedback. Very much appreciated. will be looking forward to experiment some more. I started some of the lesson plans, too, so that's been fun.
Well, off to do some more stuff, catch ya later!
I finally got my kit after two weeks of ordering it. Can't wait to start development