Rich, weather is up there...it might end up being one of the first ones I complete. I tend to switch between projects and using the Google weather service looks pretty straight forward. I'm drawn towards the Google api because I don't think there is any license (free or paid).

I'm open to collaboration on the weather app or any others. We could always end up with two weather apps because I think the one you are using is a little fancier then the Google offering.

Well to be honest, I know extremely little about C#... Like nothing lol.

Wunderground API, while it needs an account and is limited to a certain number of calls per day, is free and the number of calls is higher than I've ever needed (and my heating system calls for the external temperature, wind speed and wind direction every minute, so 1440 calls per day... I think)

I will admit I am a bit of a Wunderground fanboy since I've used it for as long as I can remember to be honest. I've not looked in to any others (if it aint broke don't fix it).

I'll be largely basing my code on that I posted last night, which could very likely be altered for any other API. Depending on my progress with C# I may even add in options for a selection of APIs to use (Wunderground, Google, Yahoo, Met office, etc. etc. etc.)

We shall see

@JustinRatliff

If you do the roborealm integration you should be able to use the roborealm AVM navigator plugin.

It does object recognition and path navigation.

http://www.roborealm.com/help/AVM_Navigator.php

Also take a look there are C# examples for parsing the roborealm API XML and using example 52 of the SDK you can get the values of variables into ARC and vice versa.

For example you can use the sendcommand method from example 52 in the EZ-SDK combined with the getvariable method from the roborealm API C# examples

While you would need more code than whats shown below I used these methods from the roborealm examples and EZ-SDK example 52 to pass values to ARC.

SendCommand code snippet:

/// <summary>
        /// Send command string to the ARC connection.
        /// The input buffer will be cleared, then it will send the command, finally it reads the response.
        /// There is always a response from the ARC Script Interface:
        ///  - If you are expecting to receive data, the response will be the received data.
        ///  - If you are not expecting to receive data, the response will be "OK"
        /// </summary>
        private void sendCommand(string cmd)
        {

            try
            {

                Log("Sending: {0}", cmd);

                clearInputBuffer();

                _tcpClient.Client.Send(System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(cmd + Environment.NewLine));

                Log(readResponseLine());
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {

                Log("Command Error: {0}", ex);

                disconnect();
            }
        }

getVariable code snippet:

public String getVariable(String name)
            {
                if (!connected) return null;
                if ((name == null) || (name.Length == 0)) return null;

                if (send("<request><get_variable>" + escape(name) + "</get_variable></request>"))
                {
                    // read in variable length
                    String buffer;
                    if ((buffer = readMessage()) != null)
                    {
                        if (xml.parse(buffer))
                        {
                            return xml.getFirst();
                        }
                    }
                }

                return null;
            }

Both method being use in a forms button:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
            {
                string myParam;
               
                  // The NV_OBJECTS_TOTAL is a variable inside AVM plugin
                   myParam = getVariable("NV_OBJECTS_TOTAL");

                  \\ Sets the $x variable inside ARC to the NV_OBJECTS_TOTAL value.
               sendCommand(string.Format("$x = {0}", myParam));
          
              
            }

Justin, you've got a Great program there.

for better object recognition use a kinect and to give something mapping capabilaties you can use a laptop like this robot Loki but is made buy ardiuno

website

he uses a laptop and kinect for most of his projects here is loki

Loki

Click To Watch Video he told me try out ez robot for a simple way of programming

The easiest and most robust vision processing software I have found is RoboRealm. You can even connect a Kinect for use with, rather than using the API's to make your own program. I'm still working on a bridge application between ARC and RoboRealm.

I have not been programing or working on robots much. I've been dealing with a sick doggy. My American Bulldog is having heart issues. For my fellow dog owners on the forum I'm sure you can relate - a sick doggy makes for bad times.

The bridge app is still on my radar though. :-)

Justin, good luck with your sick doggy. I just lost a Boston terrier to cancer last year so I can sync with your issue.

So sad to hear about your pup. I just lost my cataholua this past Thanksgiving to brain cancer. It was a nightmare. I truly hope you can get your dog through this.