Beacon Sensor Problems

[anupalsingh]

our beacon sensor can't find the actual beacon tower at a far distance. it only finds it at very very close distance, like 1 cm away. we even put tubes around it so the direction of the waves is in one direction instead of all over the place.
does any one know of any solution to making the becon sensor work properly?

thanx

[Kevin Karan]

Did you see the update about the incorrect value of the resistor included with the beacon kit. I dont remember what to replace it with though, you will have to check on that. Also, try moving it into an open space where there isnt much for the ir to reflect off of.

[Random Dude]

Do you have the beacon wired properly? The schematic that came with it is incorrect. Extremely short distance is one of the effects of the miswiring (others include excessive power draw, and overheating of components in the circuit). Check the correct schematic located here: http://kevin.org/frc/

You also might want to look at the FAQ at the same location.

Hope this helps...

[Jeff McCune]

We ran into this problem too. Much past 20 feet or so the tracker was horribly inaccurate. It'd find the beacon OK, but it'd be +- 10 degrees, which doesn't help things terribly much.

I completely re-wrote the tracker and receiver code and interrupt routines in order to get a 3 sensor tracker. I added a third sensor in the middle that simply stares down a bic pen tube and is completely sealed off with electical tape. Works incredibly well this way, as the tracker needs to be pointing *directly* at the beacon in order to get all three receivers to register.

I can post pictures / code if you want.

[anupalsingh]

yea, if u can, please post the pictures and code

and thanx a lot random dude, it probably was wired wrong, i'll give it a check.

[PuiChi]

Originally Posted by anupalsingh

yea, if u can, please post the pictures and code

and thanx a lot random dude, it probably was wired wrong, i'll give it a check.

same, please post the pictures. we've had some sensing problems also, but we think it's the coding.

[Kevin Karan]

The way we have them coded, the trackers never stop moving. When they find it, they keep scanning untill they loose it, then they go back till they loose it the other way. We save thoes values and average them. Then we can "safely" say we know where they are. Also, the way we have them set up, they are very accurate at long range. Its nothing like firsts example, instead of the eyes like fish eyes, they are both faceing forward and are separated in the middle, this helps with accuracy.

[anupalsingh]

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

The way we have them coded, the trackers never stop moving. When they find it, they keep scanning untill they loose it, then they go back till they loose it the other way. We save thoes values and average them. Then we can "safely" say we know where they are. Also, the way we have them set up, they are very accurate at long range. Its nothing like firsts example, instead of the eyes like fish eyes, they are both faceing forward and are separated in the middle, this helps with accuracy.

yea, we have the same setup , but they can't detect properly at long ranges for some reason, but they do follow at very near distances.