Spock wont be worked on in a while. I will be focusing on getting a few products to market by November of 2016.
I had a meeting with my investing partner last friday. He is willing to back the projects and has offered a very considerable amount of money to do so. His father owns a very large company in india who already has contracts with Chinese manufacturing houses and India based support firms. We will leverage this to help us get the ball rolling when we start production and after the products get to market. I should have funding for a prototype by the end of the week.
An artist friend, who I met because of EZ-AI is working on the concept artwork. I thank him deeply for his willingness to do the artwork as I can't draw for anything. Once complete I will pass this on to the mechanical engineer (a friend of my wifes). I will use his equipment that he has available to him (6 axis CNC, Really advanced CAD tools, fluid flow calculation software for Injection mold modeling, resistance calculating software based on the model and weight, Electrical engineering software for calculating current flow and resistance of electronics and extremely high end skills at product design and documentation necessary for taking a product to market). He works for a major company who makes a lot of industrial equipment so his expertise will be very valuable. He will make the 3D models and CAD drawings of every component from the artwork provided and from the list of items that I have chosen for this product. He also has the pull of the large company he works for to get CAD drawings and detailed schematics for everything that I will be using. This will help a huge deal.
The goal is to get the prototypes complete by December of this year, and get the parts being manufactured and ready for assembly by July. From there, we will hire in people to build the final products. The nice thing is that I don't have to rely on a kickstarter to get things going. Pieces are falling into place and it is very exciting.
My son will be finished with College in December of this year. He will be helping me to write the software for the robot through the next November to fine tune the software for release. There are quite a few things that are going to be added, which will eventually find their way into EZ-AI.
I have some questions out to other people/companies about using their products with my products. This will help to determine which way I take some things. Voice recognition will be a very important part of this project. I will be using a tablet or really light weight computers. Because of this, voice processing would be nice if it were done off the computer and this is where Watson or DNS Cloud will be a huge help. It is really amazing all of the tools that are available to make insane products now. It will only get better from here.
I will be making a trip to EZ-Robot in August or September. I will present the products concepts to them for a couple of reasons. DJ, I wont be asking for money so no worries there
. I want to build a business relationship with them because the products will be using the EZ-B V4 controllers and some other components. It is a good idea to share this with EZ-Robot because their products are driving mine, and for them to understand what I am doing is very important to me. I am not saying that this product would drive them in any direction, only that it is good for them to understand what someone is doing besides what can be stated on a public forum. Richard, I will let you know when I will be at EZ-Robot. I would love to meet you and anyone else on this community in the real world.
With all of that, poor Spock is going to take a break from development. Who knows, by the time I get back to him, they may have legs out for him.
I will be getting that Ultimaker 2 that I have been talking about shortly and will be able to tell if it lives up to the hype or not. I will be working on this project a lot in my spare time, so I wont be hanging out in the community as much. I will be dropping in from time to time to see what's going on with everyone else's projects. I always enjoy reading about other people's ideas.
Hi Toymaker
here is a datasheet for UART Board:
http://components.omron.eu/getattachment/96a1ca40-d68e-4a2b-9aca-80470a68edb2/HVC-datasheet.pdf.aspx
And here some Info what i get from Mousser:
L1: Sup said : If the customer requires the HVC to connect to a PC, they will need our evaluation kit, B5T-E-001-S(G). This comes with the HVC module, USB converter board, a USB cable, and the demo software. The B5T-001001(G) only comes with the module and the reccomended cable part numbers are provided in the data sheet. Also, if requested, the demo software is available from us separately. For the demo software, we require customer information (company, application, location, etc...) OKAO and HVC resource page: https://components.omron.com/components/web/webfiles.nsf$FILES/AOT_OKAO_H C.html
LINE 1+2: B5T-E-001-S(G) IS EVALUATION BOARD, WHICH INCLUDE HVC MODULE, USB CONVERTER BOARD, USB CABLE AND DEMO SOFTWARE. B5T-001001(G) IS JUST A MODULE, WHICH INCLUDE ONLY HVC MODULE (NO CONVERTER BOARD OR SOFTWARE).
Boris
Maybe i f i also get a board we can work together?
Because i am bulding a InMoov Robot and this features will be fantastic!
Boris, I found that datasheet, but it does not give enough information on how the comms work for this module, the full data sheet for this product would be much bigger. I was not planning on using USB converter (evaluation board) as its expensive and also not in stock. If I can find out how it fully works then I would be able to do a PIC that does the interfacing so the USB converter would not be needed.
It may be that Omron are not letting the full data sheets out, if this is the case then it will be impossible to code for.
Tony
Hey Tony, I have purchased your B5T HVC. I will contact you by email.
What exaxly you must know,
i am speaking in this moment with the service.
Boris
Thanks David, can you see if they have the evaluation board in stock? I do not mind also paying the 800 bucks for this as this would allow for a very quick evaluation of the module that I could report back on.
Boris, I need the full data sheets that let me know what the make-up of the comms packets (and interactions with the host) that this module requires.
Tony
I have contacted Omron to get a programmer's reference for the B5T HVC.
The issue is that we know what the pinout is, and we know what the format of the serial communications is. What do you send to it to get it to do one of its functions. The functions are listed, but what is the string of characters that you would pass to it to run one of these functions?
Hopefully Omron will be able to provide the information.
Here is what we know Outline: Receives the command controlling the module from the host and sends back the detection result info. Transmission System: Full-Duplex bidirectional system Transmission protocol: Non-procedure Synchronization system : Asynchronous method Data format: Start: 1 bit: Data: 8 bit Stop: 1 bit, no parity Transmission code: NRZ. Logic Low: 0V Logic High: 3.3V Transmission speed : 9600 bps to 921,600 bps - set by dip switches 2-4
The connection would be CN1 which is a SM05B-SRSS-TB connection from JST. Pin 1: Vcc Pin 2: UART RX Pin 3: UART TX Pin 4: GND Pin 5: Reset - reset is active on 0V ( logic 0)
We know what functions are available, but how would you go about sending the function to the controller (what would your string look like)?
You can figure out the string that comes back but it would be nice if they provided what that was to look like.
How do you tell it to train a face?
Tony, they have 8 on order. I will monitor their site to see when they come in.
I have a feeling that this board is selling as quickly as it is being manufactured.
@toymaker
i asked also for this, we will see.
What is your opion?
Better is to take the expensive 600 Board with USB connection to the PC?