Lights to help aim

[apm4242]

I don't have the code with me right now but I'll post screen shots later tonight.

If you can't wait, it's very similar to Team 358's Labview examples except ours uses a button toggle with "Off" and "Forward" as relay inputs. Don't forget to initialize in Begin.vi and end in Finish.vi.

Team 358's site seems to be down for the moment but Mark McLeod posted a .doc file with everything in it - http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/at...1&d=1454513427

[apm4242]

See attached for LabView screen shots. A few notes -

Wiring the blue relay values to the selector was tricky. If someone knows a better way, feel free to correct this but here's what I did - right click on Relay Set and create a constant. Sever the connection between the new constant and the Relay Set. Connect the new constant to the Select and then wire the Select output to the Relay Set. Now the Select will accept and return blue values.

Selecting "On" and "Off" as the relay values did not work - the flashlight just quickly flashed and stayed off. We had to set it to "Forward" and "Off".

The Relay vi's are in the WPI Robotics Library > Actuators > Relay area.

The feedback nodes are finicky. Sometimes they don't turn green when wired to a Boolean on the first try and the arrows may need to be switched (right click). The button toggle code is straight out of Team 358's guide. I highly recommend it. It's the best.

[Coach Seb]

At my first attempt, the light was very bright and it look awesome. Then as soon as i remove power and re-apply the voltage, then it was very dimmed....

I figure i burn the LED or something like that so i proceeed to wire LED flashlight #2, and exactly same thing happen... at first it was bright and just like i want it, then, remove the voltage to the LED and reconnect and it turn on but was very light....

?Is there a cycle to reset or something weird I have to do?

[apm4242]

Originally Posted by Coach Seb

At my first attempt, the light was very bright and it look awesome. Then as soon as i remove power and re-apply the voltage, then it was very dimmed....

I figure i burn the LED or something like that so i proceeed to wire LED flashlight #2, and exactly same thing happen... at first it was bright and just like i want it, then, remove the voltage to the LED and reconnect and it turn on but was very light....

?Is there a cycle to reset or something weird I have to do?

Did you remove the round circuit board inside the flashlight? When functioning normally, there are 3 modes - high, low, flash. When you press the on/off button down half way, the mode switches and it remembers your last mode setting. The circuit board controls this function. It sounds like you might be simulating this by removing and reapplying the voltage.

[Coach Seb]

Yes, we removed the circuit board and solder the LED directly to the voltage converter.

Anybody experience this?

[apm4242]

Strange. We didn't see this. What flashlight and voltage converter are you using? Can you trace the source of the voltage drop with a multimeter to see if it's in the LED, relay, or spike? In other words, try checking if the LED is getting whatever the converter is supposed to put out

[ejscribner]

Is the use of a laser pointer allowed on the robot? I feel like a laser would be exceedingly helpful for aiming and such.

[ollien]

Originally Posted by ejscribner

Is the use of a laser pointer allowed on the robot? I feel like a laser would be exceedingly helpful for aiming and such.

No. Typically, visible lasers are of Class II/III. The blue box on R9 says that you can only use Class I lasers.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Coach Seb

Yes, we removed the circuit board and solder the LED directly to the voltage converter.

I don't know what kind of flashlight you started with. If it's a typical LED, then you have probably fried it by letting it have too much current. You need to have a resistor in series with it to set the current to a level where the LED will work properly.

[Coach Seb]

I bought the exact same thing that was recommended by apm4242....

- LED Flashlight with zoom
- DC-DC Voltage Converter/Regulator
- Spike Relay

I'll check the voltage again... last night we had 10V on the spike relay, i did not check the voltage after the converter yet as we assumed we fried the spike... but yet between test it worked... still wondering...

[JesseK]

I need to do more than a cursory look at electronics for legality, but is it possible to run two flashlights off of one spike relay? We'd like to run one flashlight off of the positive signal and a different flashlight off of the negative signal. Our electronics team has an idea of how it may work, but nothing concrete until they're back from Spring Break.

[apm4242]

I was under the impression that the voltage converter made the resistor unnecessary. Not using the resistor worked for us. For reference, this is what Alan is talking about - https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/219

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by JesseK

I need to do more than a cursory look at electronics for legality, but is it possible to run two flashlights off of one spike relay? We'd like to run one flashlight off of the positive signal and a different flashlight off of the negative signal.

That will work fine. Use the Spike's M+ terminal as the "plus" for one flashlight, the M- terminal as the "plus" for the other, and connect the "minus" of both flashlights to the V- terminal where the ground wire is coming from the PDP. You'll need to know that setting the Spike FORWARD will turn on one light, setting it REVERSE will turn on the other, and setting it ON will turn them both on. OFF will of course turn them both off.

It used to be normal to run two pneumatic solenoid valves from one Spike in exactly this way.

[Ninjastahr]

Honestly, I would use a SuperBright LED ring. You just put it around the camera, and you can HSL/HSV Threshold the image to find the goal. Our team has used this technique and I know for a fact that it works, and doesn't *quite* blind people. Though, it does come close sometimes...

[Michael Hill]

I've been wondering...is there an advantage to using a flashlight rather than the LED ring? Is it just a cost/availability thing or is there some technical advantage as well? #KnowsNothingAboutCV