pic: What are we up to this summer...
 

Re: pic: What are we up to this summer...
 

good luck! also you could probably use a gyro mounted to measure the z-axis to keep it stable. may i also suggesy building a Legway (lego segway - google it, theres a few links) to prototype to make sure you have a lot of the bugs worked out before you build it full-scale. theres nothing worse than making something to have it not work....

Re: pic: What are we up to this summer...
 

That sounds like a pretty sweet project, keep us posted on how it goes

Re: pic: What are we up to this summer...
 

Are you using a ground plane with this board? There is no trace for gnd visible. If so, make sure you select the correct options when you send it to be made. Also, you may want to trim the board down and reduce some of that text, boards get pretty expensive pretty fast as they get bigger.

Re: pic: What are we up to this summer...
 

Oops: Yes, there is a ground plane. I turned it off so I could see what I was doing, but it fills everywhere inside the green outline and all the pads that look like they aren't connected to anything are on that plane.

As for the cost, www.33each.com is my new favorite fab place. $33 boards up to 60 in^2 with no minimum quantity for students. Plus, they send you free popcorn and a Domino's coupon.

Anyone know if the Schottky diode in series (D1) approach is okay for reverse polarity protection for something like this? I'm looking to protect the sensor - the PIC and radio are relatively expendable. Are there any other good methods of making sure the sensor (bottom right connectors) doesn't get toasted?

Re: pic: What are we up to this summer...
 

Works like a charm. Um, not the Segway part yet, just the PCB. I can grab the 3-axis gyro and accel measurements off the sensor at about 300 samples per second and drive two PWMs, plus communicate everything to a PC wirelessly.

Hooking up the $275 sensor for the first time was scary. No matter how many times you check the pin diagram, it's still an adventure.

Re: pic: What are we up to this summer...
 

Dear Sirs:

My name is Laura Andrea Gonzalez, I am student of engineering.

I am working with the ADIS16350 inertial sensor and a dsPIC microcontroller programmed in MPLAB C-30.

Please, can anybody help me with some C code example algorihm about how can I to build the SPI sensor data aquisition?

Thanks in davance.

Laura
:P