Inmoov - D.cochran Style

Hey Steve, thanks. I will get back to it before too long. I have another project that is going to consume my time. I should have what that project will be outlined tomorrow. I have a meeting with my investor and have to sign some paperwork to get my company finalized. Then there is the copyright and other paperwork that he will handle and the funding to start building the prototype for the other project. From there we need to figure out a lot of things like injection molding parts, suppliers for some parts and other fun stuff. I am sure that there will be some wait time involved in all of this (oh and I have to get my passport renewed). I have got to go visit DJ and discuss some things and all of that fun stuff. Anyway, during the wait time, I will work on the InMoov. There are some things that I have learned from working on him that I will carry over into the other project.

The idea of the base and how I was going to build that has been floating around in my head for a while. I think I have it figured out and just have to start the build of it. My wife started an upholstery business and spent some money so I agreed that I wouldn't spend until they got what they needed for the business. I think this has all been purchased (now just waiting for me to go pick all of it up and put it in their shop for them). My hope is that before too long, there will be funds to build the base. The good news is that they have already recovered the money that they have spent through selling some pieces that my wife had done. People seem to really like their work and they are already backed up with orders for about the next 5 months or so. I also have to write an application for their business (yet to be defined though). I think it will basically be to track jobs and job information from quotes. I am sure that they will have me turn it into a billing system and other things, but they haven't given me what they want it to do yet. They have asked me how long it would take to build. Because I never finished my Psychic Reader Advisor program from 20 years ago, I have no way of knowing. The funny thing is that the same thing always happens and is now happening from my wife. I am convinced that the question of "How long will it take you to build a completely undefined piece of software to make our lives easier" has been asked of every programmer on the face of the earth. I wish I had finished that program 20 years ago so that I would have had answers over the past 20 years

Anyway, there are a lot of other things going on, but the inmoov stares at me every day in my office. His neopixel ring has been running for a constant 8 days now. I am trying to see how long they last for the other project. He scares my wife at night while she is working on my computer. When it losses connection to my wifi for some reason and then reestablishes its connection, it says "I have lost connection to your network" and then "I have successfully connected to your network". I find this funny.

Exciting (and busy) times ahead for you then. I wish you luck with the new project sounds intriguing.

Steve.

Not that I am back on this project or anything, but I did want to share a piece. It has been discussed a couple of times to use an arduino to drive a set of car bumper sensors for a mobile base on a robot. Here is the Arduino code to make this work. It is not complete but it should be pretty easy to add additional distances as needed. This code will pass back information over a serial connection to the EZ-B for you to use. It will pass back "Object Detected - D at 18 inches" as an example. D would be port D on the bumper or parking sensor controller. A large majority of the work is done for you here. You will probably have to tweak it a bit to make it work for your particular needs.

I use an arduino mini pro (they cost a couple of bucks on ebay). I would buy the 5 mini's for $15.00 personally. Once you start incorporating them into your bot, you will find other things that you will want to do with them and extras are always a good thing.

These sensors detect out to about 6 feet pretty accurately. With a spin of your robot, you would be able to tell what is within 6 feet of your robot pretty easily. This code only goes out to 18 inches, but with some experimentation you can find the combination of bits that will measure further than 18 inches. The code below shows you how to combine these bits to calculate the distance on the arduino subsystem and pass back a meaningful string via serial that can be used by the EZ-B. This is designed to be a very quiet solution that won't flood the serial port on the EZ-B, or your robot application with constant bombarding of the same information.

Also, you could move some things to functions if you want. I left it linear for this as I wanted to make it as easy to follow as possible.

