Asked
— Edited
Resolved by JustinRatliff!
We are looking to find out if the EZ-Robot platform can be used to read and act on data streams from a laboratory grade light meter and a LIDAR. Basically, we expect a string of data from the light meter that would have to be parsed and acted upon.
I envision that we would need to write a routine in C or Visual basic that would poll the meter and receive the string, parse and communicate that information. I have not done this before in EZ builder. Can I run ARC with specific "canned" modules running while also running a C or VB routine that would do a function that is too advanced for scripting?
Does anyone have some examples of code we could review where an external program is called and run from EZ-B?
Hi mstephens_42
My plan was to also to link the teensy to EZB4. I have not made any progress on this yet but I realise that the arduino code will need to be modified to simplify the output and send it to the EZB4 presumably by UART and a new power supply will need to provided to the teensy. I don't think any of this is hard (except for finding the time to do it!). Of course the hard thing will be to do something useful with the data when it comes into EZB4. Potentially we could do something like the radar map associated with the ultrasonic device?
I bought the lidar, motor, teensy and enclosure for the lidar from getsurreal.com. I was very impressed with the build which was very professional. I got it working quite quickly.
My other project is to use an arduino board to collect a whole bunch of sensor information which will then have to use i2c to send summary results back to the EZB4 given that the UART will be connected to the teensy ... so much to do and so little time given work and kids!
Cheers
Chris
EZ-B has 3 UARTS. The dedicated one (uart0 in software) and 4 of the digital ports:
D5 (TX) and D6 (RX) can be used as UART1 with 5kB Receive buffer
D18 (TX) and D19 (RX) can be used as UART2 with 5kB Receive buffer
Alan
Thanks Alan for that information ... that should make life easier for me ...
Alan, that's interesting about the UARTs, I didn't know that. I thought any digital ports could be setup as a UART/Serial, is that not the case? It used to be at least, right?
I have an intern working on this and he is already reprogrammed the teensy controller such that the format is easier to read. It is sending back a three data points per read ..angle, distance and quality. We can actually post the Arduino code modifications and the ARC project.
Justin It seems that all digital ports can be used to transmit serial data but not receive data. here's a blurb from the EZB(4) pdf data sheet:
(C) May 18 2014 EZ
Robot Inc. All rights reserved. The information in this document is believed to be accurate at the time of publication, however specifications are subject to change without prior notice. \Rev 0.5
Digital I/O Ports
24 Multi-Use Digital I/O ports: D0-D23
Software configurable for servos, transmit serial , output 3.3 /GND , PWM, and more.
Input Max 5 VDC TTL Logic . Output Max 3.3 VDC TTL Logic
Special functions:
D5 can control Dynamixel servos
D5 (TX) and D6 (RX) can be used as UART1 with 5kB Receive buffer
D18 (TX) and D19 (RX) can be used as UART2 with 5kB Receive buffer
Any digital can be set up to send serial. There are 3 that are setup to receive serial.
Had it backwards... right now.
Hi
Posting would be so useful for me and potentially others in the community who are following in your footsteps.
I like the idea of an intern working on the code - I wish I had the luxury of that!
Can you say more of your plans for how you will use the data when it comes into the EZB4?
Cheers
Chris