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[Geoffrey4283]

Since I'm using the EDU robot, I've only got one DB15 to plug into. It has a built in 900MHz radio, so I have my OI plugged into the radio, and then I have the tether/program port on the Isaac 16 plugged into the COM1 on my computer. Should I turn it to program or tether in order to get it to run? Because neither seems to work.

[rbayer]

program. Does the little blue window even show up after you send the code? If not, you may need to select New Debug Window (or something similar) from one of the menus. Ctrl+D may do this, but I'm not sure.

[Geoffrey4283]

No blue window is popping up. We already set one though, and it seems to be blocking the COM1 port now, and it won't let me clear it out. Blue window popped up, but not getting any signal. SO if you dont' think there's anything wrong with that bit of programming, then it must be our connections, or our variables. Thank you very much for your assistance.

[Geoffrey4283]

Got the COM port cleared and successfully debugged rc_sw1, only to find out that no, the sensor is not getting across. Still unaware of the origin of the problem, waited until I returned home and dropped the code into RoboEmu as you suggested. It worked beautifully! Exactly what we wanted it to do. So apparently our problem is electrical, and we're probably going to spend some time analyzing electrical layouts and try to figure out what the heck is going on. Thanks for all the help on the program, we're halfway there.

[Greg Ross]

<disclaimer>I'm only the programmer</disclaimer>

How many wires are you attaching to the switch inputs on the edubot? It sounds like you are only connecting one. When we hooked up the banner sensors to our edubot, I think we connected the white and black wires to each of the two pins of a switch input.

[Geoffrey4283]

As far as I know, that's naughty? From what I've been told, and seen posted on these sites, you're only supposed to be using one. If that's not the case, it still shouldn't be causing a problem, because only one is necessary. Each is only sending a 1 or a 0, combining them doesn't do much else? I coudl very well be wrong though. Love to know it if I am? It would solve a lot of our problems.

[Noah]

You can attach both wires to sensor inputs, but be aware that they are mutually exclusive: When one is on the other is off, and vice-versa. If you know the state of one wire you know the state of the other. If you plug them both in then your just using an extra sensor input, and if you program to check both of them your just wasting processer time.

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by Geoffrey4283
As far as I know, that's naughty? From what I've been told, and seen posted on these sites, you're only supposed to be using one. If that's not the case, it still shouldn't be causing a problem, because only one is necessary. Each is only sending a 1 or a 0, combining them doesn't do much else? I coudl very well be wrong though. Love to know it if I am? It would solve a lot of our problems.

Originally posted by Noah
You can attach both wires to sensor inputs, but be aware that they are mutually exclusive: When one is on the other is off, and vice-versa. If you know the state of one wire you know the state of the other. If you plug them both in then your just using an extra sensor input, and if you program to check both of them your just wasting processer time.

I could be mistaken. (See the disclaimer.) Each switch input (on the edubot) has two pins. If you only use one of the wires, what do you do with the other pin? All I REALLY know is that we got it to work. I won't get a chance to examine our eduBot until Thursday.

[rbayer]

You've got to make the switch input a complete circuit. At least that's how it works on the full-size RC. My team never used the EduBot w/sensors, but here's how I'm guessing you would do it based on how I wired the full RC last season:

Brown -> Power source +
Blue (ground)-> one of the switch pins
White or Black -> the other switch pin

Any EE people want to confirm this?

[Geoffrey4283]

Witht he EDu robot, that hook-up has one problem. There is no power provided on the Isaac 16 for sensors. It's not designed for it. So we've got two 9 volt batteries providing power to the sensor. If we put the blue ground to the ground on the Isaac 16, then the circuit with the batteries wouldn't be complete. We coudl try it though, just plugging it into the back of the 7.2 volt power supply on the battery pack. Just didn't seem like it was strong enough when we tried it before. We'll see. Definately looking for some EE support on this, probably going to post in their forum.

[Eric Reed]

Has anyone found the answer to this? There are two things I know:

1) The banner sensor has to be connected to both power + and ground.

2) Something must be hooked up to both of the sensor input pins

Also, I am 99.9% certain that it's not the two remaining sensor wires that get hooked up to the sensor input, since they both seem to be +.

Anyone who has used banner sensors with the EduBot successfully, please look to see how you wired it.

Thanks,

Eric.

[Eric Reed]

Okay, we figured it out.

Brown goes to the negative side of two 9-volt batteries connected in series.
Blue goes to the positive side of the 9-volt batteries.
Blue also goes to one pole of the switch input on the edubot
Black or White goes to the other pole of the switch.

Yay...it works!

Eric

[Hailfire]

Go ahead and try: DevX and Parallax Inc.. Hope this helped.