Asked
— Edited
I am making a plugin to use the XV-11 LIDAR with the GetSurreal 1.2 controller in ARC, but I am having an issue on step 6.5 of the plugin tutorial. I tried creating the stub plugin and going to my plugins, but I get a 404 error.
Just letting you know. Let me know if there is anything I can do to get the XML file that is required.
Thanks David
i wouldn't worry about loading the array as being cpu intensive. That function is very very very fast and executes in a millisecond..
How come there are so many Thread.Sleep() calls? That is causing the performance troubles.
I ordered a Lidar - next week when i'm back in calgary i'll take a look. Without knowing what data it returns, i'm unable to identify the logic to display/process the data.
Understand on not knowing the data that is coming back in. The sleeps were put in during debugging issues. I need to go back and remove them. Thanks for looking and catching that.
No prob - i'll have much more input when there's a unit to test with
Looking forward to it for sure.
I see the following areas things that need to be addressed or at least looked at.
The parsing of the LIDAR data isn't the best. There is probably a more eloquent way to do this.
The graphic could be done differently I am sure. I just have no idea of what to do on it.
It would probably be best to build an array from the data that is being returned from the LIDAR and pass that between the map generation piece and the piece that updates the $LIDAR variable array.
I do have to say that I ran the plugin outside of the debugger just now and it is pretty quick. It doesn't seem to be interfering with the other controls that I have in this project. This is a good thing. When running through the 2015 debugger, I didn't like the speed that things were happening. I am much happier now:)
Hi there
Instead of connecting the lidar to a pc how feasible might it be to use an arduino as an interface to the EZ-B .... such a plan might help those who want the lidar to be mounted on a computer.
Sorry if this is a dumb question but I am not even able to test this plugin with my lider as I am in Canada and my lidar is in Australia .... but I think that this would really make the plugin (and the surreal lidar) hugely useful.
A big thanks for all the work gone into this and I can't wait to get back to try out all the work that has been done so far.
Cheers
Chris
@ZebraStripes
Same problem .... not enough processing power. I believe the Sureal control is arduino based...There is lots of data coming out of the xv-11. Maybe the ezb4 1/2 might be able to handle it through I2c, however the arduino hasn't go a chance... ... You really need a PC to effectively use the lidar XV-11...Hey Zebra, I think the current version of the V4 will have its communication path flooded with the amount of data that is coming back. As Richard said, the V4 1/2 may be able to handle it.
DJ is getting one of these to mess with. He may have some way to make this happen. I would think that if you setup the LIDAR to refresh no more than every few seconds, maybe it would be okay with the current version.
The GetSurreal controller is a Teensy (arduino based) controller. You might be able to intercept the output from the Teensy to the comport and patch it into the EZ-B, but I haven't tried.
I always use onboard computers because I have multiple cameras and other devices that I want to have very fast communication paths without affecting other things that are using the communication path for the V4. It is just the way that I do things, and the code has been published if anyone wants to modify it.
The neopixel control I just put out also is designed to be connected to directly from a PC and not through the V4. This is going to be a part of my Rafiki project in ARC and I want to keep this communication path as open so that the user can modify the robot however they see fit with as little interference from me as possible. Because of this, I have even moved my neopixel (very small bandwidth usage) to the usb ports on the onboard computer.
This code is also shared, so if someone wants to modify it to be used with the EZ-B, they can. Right now, it is more designed for someone to manually set the Neopixel to specific modes. I haven't created the Script interface for it yet. It is going to be a pain to do because of the numerous options that have to be set. The GUI has been made to allow someone to manually run a NeoPixel through a COM port. These two were released with the code because I either used something that someone posted on this forum or there was nothing like it available yet. My hope is that someone will take the LIDAR code and go crazy with it. I really don't have the time to do this right now. It works but could be improved upon.