Gixxus Christ! Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Got my dad a robotics starter kit from radio shack for xmas and now I'm starting to get interested in microcontroller and robotics projects. Seems like something fun to do until spring (unless someone needs a motor built...) anyone play with them? Was thinking I'd start out slow and learn how to program and eventually progress to building things that are actually useful. So what's up? Who's into this shit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 I have an Uno kit, a couple of cook books and a handful of servos, sensors and lights. I'd love to create a motorcycle telemetry unit someday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Yeah I've got plans for a little weather station, a proximity alarm for parking my car and maybe a robot that plays with the cats with a laser pointer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 (edited) Yeah I've got plans for a little weather station, a proximity alarm for parking my car and maybe a robot that plays with the cats with a laser pointer. Nice! I've always wanted to make a 2-axis servo-controlled laser show - that would be wicked funny as a cat toy. To me the coolest parts of electronics projects have to do with sensors and actuators. I just need to get over my periodic depression about others getting paid major bucks by day to do truly envelope-pushing things with control systems. I have a nearly-completely-unused EET bachelor's from DeVry and suffer a couple times a year from nerd envy of those folks. I just need to accept that it's fun to tinker, even if I'm relearning things I knew intimately well 20+ years ago. Edited December 28, 2014 by smccrory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Yeah I was never good with electronics as far as design goes, no formal training. I figure it will be a good opportunity for me to learn new things while making cool stuff and for $65 I can get this: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=271658490668&alt=web which seems like more than enough to keep me busy.I have experience in some programming; cnc mostly but I also used to write macros and scripts for telex back in the day of 14.4k modems and 32 line local bulletin boards. There are a billion videos on YouTube that teach the stuff so I should be able to hack my way through it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 I think you'll have fun, and let me know if you have any questions - I'll do my best to dredge up my electronics training. I also have solid programming cred, though my exposure to Arduino is probably not much more than yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Watched a few videos, it's just like script writing: set parameters and tell it what to do, then the program compiles it and feeds it to the brain. Gonna dredge up a few books online and bone up on programming before I even buy the thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 I don't remember - are you near Columbus? You're welcome to borrow mine for a few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Canton area....long drive to borrow something I can go buy at radio shack. I'm trying to think of other applications for this thing...I am only limited by my imagination, which is not incredibly good these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Canton area....long drive to borrow something I can go buy at radio shack. I'm trying to think of other applications for this thing...I am only limited by my imagination, which is not incredibly good these days. If the weather was better, it'd be a good excuse to meet somewhere by bike, but meh. :-) Let's maybe keep this thread going if/as either of us digs deeper into it, perhaps to inspire the other (or others) to dive in. I really want to see what kinds of sensors are available for carbureted engines, though I suspect I'll back off once I add up the costs of monitoring voltage, current, egt, ox, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 (edited) So I've been looking into the programming aspect and I'm a little intimidated even by the most basic function sketches, mostly because this machine language us foreign to me. Maybe the tutorial assumes familiarity with the language. Going to keep learning however slowly and see if things start to make sense, but it seems like I'm a very long way from building things that do anything useful. I've never even touched a breadboard before...this will be interesting.As far as sensors for carbed bikes, not much I can think of aside from maybe using a pot to measure and display throttle opening %....maybe get an in line flow meter to display fuel flow into carbs but that won't directly translate to current fuel usage because of the way a carb works (bowls still filling at low throttle, fuel flow read as high)... Edited December 29, 2014 by CrazySkullCrusher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 (edited) It's OK - it'll just take a little time to get, and experimentation to really grok it. For example, breadboards are easy once you play with them. Here's a great article about how they work and why they're awesomerrr than alternatives for prototyping: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-breadboard As for the language, yes, it's cryptic, is more like C than anything, and C is considered one of the harder languages to pick up from scratch. However, just look at someone's working, pre-baked sketches at first. DO NOT try to write your own yet unless you are prepared to overcome frustration. IMHO the best way to get started is to just fork out the $50 for an Arduino kit and work though a good, guided tutorial. You'll get it. The learning curve will be painful at first, but you'll get it. If you can remember how you learned how to ride bikes, it might be a lot like that. Now, you don't even think about the basics. Edited December 29, 2014 by smccrory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 I love that you use grok. Heinlein ftw! Yes, I guess I'll just have to hack into it until waiting is filled and I grok it's fullness.Till spring, water brother. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 That rocks! BTW if you're wondering which Arduino to get started with, my recommendations would be to 1) start simple, and 2) get a small but complete kit. For #1, if you're a techie like me, you might be tempted to get the Yun board from the outset, thinking that Wifi connectivity and higher computational power could be a good thing down the road, but IMHO you'd just be adding complexity to your first steps. A little Uno would be a fine way to get started with hardware and the language. Personally picked up an Uno kit from Sparkfun. It was $100 plus shipping, which isn't chump change, but it seriously accelerates your first steps of getting started: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12060 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 I went for the uno 3 kit in the ebay link I posted earlier. Will be studying the tutorials on sparkfun for the next week til it comes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Awesome, looks great! I pulled mine out, connected it to the Macbook, downloaded Arduino's workbench editor and played with a blinky light sketch, adjusting its delay times, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jporter12 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Interested. I was eyeballing all that is available when I was killing some time in Chicago, at Fry's Electronics. I'm going to have to look into some of the stuff you guys have posted and see if my interest level is high enough to even get started! I did some work with assembly language several years ago, basically going in and modifying the code to add functionality, and to modify "CNC" programs that were hard coded. I can't remember what all was involved right now, but I DO remember it all being done via parallel port. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 These are based on C language. You use arguments (commands and definitions) to compile a sketch (program) and send it to the controller via usb. The controller then executes the commands via the pin headers that connect sensors, displays, motors etc to it (and usually a breadboard). I'm learning slowly, by the time my kit gets here I should have enough base knowledge to do some basic functions and learn progressively from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Well I've downloaded the programming and development environment to my notebook and set it up as much as possible. Been chewing through tutorials and have been picking up the mechanics of the lingo. Nothing left but for my kit to come in the mail so I can start getting my hands dirty. We should start a drop box where we can share schematics and code or just puke them up onto this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Dropbox is a great idea. Share a folder to scott@mccrory.us if you'd like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Ok I think I've landed on my first practical gadget idea.I have a lot of shit in my garage. In the winter I have to move most of it so I can barely squeeze my car in. I have maybe a 12 inch margin of error between hitting my air compressor and leaving the ass end of the car hanging outside the threshold. By using an a ultrasonic range finder, some red green and yellow LED's, a few wires and transistors and some creative programming I should be able to make a device that tells me when my car is pulled in enough. Sort of like the tennis ball on a string only without having a fucking tennis ball hanging from your ceiling and way cooler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sapphy Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 I just got a Raspberry Pi and some zwave gadgets and working on home Automation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Yeah I'll probably move on to pi and have to learn linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Sounds like a cool application! I was thinking about starting with a throttle body sync tool. I found a description of hardware a guy put together, and I'd think the code would be pretty straightforward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gixxus Christ! Posted December 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2014 Yeah I had thought of that too but it sounds like more of a hassle than just hooking up a manometer and adjusting the tb's by hand...and in my experience many times you can barely get a screwdriver in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.