Troy
USA
Asked
— Edited
Will the store be carrying the wifi boards to use as an upgrade to our V3 EZ-Bs?
Will the store be carrying the wifi boards to use as an upgrade to our V3 EZ-Bs?
I am very sure that no... you can use the 2 boards... v3 and v4 together.. but you can not upgrade in the way that you want... Maybe you can buy a wifi module and replace the Bluetooth module in v3?
@ troy I have a brand spanking new one if you need it.
I will email you.
no, the ez-b v4 is an entirely new board with a new protocol and more. It operates with an embedded wifi module. The wifi module on the ez-b v4 can be replaced with shields. There will be a USB shield, but not a Bluetooth. Bluetooth is too slow for the communication of the ez-b v4. The v4 includes Video and Audio. Plus, the v4 has double the servo resolution - which you will find absolutely amazing!
ARC will recognize your connection to an EZ-B v4, which will display a higher servo number. Those who have the v3 will continue to have 100 points vs 180 of the v4. The v4 references the points in degrees. 0 is the furthest left, 90 is the center, and 180 is the furthest. The timing of the servo is set for our servos we will are providing going forward, which have metal gears entirely and are powered with 7.4volts max.
The new processor is an STM32F2, which runs at an impressive 120mhz and is 32 Bit. The v4 comes in a plastic shell with an embedded speaker and amplifier. You can remove the PCB and connect your own speaker.
When you power up the v4, it plays a little startup tune It also has audible sounds for connections and disconnections, as well as errors. From ARC, you can transmit audio (speech/wav/mp3) to the v4 to be played.
There are some other goodies, such as the video stream. The new EZ-Robot Camera connects directly to the EZ-B v4. This way, you don't need a USB Dongle for the video. The camera is also powered off the v4, so you do not need additional power connections.
The new communication protocol streams audio, video and commands. The new command protocol also uses event triggers, rather than poling. This means you have instant response to pin changes, rather than poling for the change.
Another new feature is the high speed UART - which works in two directions. Every pin still has Serial TTL Level Output, but the UART port has two way communication. It buffers data as it is read from your device and sends it to ARC.
Coming in the new year will be a shield for Arduino users. The ARduino shield will allow you to program the I/O and communicate with the ez-b I/O. We will be releasing a library in early 2014 with easy commands to control the EZ-B. I'm also looking into embedding an ARduino development editor within ARC, so you won't have to leave our familiar interface
It's pretty magical! I've been putting my heart into this thing...
This sounds more than awesome!
The new EZ-B v4 is going to be the cutting edge. Thanks DJ and team.
:) j
Wow this is a major upgrade to the V3! More of a Version 10 than V4. Thank you for taking the interest and time to give the community so much more to work with.
@ DJ Sures:
Any other Potential UART uses such as ?
Allowing a GPS on board robot linked via UART.
Allowing one EZ-B v4 to be linked to a second EZ-B v4 via UART so only one wifi connection is needed
Allowing an EZ-B V3 to be connected via UART so EZ-B v3s can can take advantage of wifi.
Love the ideas on adding Arduino support to the EZ-B.
Wow, this is going to be great!
-- Moving question to its own topic
Will the UART interface work with dynamixel servos? Thanks Chris
I think we are getting into "new topic" area. That will make it easier for people searching the forum for specific topics.