We are nearly ready to test our code, can anyone find a problem in the rules regarding using an iPad over a conventional control?
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We are nearly ready to test our code, can anyone find a problem in the rules regarding using an iPad over a conventional control?
Sounds cool! Does/would it failsafe? Is there any risk of interference?
It does failsafe, and as to interference, we are using a bluetooth connection, once paired it should be fine, it will need testing of course.
no no no no. I don't care if it's in the rules or not. I can't think of anything as dangerous as trying to control a robot via bluetooth on a smart phone
you could you use a wifi receiver like the one here:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... eiver.html
Bluetooth range is less than 10m with line of sight isnt it? Could be a bit reminiscent of old school radio control where you can only drive around in half of the arena before losing control.
If it works it'd be something a bit different though I suppose.
I've a bit of experience in using iOS devices as alternative input controls and would say BlueTooth is too buggy.
In the past I have used TouchOSC and the OSC protocol over Wi-Fi (which I believe is 2.4ghz) which should be more stable.
Points for innovation though! I dunno who did the Wii Contoller / Board work for the Gadget Show when James and Grant made Satan's Mutt but they interfaced the Bluetooth controllers with a 2.4Ghz standard controller and used that to transmit.
I know 'Running in the Halls' did all the coding work for the BF3 simulator so could be them?
Awesome to see you are planning on controlling your robot with an Ipad mini!Quote:
Originally Posted by PJ-27
PJ - we create all our own software, both in the feedback side of things on the BF3 sim, with our wii mote/balance board RC controller etc.
We have also created some recently that can control robot's over the internet through the spektrum and futaba buddy leads on an Xbox controller or even a head tracker.
Gabe - if you have any issue's with your connection let us know and we could possibly point you in a few directions to help get it reliable. Good luck with it :)
Impressive! Sorry for almost misplacing your credit.
No worries :) there were about 6 companies involved all doing various things on the BF3 sim, so easy to get confused!
We have a project on Stephen Fry: Gadget Man tonight at 8.30 using some of the above software.
Sorry am I the only one that sees this as being incredibly risky?
Great idea for a non combat robot but I wouldn't want to go near a machine with a weapon attached run off an ipad or similar
Why not? As long as there is a fail safe in place and the thing shuts down when told then i dont see the problem. It would probably behave exactly like a normal robot.Quote:
Originally Posted by typhoon_driver
You are using a communication medium with a raft of interference. You are also writing custom code and protocols to control the machine. So many ways for a rogue signal or command to sneak in. sure it may fail safe on the bench but the arena is a different kettle of fish entirely
You are using a communication medium with a raft of interference. You are also writing custom code and protocols to control the machine. So many ways for a rogue signal or command to sneak in. sure it may fail safe on the bench but the arena is a different kettle of fish entirely
Every piece of coding is custom. As long as you can write code properly then it makes no difference. The only thing I am concerned about here is the bluetooth simply because of the range but heck swap it for an Xbee. And if Robochallenge can wire up a Wii then why not an iPad? Or a Xbox controller? Playstation Move? Lewis Hamilton drove his F1 car from an iPhone 3GS, at full speed around Silverstone!
And 2.4Ghz isn't fool proof either. My machine ended up getting stuck in a high speed spin during testing due to the Wifi at uni. It has happened twice in exactly the same location. The one time I was there and it didn't happen was because they had turned off the Wifi to do a software update.
Just FYI i think spektrum make a connection for sending signal via the old style 32pin ipod connection for AR drones etc that might be useful to you.
I was going to post a big post about this that and the other but I see there is little point. If the EO is happy to let it run then go ahead.
What is the FRA stance on this issue?Quote:
Originally Posted by typhoon_driver
At the end of the day if it failsafes reliably then there should be any issues. If it runs on bluetooth and cuts out every 2 seconds it shouldn't matter because it failsafes.
I don't trust these £15 2.4ghz set's, but no one seems to think they may be unsafe?
£15 sets? Do you mean the playstation style ones?
The Hobby King ones:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... de_2_.html
It even says in the description not suitable for root use (not sure why though....) I've bought a set to test them out but given how many issues we had with the cheapy RadioLink sets I don't expect much but should be good for AWs. I think the Australians use them a lot.
Thank you Guys for your input and enthusiasm, I am lucky enough to work for a company that produces bespoke apps for a safety critical environment. For me building robots as always been about innovation. To give some background to our work, we have envisaged this idea to give our new graduate something exciting to learn computer code around. The project is being overseen by our senior programmer. The reason I have created this thread is to get you involved and incorporate your ideas. I would like to hear your concerns Gary so we can factor them into our project. Once and if our project is successful we would release the app to the App Store and make the code open source, to encourage innovation and interest in computer code.
Gabe, if you think you might have issue's with the bluetooth being reliable enough then I would recommend trying to use your app to control a spektrum TX. That way you will always have a good link to the robot.
That's what we do with all of our projects. For example last night on Stephen Fry's Gadget Man, we made the software to control it over the the internet using an Xbox controller. On the receiving end we had another PC/laptop that took those commands and sent them to the DX18 using PPM into the Trainer port.
This worked really well and reliably, even over the internet. I'm not sure what the easiest way for you to create a PPM signal would be but we have used a couple of wayss which may be of some use to you.
If your sending data from the Ipad over bluetooth to an arduino/PIC or something similar then it shouldn't be too difficult to create a PPM signal with those. I can probably send you the PPM values you would need for Spektrum Radios.
The other way we did it was to generate a PPM signal through the Audio jack on the PC! Funnily enough, you can create a usable PPM signal through the Audio sound card, I have no idea how it would be done on a IOS device as we have only worked on Windows and android based software. This worked well for us, it had a small amount of jitter but nothing concerning.
The 3rd way we have done it is using a USB2PPM converter. This might be an easier way for you to just send out basic data to a USB port on an arduino/pic and let the converter do the rest.
My main concerns were with going via bluetooth. If you go via a spektrum Tx or similar I would have no issues.
Thank you Grant, we will be in touch
Do you have a link Mouldy?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouldy