Anyone received their EDUs already?
 

Ours is coming in tomorrow. Pretty nice. :)
Anyone playing with it already?

Our team's edu is supposed to get here on Thursday

We got our 2004 EDURobot Controller today!

Hooked it up to an RC controller and all works well, now we need to tackle programming. Shouldn't be too bad :-)

God my school district hasent even fronted up the money for it (stupid rich ppl ;) ) how do ya'll like the new controllers?

got it. Havn't had time to mess w/yet.

Received ours and tried it out. At first, I didn't think that you could run it without the hobby RC equipment, but then read that as soon as it is powered up, the code begins executing. This would simulate an autonomous mode.

Hooked up a potentiometer to the analog in and set "pwm01 = IO1;" in the "user_routines.c" and was off and running (C is case sensitive so be careful). Cool little box!! Those guys at Innovation First make the coolest stuff, and their documentation is wonderful too. What would we do without those guys???

how exactly would i go about getting this into autonomous?...cuz i dont have an hobby R/C at the moment..and i need to learn the new code

We just got ours,and I wired it right into the "MiniCrab", my Crab/Skid eduBot. We're still pursuing a controller, but the two pivoting servos will lock into center position when turned on! We also need to upgrade my PC's OS so I can start Proggin. Has anyone tried the loader on 98? I know it's not supported, but still, has anyone seen if it will work? I'm going to try it in a minute, I just restored a nice registry to get my pc running again :)

Unlike like year's robot controller that waited for either a valid radio signal or tether connection to begin processing your program, the new Edubot controller with the C language automatically begins running your code when powered on.

See page 3 of the "2004 EDU Robot Controller Reference Guide" on the Innovation First web site for more details.

http://www.innovationfirst.com/FIRST...10-15-2003.pdf

You will need to add some of your own code to make the EDU robot controller behave how you would like it to.

yea..i added my custom code to it..and it just sits there and does nothing...does it have to do w/ me still using Windows 98?..or does that not have any effect?

basically what i did was....i connected 2 multi-speed motors on pwm1 and pwm2 OUT...and in the code im telling it to go full forward (pwm01=254;..etc) and nothin happens. Any advice?

thanks

Me too.

same same

After updating your code, you need to 'Make' your new code (F10 is the shortcut). MPLAB will show you the progress and create a new *.hex file. Use the IFI loader to connect to the robot and download your new *.hex file. If you saw this happen, then your OS is working and something else is wrong (maybe below).

WHERE you put the above statement is important. Try at the very end of the "user_routines.c", or at least after the last "pwm1 = " statement in the default code. Otherwise, your statement for pwm1 will be overwritten.

Good luck.

The reason it won't do anything different is because Win98 can't build HEX's w/ C18. The Hex loader does work, however, and this is good news for those who have a low-end dashboard laptop for competition. (me walks over to old 486dx4, me installs NT Workstation) :)

we still have ours from last year, im going to be showing off my hoverbot tomarro at Robot Rodeo

Our EDU finally came today. I thought FIRST were supposed to ship the EDU's out a while ago but at least they came. We were actually supposed to receive the EDU yesterday but it arrived today. Wonder what went on?

FIRST used ground shipping.

I FINALLY got to the point of being able to compile and upload to the new eduRC. Whew.
And, the results are really cool. While we still don't have our R/C controller yet, I programmed it to do a few things. First off, I'm using my crab-drive edubot that I built before we got the new controller. I've gotten it to basically strafe around in different shapes, circles, triangles, squares, etc.
I'm having a bit of a problem w. the servos though...
The Range of the pwmXX variables is still 0-255, right? For some reason, The HiTec Servos from last year's kit wont go all the way around to 0 when 0 is sent, and wont go all the way around to the other end at 255. They do center at 127, though. I tried a few different things, but I'm still having some issues getting them to go from 0 deg (0) to 90 (127) to 180 (255). And Yes, I know that the servos actually have over 180 degrees of rotation, so these numbers aren't 100% correct, but the problem is that they won't move enough. I'm not sure why. In all my previous work with servos, I haven't had this problem...

Anywho, I'm trying to find a small portion of free web space I can link to to post up some video of the bot in action. We're still in the process of getting our "new" domain set up.

servo range
 

Are you sure about the servo range? I had a HiTech servo that only had a range of about 100 degrees.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure, but maybe you're right.
The servos I'm using are from last year's kit.
Hey, It's good enough for me to get it to do a few shapes, so I'm fine for now. :)
I really like the fact that it can be programmed to run without any special equipment. I already have tons of auto modes programmed within just one day! And, you can switch betwen them easily.
I'm still searching for some free web space to upload some videos of the MiniCrab in action...

nice...so do i... but how do you easily switch between them? i just have separate .hex files.

I use this method:

F_Count > Function Counter. This counter is set at the beginning, and performs a task based on it's number.

