Ultrasonic

[Jogo]

Have any teams had success with the Devantech SRF08 sonar + example code? I'm curious if it's worth the investment: in previous years we've had trouble getting an accurate reading with the SRF04's and 05's beyond 1m, while they say they can go up to 3-4m.

Thanks!

[RyanN]

Well not exactly a Devantech SRF08, but we've had Matbotix Ultrasonic Sensors.

Here's a demonstration video (http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/match/2008iri_qm58) of them.

I blame the programmer though.

Too bad the programmer was me. ::safety::

[AllenGregoryIV]

We are planning to use Maxbotix XL-EZ4 this year on our robot and so far have had great success with them. They are extremely easy to wire up (strait into an analog input) and we get cm accurate readings from them. No need for a ping channel unless you are planning on Daisy Chaining them and that's just so they don't interfere with each other. There is only one ping channel no matter how many sensors you want to wire together, much easier than the SRF08s.

http://www.maxbotix.com/MB1240__XL-MaxSonar-EZ4.html

[Jogo]

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation. And do they work with the basic WPI Library Functions / default code or is custom programming required? Do you recommend analog (13XX) or pulse width (12XX)?

[AllenGregoryIV]

We did have to write our own code but it's really easy because its's just reading in an analog value.

You can find the code we are using here
http://code.google.com/p/discobots/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2FFIRST%2F2011%2FDiscoMotion%2Fsrc%2F Sensors

I don't guarantee that's its perfect but it should work. (It's in Java)

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Discobots: that's a great sample. Thanks for sharing!

[theprgramerdude]

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation. And do they work with the basic WPI Library Functions / default code or is custom programming required? Do you recommend analog (13XX) or pulse width (12XX)?

Since you're probably just going to be reading the analog output voltage, there's no difference in either model to you.