In regards to the ultrasonic distance (ping) sensor, here's a quick and dirty setup tutorial I put together for you, using the radar control.

1.) Connect the sensor up to the EZ-B as follows...

5v regulator output red wire to "Power" on ping sensor, 5v regulator output black wire to "Ground" on ping sensor,

GROUND = Black wire from regulator input to a digital port black pin, for example, port D0. POWER = Red wire from regulator input to red pin D0. TRIGGER = white wire to D0 White pin. ECHO = green wire to D1 White pin.

2.) In the ARC software on your computer, click...

Project, Add controls, Ultrasonic, Radar.

3.) Click the little gear icon on the new radar control to open up the configuration menu.

4.) Using the D0 and D1 port example above, set the "Trigger port" to D0 (or whatever you have the ping sensors white wire connected to).

5.) Then do the same for the "Echo port", setting this to D1 (or whatever you have the ping sensors green wire connected to).

6.) I don't know if you have the long sensor connected to a servo, but for now I'll assume it is not and is fixed in place. In this case, leave the "Servo port" set to "NA". servo min and max positions can be left alone for now as they are not needed.

7.) Tick the check box for "Scan when moving forward", to make the ping sensor only scan for objects when the "Forwards" button is pressed to move the robot. Then tick the "Control movement panel" box as well. You can choose the "reverse before turning" option too if you wish.

8.) Choose the distance you want the robot to turn away from a detected object by selection the "Minimum distance before turn" from the dropdown menu.

9.) Once the chances are made, click "Save".

10.) From what you have said, you are able to drive the robot around, so you must have a Movement Panel set up on your ARC project already. So on the mobile interface, make sure you have the "Forward" "Right" "Reverse" and "Left" buttons added to the interface like the ones seen below...

11.) These are already preconfigured to the Movement Panel so you don't need to do anything else here. Once these mobile buttons are added, click "Save".

Now because you ticked the box saying "Scan when moving forwards" in the ping sensor control, this automatically connects to the movement panel, so when you move the robot and it sees an object at the minimum distance you chose, it should now steer away from it.

I hope that helps, and don't be afraid to play about with some of the radar settings like changing the time delays ect, but if you get stuck on anything, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks a lot for the help. I need to figure out making my own app and actually be able to use it. I had most of it set up but when I finished having all of the contols on it I haf no clue what to do next. Need to watch the video I guess since I was just reading the tutorial thing.

My son has been happy just driving around using the premade app from DJ Sures but we need to get all his fancy stuff working so that means this mom has to get it all figured out

Will get it eventually. Thanks again for the tips will try again once the toddler is asleep!

Distance Sensor is working (at least the screen shows it working) and scanning, animator is now working, My son loves having it talk back to him and tell him about his "fancy animation", speech recognition works to get the animator going but we can't get it to work to actually have adventure bot move. It will show that it recognizes what we are saying but there is no movement. I am not sure what is going on exactly because if it works to get the animation going I would think it should work for everything else.

I have tried making my own "app" for controlling him but that also doesn't seem to be working. It shows it is connected but the camera isn't showing anything and the controls don't do anything.

As you guys can see he is very thankful for his EZ Robots, Wall-E (which he hopefully will one day turn into his very own Wall-E bot), EZ Revolution, and lastly his family and friends. I am just thankful for the tips you all have helped me with this far. I am hoping maybe someone could give me some new ideas so I can use my time off for Thanksgiving to help get this robot moving a little more.

Thanks again for all your help so far. Slowly but surly we are getting someplace.

:)

Even though it is EZ robot never underestimate how difficult it is to learn cutting edge technologies. EZ robot is cutting edge tech. It is a constant experimentation and study. But the results of the can be quite fascinating...

There's a peak to the curve once you cross it things go more smoothly... Takes time tho. What you are working with you child is important. It was like that in the eighties for me. I didn't see the money learning the skill at that time no one really did that I knew...but now it's big bucks. I wish I had a mother helped me back then...

With the speech recognition and moving a robot, make sure you have a Movement Panel control of some kind that controls the robots movements (which I think you may have already). It's these movement panels that link to the speech recognition controls using the Forwards(), Reverse(), Lect(), and Right() commands.

In regards to speech recognition, it is possible for ARC to hear what you say and do nothing when your expecting it to. This is down to something called "Speech Recognition Tutorial Confidence" which is found and changed in the speech recognition menu. Basicly, what this does is it makes the robot do something when the confidence level is above a certian number (which you can change), or do nothing if it is below a certian number.

Something you might find useful to look through at the end of this post, is a tutorial I wrote about speech recognition and how to use it's different features successfully. If you do have a read of it and have any questions, give us a shout and either myself or someone else will do our best to answer.

About the camera, just to note that when you are looking at a camera control on a mobile interface on a computer, you won't see the cameras feed and just see a blank screen which is normal. The cameras stream however, will be seen on a mobile device using the same mobile app you've created. To view the cameras stream on a computer, you can always add a camera control to your ARC project which will do all of the fancy stuff such as tracking if you wish. Can I ask, what device are you using the mobile app on, and what controls have you added to it?

It's great to hear you got things like the distance sensor working and other bits, and really nice to hear your little man is enjoying his robot.

EDIT: There has been an update to the mobile interface regarding the camera which you can see here.

Thanks that helped to know about the camera not working on the monitor but working on the mobile app. We went back and watched the making a mobile app the other day and I think I need to go back and make some changes because I didn't set it up correctly. That may help to have it working...lol everything is there just not doing much. It connects and the camera works. Just no movement. But think I know what I did wrong now..maybe!

I think I am slowly figuring this all out but it is just different when it is his passion not mine. Thankfully I teach Kindergarten all day so I am able to be a little bit patient while we learn. We are pacing ourselves but celebrating our successes when they come.

Going to give him some back up robots for Christmas so we can rotate! Maybe let him do them more on his own. He is already singing "we wish you a robot christmas" Yep, he loves his robots and we love him so he will have his robot christmas.

:)

Ok need help again this is more of a servo question. My son's adventure bot has been a hit but about a week ago the one wheel lost ability to move by way of servo. Not sure what exactly happened. What I need to know is what do I have to order for a replacement. We have had it since September so need to keep it working. I have to buy the whole wheel kit or can I just get the rotation servo. I don't want to buy unnessary parts and I want to get it up and going asap since Six will be joining the party! Need to get it up and going soon since he is having the best Robot Christmas.

The continuous rotation servo with wheel would be easiest https://www.ez-robot.com/Shop/AccessoriesDetails.aspx?prevCat=104&productNumber=1303

You can get just the servo from the diy page, and re-use the wheel and plastic parts from the original and save a few dollars.

Have you tried plugging it into a different port and redefining the movement panel? It would be good to verify if the servo is bad or a pad port on the EZ-B before ordering anything.

Alan