Friday Night Robotics - Adventures with ATmega328

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Friday, December 5th, 2008

During the week I was testing various things and shields to see if they worked okay with the ATmega328. The wave and motor shield worked okay, but the WiiChuck library did not.

I don’t even think it’s a problem with the new avr-gcc or the board- the code for the shield is made for Arduino 0012, whereas the WiiChuck library wasn’t. Lots of people have problems with Arduino 0012, it has so many bugs compared to Arduino 0011.

My plan is to have two Arduinos going: the 328 would be controlling the SSC-32 and the Wave shield. It would listen for input, maybe a few numbers, and move the robot accordingly. The numbers would be sent from the other Arduino, which is using the WiiChuck code.

I can actually expand on this idea more and get another few Xbee Kits and an Xbee so that the two Arduinos could talk wirelessly.

Here’s a picture of when my ATmega168 flew under a cabinet-thing :

Oh yeah! I’m getting a Sanguino with super shipping, so it should be here really soon! Thanks E.V. =)

(Then I’ll have to re-think my robot AGAIN! Hahahaha)

Posted in: Programming, Projects, Robot.

December 4 - Festive BubbleBoy Robot

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Posted in: Art, Projects.

December 3 - Transistor Toes Robot

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Posted in: Art, Projects.

December 2 - Sleepy Elf Robot

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Posted in: Art, Projects, Uncategorized.

It’s December!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

It’s December!

I thought of a stupid idea which may turn out to be somewhat cool… I’m going to draw a robot graphic each day for the entire month and post it on here.

As for those decoration robots, here are pictures:

I think they will make good gifts…

The ATmega328 is going okay, I guess. I still don’t have it working yet- I tried the Windows XP machine and Java just freaks out on there.

I finally googled the right keywords and found a mac version… but it doesn’t work either. I’ll have to play around with it…

Posted in: Art, Other, Programming, Projects.

December 1 - Funky Robot

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, December 1st, 2008

Posted in: Art, Projects.

Giving in to the ATmega328

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, December 1st, 2008

Today I’m going to give in to the 30K of memory in the ATmega328.

Yesterday I was trying to compile the code I wrote for MANOI, and it’s always a few hundred bytes too big. How am I supposed to do anything if it’s too BIG?!

I hope that the modified version of Arduino 11 will work okay on my Windows XP machine… why do I get this feeling that it won’t …

Those XMAS decorations that I was making the other day I had to put a pause on since I couldn’t find a hole puncher. The XACTO knife wasn’t XACTLY doing its job . I think that the hole punch will be too big for the LED, so I’m not sure yet what I’ll do. Hmmmmm!

Oh yeah, if you didn’t notice- I fixed the smilies … but I also accidentally deleted all of the links from the sidebar. I’ll have to re-add them by hand AGAIN! Grrrrrr…

EDIT: Nevermind… they weren’t deleted

Posted in: Art, Programming, Projects, Robot.

¬Friday Night Robotics

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Friday, November 28th, 2008

During the day I programmed MANOI without testing it, so I’m going to test it today (Saturday).

I’m so exhausted from trying to debug this router thing. I can’t stand networking!!! I mean, you’re pretty much trying to overcome little pieces of chaos all the time. I think it was Cantor who came up with the thought that if you take two rectangles and cut them in three, throw away the middle piece (I think), then repeat the pattern on the new rectangles- you’ll get something infinitely large, yet infinitely sparse. So… you’re basically trying to configure something that will work 80% of the time, while trying to leap over hurdles that you can’t control or see- that will appear from nowhere, PLUS the other random throw offs. This could make someone go crazy!!!!!

I applied to be a BETA tester of the Roboduino on Thursday (I think), but the applications were already closed (it didn’t say that on the website). It’s kind of funny, since I was the first person to mention BETA testing. Hahahaha! I’m really confused about it though From what I understand, the applications were open Wednesday morning, then closed Wednesday night. But… if you lived in Australia, wouldn’t that mean you never had a chance? You would only realize the apps were open when you woke up, which would be Wednesday night- so they would be closed, already. Maybe there will be GAMMA (or ALPHA) testers though, so I won’t lose hope!

