USA
Asked — Edited

Robot Eyes

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Was doing a little web surfing a couple of weeks ago and ran into some pretty cool robot eyes. I ordered two 8x8 LED's and with my Arduino, programmed the chip to run them.

Once the eyes are programmed the way you want, then all that needs to be done is pop the chip from the Arduino and make a small stand alone board. Nothing hard at all in this setup. I bought the LED's in a kit and soldered them up but if you prefer you can buy them pre-built. The Arduino stand alone board is just a couple of small components and that's it.

I'd say $15, $20 at the most to build.

Note: *** The above video was found on the net. ***


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Netherlands
#1  

Cool! I've been thinking about using an Arduino board to drive my Omnibot's LED's. The Arduino could then be controlled by an EZ-B over serial/I2C:D

United Kingdom
#2  

Exactly what I've been thinking about trying out with the I2C/Serial control of an Arduino to control LEDs and servos etc. Although I'm not too clued up on Arduino yet but I guess it could work the same way a BlinkM works with it's different colours and patterns. I've just never gotten around to looking at how feasible it would be and my only Arduino (Arduino Nano I think it is) has no I2C... that I know of.

Looking forward to seeing where this topic heads:)

#4  

So does arduino work with EZ robot software? or do you have to write and arduino sketch?

United Kingdom
#5  

No it doesn't. You would have to have the arduino and EZ-B communicate with each other over I2C or serial. The EZ-B could, in theory, send commands to the Arduino to trigger events and pre-programmed sequences.

PRO
USA
#6  

Well I know nothing about l2C. My plan is to turn the Arduino (stand alone board) off/on from the EZB with a TIP122 circuit when starting/stopping the robot.

United Kingdom
#7  

I assume, however it is only an assumption so may be wrong (please correct/confirm if you know better) but it shouldn't be too difficult to control an Arduino via I2C.

My understanding is that the EZ-B would send an I2C command to the Arduino using a script command of I2CWrite(0, 0x00, "blink") where 0x00 is the address and "blink" is the command. Then on the Arduino side, have a sketch which listens on the I2C port for commands, if "blink" is received it runs the blink code, if something else i.e. "eyes left" then it runs the eyes left code and so on.

I presume serial would also be as simple, listen on the serial port for commands and act upon receiving them.

The advantage of this over the EZ-B controlling LEDs is that you can charlieplex an Arduino but you can't (or couldn't at least with the V3) charlieplex an EZ-B. Thereby saving a lot of ports, especially on 2 8x8 LED matrix (128 ports would be needed to do it via individual ports).

Personally my plan wasn't to use Arduino with LEDs but to use Arduino to run it's own stand alone code for stabilising a bi-ped. Sensors connected to an Arduino at the top of each leg which detect and compensate for any instability while also being connected to the EZ-B so movement commands can also be sent to the leg servos and no conflicting between the stabilisation and movement. I've not worked it all out, I've not even looked at all possible problems or if it is even a feasible option but that's the idea.

Anyway, not wanting to take over the post entirely with my ideas and plans. The original video posted is pretty awesome. I just love how LED eyes look when they blink (Loki gets me the same way too).

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