New autonomous method in the works :D

[Spencer E.]

Hey everyone! Some of you may have seen my previous posts about the potential of using a GBA as a serial communication device with the RC (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56703). Well, I've just started the programming for both the GBA and RC programs and I'm hoping to have it fully working and functional by kick-off at the latest. Where I am stuck as of now is finding the funds for a Flash cartridge and parts to make the serial cable to go from the GBA to the RC.

The GBA program will have a working GUI and will be able to show the path of the robot on screen as you create the autonomous. How it will work is: the user will create a set of commands for the robot to do (ie. go a certain distance at a certain speed, turn a certain amount of degrees) on the GBA. Once they have done this, the RC will be set to wait for the beginning of the GBA transmission. As the RC receives each command it will make sure it has not missed any data and store the command in the EEPROM, then will relay a message back to the GBA asking for more information. Then voila! The autonomous is stored within the EEPROM.

Now, when autonomous begins the RC will read the commands from the EEPROM and execute the corresponding functions relating to the commands.

Any constructive criticism is welcome :)

[Stephen Kowski]

You may want to talk with members of 111 and 217 because similar type things have been done with StangPS and Cross the road electronics (Mike Copioli, 217)

http://www.wildstang.org/main/stangps.php
http://crosstheroadelectronics.com/products.html

They can probably give insight to some of the pitfalls and benefits of this.

Good luck sounds like a great idea.

[Spencer E.]

Thanks Stephen :) I'm looking at the Stangs website right now, looks interesting. The Cross the road electronics look pretty cool too, I'm just trying to be unique :D hehe (plus, then I also have a legitimate reason to have a GBA in my pocket all day :p )

[Lil' Lavery]

116 developed and implemented something similar for the 2007 season.
You can see it sitting on top of the RC in our control box in this picture:
http://www.team116.org/2007/Subgroups/controlbox.jpg
It allowed for us to chose from pre-programmed autonomous plays, as well as change the parameters of those plays, right on the bot, and even on the field as we set up the bot. We could also run some basic diagnostics with it.
If you have more questions about it's specifics contact Greg Smith (yoyodyne) or another member of the 116 controls group.

[bear24rw]

116 developed and implemented something similar for the 2007 season.
You can see it sitting on top of the RC in our control box in this picture:
http://www.team116.org/2007/Subgroups/controlbox.jpg
It allowed for us to chose from pre-programmed autonomous plays, as well as change the parameters of those plays, right on the bot, and even on the field as we set up the bot. We could also run some basic diagnostics with it.
If you have more questions about it's specifics contact Greg Smith (yoyodyne) or another member of the 116 controls group.
Thats cool you have any idea what board that is or how its connected to the rc (im guessing the program port?)

[AdamHeard]

Team 40 had the most elegant solution to this I have ever seen. The wrote a java application to run on a pocket pc (used ones can be found cheap now.... real cheap). You simply drew the autonomous path with a stylus and they did something (Not sure if that generated code they downloaded, or it had a memory card system like what cross the road offers) to put it on the robot.

[Red Mage]

Hey everyone! Some of you may have seen my previous posts about the potential of using a GBA as a serial communication device with the RC (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56703) (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56703%29). Well, I've just started the programming for both the GBA and RC programs and I'm hoping to have it fully working and functional by kick-off at the latest. Where I am stuck as of now is finding the funds for a Flash cartridge and parts to make the serial cable to go from the GBA to the RC.

The GBA program will have a working GUI and will be able to show the path of the robot on screen as you create the autonomous. How it will work is: the user will create a set of commands for the robot to do (ie. go a certain distance at a certain speed, turn a certain amount of degrees) on the GBA. Once they have done this, the RC will be set to wait for the beginning of the GBA transmission. As the RC receives each command it will make sure it has not missed any data and store the command in the EEPROM, then will relay a message back to the GBA asking for more information. Then voila! The autonomous is stored within the EEPROM.

Now, when autonomous begins the RC will read the commands from the EEPROM and execute the corresponding functions relating to the commands.

Any constructive criticism is welcome :)

If you do get this working, and do have a camera, I would love to see this.

[Salik Syed]

How do you program a GBA.... do they have an open API? Or do you need game developer licenses or something?

[bear24rw]

How do you program a GBA.... do they have an open API? Or do you need game developer licenses or something?

http://www.gbadev.org/

just google programming gba...

[Spencer E.]

Hey everyone!

After about a month of no information I'm finally ready to show off what I have done so far :) . I've started a blog to keep track of my projects and the first one I've posted about is this one. The link to my blog is http://senniekun.blogspot.com and feel free to post comments!