Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

Welll lets think..
if there are no lights for a camera to react off of I believe the IR is for use to tell the robot which ball to go to at the beginning. Since its a random choice.


:ahh:

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

For those who haven't tried to operate your remote WHILE 5 other remotes are being used....well you should try it.

Pretty futile.

Your robot better know what to do once it's left the starting gate. I think the odds of getting a signal thru all the interfering IR will be unlikely.:ahh:

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

My idea is to add a restrictor tube to the ir reciever so that it will only see the remote of our robocoach when at the right angle to turn. Further thinking upon this makes it a bad idea, but i thought it was nifty.

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

I say cut out wasting a button on forward drive, and set your robot to move forward by itself. You can still steer with the other two buttons, and the back button could stop the robot and cycle through whatever processes that you choose or need.

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

There is no cycling of processes. You get four things.

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

and this is exactly why we made this post. We tried the remote with others at the same time and it was "pretty futile."
Sending a signal at the beginning of the match is the most insuring way to ensure that it receives it, PLUS autonomous should ideally be enough to do what you want it to do. The fact that a camera has no green light to detect this year would have made autonomous not enough by itself in finding the correct ball to "tip." :D :D

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

How about 4 buttns like this:
1) forward
2) turn left
3) raise arm/ lower arm
4) stop

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

for all of those who suggested
turn left
go forward
knock ball down
etc.
the problem is simple- the IR sensor gets signals from the remote only in a maximum of 3-4 meter range. the balls are 8 meters away from the robocoach so these commands are not possible.

i also have a question- i could i use the IR to determine which "autonomus mode" i would like to choose(ball to you left ball to your right etc.) but can i send the robot these signals during initialize mode ? (when the robot is on but not autonomus yet)

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

another good point made. The best range we got with the right light conditions and no interference with other remotes was 12ft. That field is obviously too large for the remote to send signals to during the match.

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

We got about 25, up to 30 feet using a Sony projector remote. It was in plain lighting conditions and only using the one remote. It was just a walk-backwards-until-it-doesn't-work kind of test.

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

well its no wonder you got a greater range. Its a Sony....hehe.

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

On the other hand... it did install a rootkit on our IR board. :(

lol

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

Has anyone else had success with long(er) range remotes? Does anyone know of a place to buy a long range remote? I've got a couple people searching for a better remote.

If my team comes up with a mod to the remote to make it more powerful, I'll certainly share it.

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

There is still some debate as to the interpretation of this rule (and the other rules about only 4 commands/actions). From Rule R67:

• use a maximum of four different inputs from the ROBOCOACH (e.g. use four different buttons) during any single MATCH
• communicate no more than four messages, states or conditions to the ROBOT (please refer to Rule <R69> and Rule <G01> for additional information) during any single MATCH.

So if the action on your card for button 1 says "put robot in state 1", in hybrid mode that could communicate ball position (if state=1, ball is on left side; do this....); in tele-operated mode that could be open gripper (if state=1, extend actuator number 2).

We'll have to wait and see what the ruling is on definition of "command set"; is it you commanding the RC (where my example is OK; I'm still commanding the same thing) or the RC commanding the robot (where it's not, because the RC has changed it's command set during the match)?

Re: BEST USE of the IR Remote!!!
 

We need Dave here to comment on this, but officially should post on the Q&A board on the FIRST site for a response.