I guess the highlight of tonight’s FNR was when I stayed up till 11 to watch Daily Planet.

I love the in-depth meteorite coverage they have been giving. It’s so cool how it landed in a place called Lone Rock!! Hahahaha I only hope that it isn’t damaged too much by landing in the pond though >.< I didn’t bother to watch the rest of the show since it seemed only about biology.

OH YEAH! I also made a prototype of a decoration that I’m going to put on the tree. It’s 2 inches wide, 4 inches long… and it has a robot on it. In the middle of the robot, there’s an LED. You can press near the bottom of the decoration to turn it on/off.

I’m thinking of making three and putting them on Etsy for $2.50 (+ $5 shipping) to see if they would sell. All of the profit would be going towards a book that I want that explains Jacobians and Inverse Kinematics and transforms/rotations from frame to frame.

Posted in: Other, Projects.

THE LIST!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

My list… YAY!!

Need
University Sweater/Shirt from the store!!!!!!

Want (almost need)
Robot Modeling and Control
Sharp GP2D120 IR Range Sensor - 4 to 30 cm
Sanguino v1.0 Kit

Canon PowerShot A590 A570 IS Digital Camera HD² Professional Accessory Kit
Opteka 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens for Canon PowerShot A570 A590 IS Digital Camera
Opteka HD² 0.20X Professional Super AF Fisheye Lens for Canon PowerShot A570 A590 IS Digital Camera
Opteka Close-Up Set (+1, +2, and +4) with 10x Macro Lens for Canon PowerShot A570 A590 IS Digital Camera
Opteka 2.2x High Definition² Telephoto Lens for Canon PowerShot A570 A590 IS Digital Camera
Opteka 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens for Canon PowerShot A570 A590 IS Digital Camera
Canon LA-DC52G Conversion Lens Adapter

Want
OWI RobotiKit Walking King Crab
OWI RobotiKit Frightened Grasshopper
Owi Happy Hopping Frog Mini Solar Robot Kit
Images Scientific Bi-Directional Flexible Bend Sensor FLX-02
Phidgets Force Sensor
Inex Temperature Sensor Board
Miga Motor NanoMuscle 2-wire Rotary Actuator
Lynxmotion Pan and Tilt Kit / Aluminium

Reflectance Sensor
Color Light Sensor Evaluation Board

Peggy 2.0 Light Emitting Pegboard kit

Maker’s Notebook

Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us (Paperback)
Cambrian Intelligence: The Early History of the New AI (Paperback)

Want (lowest factor of need possible)
Open Heart Kit

Posted in: Other, Projects, Uncategorized.

Friday Night Robotics

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Friday, November 21st, 2008

Today I finished off a part of a project that I can’t blog about, then worked on MANOI. I didn’t really do much, all I did was configure (AKA: plug in) the force-sensing resistor and watch the results on Arduino’s serial monitor.

I was really surprised with the FSR! I thought there would be some jitter when it isn’t being touched (or, has no force on it) but it wasn’t. It’s value stayed at 0!

I can’t really add much AI to hockey MANOI until I get an IR sensor. I would mount the IR sensor on the side of the stick to see if there is a ball. That, combined with the FSR, would make a good scenario for the Bayes filter algorithm.

What I did tonight does have something in common with robotics….

WALL-E!

You might think that I watched the movie… but I didn’t! I watched the special “The PIXAR Story” on Disk 2. I had major problems figuring out what DVD to get too… I had my mind set on the 3 disk one. When we get to the store, there is no 3 disk one… and they’re all packaged in French! I can’t read what the fudge it’s saying!! Then there’s like Blue-Ray and HD and normal and super and GOLD ULTIMATE EDITION and it’s all like “omg -.-”.

It’s pretty neat how similar robotics and animation is. When it all comes down to it, you’re trying to make an inanimite object move, interact, and have character! I still haven’t finished exploring all of the features on Disk 2… but it’s pretty AWESOME!

Posted in: Other, Projects.