More of a hardware solution and just spit-balling, I haven't thought it all the way through, but could you put TIP120 or other transistors on the signal line(s) to your motor controller to disable it getting any movement commands until you turn the digital port(s) on to open that connection? You are using a Roboclaw right? So it is just one signal line, so just one additional digital port to control the transistor.

Alternately, if you aren't already, you could use the custom Movement Panel which executes a script for each movement command. The first thing the script would do is check for a variable to see if movement is allowed and take the appropriate action accordingly.

Alan

Hey Alan,

Yes Roboclaw, and yes what you wrote is a possible work around. I was hoping to do it without "custom circuitry" although I do like the idea. I may need to design a pcb like Dave to add a couple tip circuits to my machine. Thanks for the idea.

                    Chris

BTW I am using a custom movement panel. Thanks Chris

With custom Movement Panel it is suoer easy, since your movement is scripted anyway.

Just check for a movement allowed variable to be set to true before each movement.

Let me know if you need an example and I'll write it up.

Alan

For speech recognition I currently use a variable system to prevent accidental movement. it could be scripted easily into the custom movement panel. Simply have an if statement check that the variable is reading yes for the movement, and then go to the move sequence already scripted. All you have to do is add to your existing.

Alan if you give an example that would be perfect. Thank you very much

In your Init script add this line:

$movement = "false"

Then, in each direction of your movement panel, add the if statement form the code below, and put your actual movement command between the else and the endif. The print commands can be deleted, they were just there for testing.

if($movement = "false")
print("movement prohibited")
SayEzb("my track motors are disabled")
Else 
print("moving")
#put your movement command here between the Else and the EndIf
endif

Finally, add a speech command to change the variable. Example below changes it to true, but actually any value other than false will work.

$movement = "true"

I would not put the IF statement in the stop command of your movement panel, just in the 4 direction functions.

You could also have a voice command or other script other than init to set the value back to false and disable movement.

Alan

Alan not to be a PITA but what does the print command do? I've read the script help using the blue question mark but im not sure what I would use it for? Thanks Chris

It is supposed to show what is in the print command in the debug window, but it doesn't. If you run the script in a script object it does show there, so I used them to make sure I had the syntax correct. You can just delete those lines.

Alan

Thanks very much! It worked out nicely. I really need to find some time to play more with this software. Thanks again

                               Chris