T_Count > The number in seconds for each task (F_Count) to be performed. This could be turned into an array for separate times per function.

counter > A temporary Cycle counter. The Main User Routines (17ms) loops about 58 times/sec. So, the main loop thus contains:

counter ++;

if (counter > (T_Count * 58))
{
F_Count ++;
counter=0;
}

Then, we simply check the value of F_count to define the robot's Current Functions:

if (F_Count == 2)
{
pwm01 = pwm02 = 254;
pwm03 = 0;
pwm04 = 254;
}

Now, I could use a switch instead of a bunch of 'if's, but the last time I tried the compiler didn't like it...
So, F_Count 1-10 could be one function, 12-16 another, etc. You need to alot one extra value check for each main function to reset it, if you want it to loop:

if (F_Count == 11)
{
F_Count = 1;
}

etc.

The way I'm currently switching between them is in the programming. I just change the F_Count's Initial Value, and T_Count's value accordingly.
You could easily set up your digital i/o pins so that you can install a jumper on a set of pins and it will trigger a certain auto mode. I'm working on something like that now...

haha..yea i had the same problem w/ switch


anyways..thanks for the info..

I just installed the software, compiled a program, and down-loaded the code. The down load only took a few seconds (10-15) much like the previous year's controller.

I originally tried to install using Crossover Office (under Linux). No real success.

I then attempted Windoze ME. OK on the MPLAB stuff. No success on the IFI.

Finally, I installed under Windoze98. All went fine.

Thank goodness they supplied us with the EDU controller and compiler NOW. I cannot imagine trying to deal with these issues along with everything else in the build phase.

I anticipate many late nights loading code into the EDU controller before January.

We received our EDUBot on Friday
 

And haven't had much time to do anything with it yet...it's just sitting there.

I was amazed at the small size of the new contolller compared with the one from last year! Reminds me of that Subway guy!

Anyone here in Canada gotten their's yet? We haven't.

our team hooked the new EDU controller to an R/C system we had from a few years back (that we used for older robots)

I think its an AirTronics 4 channel FM system (will check later)

it worked perfectly - students had our EDU bot running around in no time at all, using the default code in the controller.

Personally I like the new hobbie R/C transmitter setup - it lets you put the whole EDU kit into a container (from last years game) and carry it around - and we dont have to share the Operator Interface with the full sized robot anymore.

and, now we have two Robot controllers for the EDU kit, the new one and last years, so you could build two robots with the one EDU kit, and have mini competitions if you really wanted to.

ours came in today anyone know what the coeffecint of friction is for the wheels, i am guessing 2 or 3

I checked the radio system we used - its a HiTec, not airtronics.

BTW - for the post above ^ the coeffecient of friction is always less than 1 - you cant have a stonger fiction force than the normal force, unless the material hooks or glues itself to the mating surface.

Off-topic, but what's the rationale behind stating that mu < 1? As examples, here's a potentially contradictory explanation (http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/51493.html), and here's a spec sheet for sorbothane (a plastic foam) that neither adheres nor hooks onto any other surface (http://www.sorbothane.com/PDF/sor_matprop.pdf). They report a static coefficient of friction of greater than 15 under certain conditions!

Tristan,

A "sticky" subject indeed. All references are correct. For most all applications, mu is indeed less than one, however, it is not a physical requirement.

As an example, I ask that you consider one of nature's most amazing substances... Water.

When a skater is gliding across the ice, the weight of the blade of her skate causes the ice to melt and this lubricates the ice/blade boundary to a very small value of mu.

Now for an old fashioned dinner table experiment. Take a standard teaspoon, clean both the spoon and the end of your nose with a clean napkin (this gets rid of grease). Next, breathe heavily on the spoon to create a light layer of condensation. Now you can "hang" the spoon off the tip of your nose demonstrating a mu of > 1.0 for the very same substance (water).

In our first example, water is a "lubricant" and in the second it is a "glue". Both actions must be examined on an extremely small scale to be understood.

In general, Ken is correct. For mu > 1 there is usually a hook or glue mechanism at work. Just remember, the action might be taking place at the molecular level...

Quick Question...
 

I can't seem to be able to get any switches to work...
I read the manual and tried all sorts of wiring configurations, but none of them seem to work. I have a printf that shows the raw switch value for digital in 1. Right now I've got the program set to 0 analog and all 16 pins digital in. For some reason it just won't work. I'm trying to develop a MIDI type auto mode program that takes a 8 way joystick (8 switches, like the ol' arcade ones) and times the time per position, dumps it to an array in EEPROM and can write several auto modes, and play them back.
I've got mostly everything I need. Also, how is EEPROM handled now? With PBasic it was a simple Read/Write sort of thing. I'll have to look back through the programming guide...

An object can have a CoF greater than one without sticking or hooking into the mating surface. Look at Brecofex's catalog. The red Linatex belting backing has a CoF of 1.1

You know, I was going to include exactly that as another example....

What exactly comes in the EDU kit for veteran teams?

Just the controller and software. No batteries or anything else.