<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
WOW! Thank you, Jorge<br>
<br>
1) I looooove the connectors for the USBButiá. <br>
8-wire ethernet. Once a standard exists :-), makes compatibility in
development by the many a viable option, i.e, I or anyone can
develop a motor or sensor, and it will work with the Butiá. VERY
powerful! exchangebale parts, the birth of the Industrial Age.
Exchangeable circuits, possibly a jumping point (salto cualitativo,
decía un otro Jorge) for mechatronics in education, and then in
national development!<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/proyectos/butia/mediawiki/index.php/Usb4butia">http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/proyectos/butia/mediawiki/index.php/Usb4butia</a><br>
closeup:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/proyectos/butia/mediawiki/index.php/Archivo:Usb4butia2.jpg">http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/proyectos/butia/mediawiki/index.php/Archivo:Usb4butia2.jpg</a><br>
1.b) I do not like digital servos, adds enormously to the cost IMHO,
*have* to be purchased, but then, they <i>do </i>have advantages.
Askjerry gets feedback from a LED/sensor pair. So far I have only
used dead reckoning<br>
<br>
2) hmmm. I guess that Butiá can run either with an Arduino *or*
with a USBButiá, the latter connected direct to an XO? <br>
So the USBButiá has an MCU with some pretty good code! aha, a PIC
18F4550. I assume that you falsh them... Could you please point us
to more details? Source code seems to be <a
href="http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/proyectos/butia/mediawiki/index.php/Git_Butia">here</a>,
I guess I'll have to take a look. How expensive is it to get the
stuff (PIC programmer)to flash?<br>
Does Eneka sell ready-made PCBs? PCB fab is something that the
folks at Kidbot could help, I will check, some of our people seem to
have good connections for that sort of stuff (maybe $1.50 for each
at this complexity, in smallish quantities).<br>
<br>
I must admit this is more advanced than where I am right now in my
own skills and hacks. <br>
I merely can flsh 430s with an XO, and would totally love to be able
to have real i/o XO<->MCU. Hope we can follow up and I can
learn. (of course I can flash arduino with a Linux PC, but I feel
that is cheating - anything that needs more than an XO is, an
ideology issue for me :-) )<br>
Jorge, could you point me to suitable resources I could learn from?
Thanks!<br>
<br>
Yama<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
On 09/27/2012 01:08 PM, Jorge wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:50649608.2000202@gmail.com" type="cite">On
27/09/12 13:35, Yama Ploskonka wrote:> 1) I wouldn't say
better... rather, complementary, and certainly
<br>
> cheaper. Visiting the Butiá pages, the only picture I see
showing an MCU
<br>
>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/proyectos/butia/images/pistaButia.jpg">http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/proyectos/butia/images/pistaButia.jpg</a>
is
<br>
> showing an Arduino. Add a motor driver, and we are well above
$30, plus
<br>
> shipping. The USBButiá board is maybe cheaper IF done in
quantity by
<br>
> experts (then add labor).
<br>
<br>
Besides the microcontroller the USBButiá board provides standard
connectors for attaching sensors. It allows autodetecting what
sensor you connected and were (something like the NXT brick, but
with a wider spectrum of attacheable stuff, more connectors,
easier to hack, and plug&play).
<br>
<br>
We sidestepped the motor driver issue using digital servos.
<br>
<br>
> MSP430 + (L293D OR some darlington array) can be "free" if
you get them
<br>
> as samples from TI, or less than $5 when purchased, /plus
shipping/, the
<br>
> old bane. the advantage of using a darlington driver is that
then you
<br>
> may use plain DC motors, which can be free if lucky with old
electronic
<br>
> parts (beautiful gear system available in old CDROM drives)
<br>
>
<br>
> 2) yop - the XO "drives" the vehicle with the MSP430 option
also. Now, I
<br>
> put quote marks as I have no idea - yet - on how to send data
direct
<br>
> realtime from the XO to the robot, bypassing the MCU. What
seems to be
<br>
> happening is that Butiá depends on sending code/program to
the Arduino,
<br>
> and the the 'duino does the brains of the robot.
<br>
<br>
Nop, the control runs fully on the XO. MCU only interfaces
sensors&motors and supports the plug&play functionality.
No user logic runs on the MCU.
<br>
The user programs on the XO access sensors/actuators connected the
MCU and whatever the XO provides (mic, cam, accelerometer if there
is one) transparently. The most frequent programming environment
is TurtleArte (kisds already know it), but there are also Python
and Lua environments for when the problem or the user outgrows
Turtle Art.
<br>
<br>
In my opinion, what MCU is used is not actually important. What is
important is the programming environment, how it interfaces with
whatever your robot offers, and the mechanism you provide for
adapting your robot for solving different problems.
<br>
<br>
Jorge
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>