More Functional Code! 1/31/07

Hey

So we can make the robot (which is currently on blocks) move! Or rather, the wheels start spinning like they are supposed to be spinning. We hooked up the transmissions to the speed controllers and they didn't die. It's pretty cool. The deadband works too, after some problems yesterday because we were squaring the values to make parabolas. This made negative values turn positive and it wasn't very good. But now we are cubing it! =) And values stay the right sign. At first, because transmissions were facing different directions, right and left went different directions. Jessa showed us simple way (254 - ?) to fix that and it was very pretty. We looked through the code FIRST gave us, but actually really truly understood it this time. We also talked about sensors and what we need... It sounds like the arm needs two sensors to make sure it doesn't hit things, keep going and die. So we are writing "if switch is closed, die" code. In order to check voltage/etc on the touch switch, we used the oscilloscope and saw the pretty curves and that the voltage was 5V. We drew diagrams and the woooonderful if/then statements on the board with Judy and started to code for the arm/chassis switch.

To be continued...

WE WROTE FUNCTIONAL CODE!

Hey so today (Sunday) we got a TON of stuff done. We had as many mentors (Jessa, Judy, Karlin, Trae, Eric) as programmers (Erin, Sherri, Mary, Alecia, Caroline). We took the electronics board off Rosie, and harvested all of her speed controllers, labeling them 06. After that, our mentors gave us a very useful introduction to C programming. The silly stuff we couldn't figure out was explained, and it all finally made sense. There were lots of "OH! That's what wasn't working!" moments, and it was all very good.

We then had a group brainstorming session on how to make the robot work, number of joysticks, etc. We finally decided on one joystick for driving, and another controlling the arm and the ramp. Preliminary arm ideas included forward as going down, backward as coming up. The joystick would control the direction/speed of the robot but the direction joystick is moving would not matter. It's the joystick position controlling the speed, if that makes sense. A combination of buttons would spin the motor controlling the ramp, because we do not want the wings unfolding by accident!

After that, we broke into groups to actually write code. Working code. It was pretty impressive. Anyhow, Caroline and Alecia were working on arm code, Mary doing the wings/ramp code, and Erin and I worked on the driving code. Following our lovely mentors' instructions, it was much much much simpler than in the past and we/I actually understood it. First, we drew pretty graphs and talked about how it would work, coded that and *gasp* it worked. I know that arm/wing people also had success. We also started talking about deadband stuff and doing preliminary coding for that. And then I had to leave.

But it was a great day, and we ACTUALLY WROTE CODE. I think this is really exciting.

And the food was really good, too. Thanks, Mukherjees! ;)

-Sherri

Hooray!!! We made (more) things work!!! :D

Hello! This is my first ever ever ever blog.
:) me happy.
okie dokie.

Soooooooooo TODAY (1/21/07) we actually did something useful...without Erin. *gasp* (Don't worry, Erin, we still love you.)

Trae came for the entire time today, and Eric got to come for like 20 minutes or something.

Mentors = great help. :)

We focused on setting up 2 other laptops with the correct versions of MPLAB IDE, the C18 Compiler, and IFI Loader. So now, anyone can phutz around with code, compile it, and download it onto the board on Francey, Annie, and Emily. And the desktop computer. :) (We've increased efficiency. :D) Eric also helped set the COM ports on Annie and Emily. So, just to remind you guys, Francey, Annie, and Emily are all COM 2, and the desktop computer is COM 3. (Don't worry, we also made labels, so you don't have to memorize that.) On Francey, Annie, and Emily, there should be a copy of the original default code, and another copy for phutzing around with, so in case we royally screw up, there's a backup code to save us. :)

We were also trying to figure out how to light up the LEDs, because both were turning a kind of orangey-yellow and they were getting very hot. (In other words...NOT GOOD.) We finally figured out that the LEDs we programmed to light up were the ones on the O/I (or was it the RC...? I forget) But the point is that the LEDs DID light up; we were just looking at the wrong LEDs. (Hopefully that made sense. But if it didn't, I can show you.) However, we don't really know what to do with the other two LEDs (the red one and the green one connected to DIG_OUT_08 and 09). We're not exactly sure how to actually connect them to the board. So right now, they're just sitting on the board doing nothing. But no worries...we'll fix them soon! :)

The backup battery also ran out...but we found the charger, so it'll be ok. :)

Trae also fixed (somewhat) the camera! So now it doesn't go into erratic spasms anymore. Which is a good thing.

Also, thanks to Mary's dad for getting some cool sandwiches for us... :] (even if Mary didn't especially like hers...) and also for making copies of code for each of us.

We also wrote down (on the whiteboard) all the stuff on the board and where it's connected to...just for reference and so we actually know what we're doing.

So we got a lot done today, thanks to Trae and Eric and Mary's dad!

Now that we've got everything set up...I suppose we can all start phutzing around...some more...and we should also study the default code and last year's code so we know what we're doing before we blow something up or ruin something (just kidding)...!

(By the way, Erin...it says on the whiteboard in the project room that you have to get the code running by Tuesday...)

WE MADE SOMETHING WORK! (and our plans for next week)

Alright, so I am sorry that this is my first post, but it will be a really good one. So, yesterday, (Sunday the 14) the programming and electronics team (along with Eric and Doug) figured out how to compile our code, download it, and worked on using the potentiometer and switch. For the entire week until Sunday, the P/E team worked on familiarizing ourselves with the language by writing mini codes. We also attempted to solve some of our problems... So, this week we are going to try to get all of the sensors working. Once they are "working" we are going to try to write some code that takes inputs from the sensors and uses it to change other things (such as motor speed or the led's).