int pin = 9;
//int ledPin = 10;
unsigned long pulse_length;
byte sensorValue[32];
byte pulse_value;
// dist variables are used to as the current distance measurement.
// a b c d variables are used as the current bit transformed value
// prevdist variables are used to house the previous dist value from
// the last run through.
int dista = 0;
int a = 0;
int distb = 0;
int b = 0;
int distc = 0;
int c = 0;
int distd = 0;
int d = 0;
int prevdista = 0;
int prevdistb = 0;
int prevdistc = 0;
int prevdistd = 0;
void setup()
{
  pinMode(pin, INPUT);
  //pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() 
{
  digitalWrite(pin,HIGH);
  int i;
  //look for starter pulse
  pulse_length = pulseIn(pin, LOW);
  while (pulse_length < 18000) {
    pulse_length = pulseIn(pin, LOW);
  }
  //This is added so that you can see the start of one block
  //of measures from the next.  It is for debugging more than
  //anything.
  Serial.print("Start");
  Serial.println();
    a = 0;
    b = 0;
    c = 0;
    d = 0;
    dista = 0;
    distb = 0;
    distc = 0;
    distd = 0;
    //Cycle through the bits that are being returned
    for (i = 0; i < 32; i = i + 1) 
    {
      //I dont have an led for this so I turned off the ledPin sections of this.
      //Serial.print(pulse_length);
      pulse_length = pulseIn(pin, HIGH);
      if (pulse_length > 80 && pulse_length < 120) 
      {
        pulse_value = B0;
        //digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
      }
      else 
      {
        pulse_value = B1;
        //digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
      }
      sensorValue[i] = pulse_value;
      if(i > 11 && i < 16 && sensorValue[i] == 1)
      {
         //This is how you would see the values of the bits as they come back
         //This could be used on any sensor of the 4 sensors.  Just change
         //the Sensor A Tripped to Sensor B Tripped and so on so that you 
         //know where it came from.
         //Serial.print("--- Sensor A Tripped ---");
         //Serial.println();
         //Serial.print(i);
         //Serial.println();
         if(i = 12){a = 1;}
         if(i = 13){a = 2;}
         if(i = 14){a = 4;}
         if(i = 15){a = 8;}
      }
      if(i > 3 && i < 9 && sensorValue[i] == 1)
      {
         if(i = 4){b = 1;}
         if(i = 5){b = 2;}
         if(i = 6){b = 4;}
         if(i = 7){b = 8;}
      }
      if(i > 19 && i < 24 && sensorValue[i] == 1)
      {
         if(i = 20){c = 1;}
         if(i = 21){c = 2;}
         if(i = 22){c = 4;}
         if(i = 23){c = 8;}
      }
      if(i > 27 && i < 32 && sensorValue[i] == 1)
      {
         if(i = 28){d = 1;}
         if(i = 29){d = 2;}
         if(i = 30){d = 4;}
         if(i = 31){d = 8;}
      }
      //takes value assigned by the current bit location and adds it to distx before
      //going on to the next bit
      dista = dista + a;
      distb = distb + b;
      distc = distc + c;
      distd = distd + d;
    }
    //This checks to see if there has been a change in the value for a sensor.  
    //If no change, the last message is still valid.  if there has been a change, 
    //it will send the value back over the serial port.
    if(prevdista != dista)
    {
      if(dista = 1) 
      {
        Serial.print("Object Detected - A at under 12 inches");
        Serial.println();
      }
      if(dista = 3) 
      {
        Serial.print("Object Detected - A at 18 inches");
        Serial.println();
      }
      if(dista = 0)
      {
        Serial.print("No objects detected - A");
        Serial.println();
      }
    }
    if(prevdistb != distb)
    {
      if(distb = 1) 
      {
        Serial.print("Object Detected - B at under 12 inches");
        Serial.println();
      }
      if(distb = 3) 
      {
        Serial.print("Object Detected - B at 18 inches");
        Serial.println();
      }
      if(distb = 0)
      {
        Serial.print("No objects detected - B");
        Serial.println();
      }
    }
    if(prevdistc != distc)
    {
      if(distc = 1) 
      {
        Serial.print("Object Detected - C at under 12 inches");
        Serial.println();
      }
      if(distc = 3) 
      {
        Serial.print("Object Detected - C at 18 inches");
        Serial.println();
      }
      if(distc = 0)
      {
        Serial.print("No objects detected - C");
        Serial.println();
      }
    }
    if(prevdistd != distd)
    {
      if(distd = 1) 
      {
        Serial.print("Object Detected - D at under 12 inches");
        Serial.println();
      }
      if(distd = 3) 
      {
        Serial.print("Object Detected - D at 18 inches");
        Serial.println();
      }
      if(distd = 0)
      {
        Serial.print("No objects detected - D");
        Serial.println();
      }
    }
    //This sets the prevdist variables to the current distance so the 
    //comparison can take place on the next run to see if the values
    //changed.
    prevdista = dista; 
    prevdistb = distb;
    prevdistc = distc;
    prevdistd = distd;
    //This delay is only needed for debugging.  It is removed for 
    //normal runs.
  //delay(1000);
}

copy and paste inheritance got me there, script fixed for port D...

I would ezrobot connect with Arduino board to drive the servo motors. I think using the I2C protocol. For voltage compatibility problems, I think use a bidirectional I2C card Logic Level Converter. Have you ever realize this communication?

Yes, I use a bidirectional converter powered with 5v to the high side and 3.3 v to the low side. I use serial via the digital pins so it really isn't an issue anyway. This is a known issue with using 5v Arduino with Beagle bone, RPi or really any other primary controller.

Just ordered the car bumper sensor kit. Will let you know how things work out once arrived. Thanks for sharing your code with us

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@Herr Ball,

There was a mistake in the code. I updated it to fix the issue. Let me know if you run into any issues.