Dashboard Viewer?

[stevex]

The Dashboard viewer seems (to me) as if it's a program where you can input your values for different robot functions, or is it just used for showing you what the functions you programmed already are doing at a certain time?

[Greg Ross]

Yeah, it's just a read only program. It reads the data coming out of the dashbord port. There is no functionality for inputting data into the dashboard port.

[cbolin]

Hi,
I have written a VB6 program that does two really useful things.

1) It monitors 4 PWM outputs for 15 seconds and converts this information into Autonomous Code. Cut and Paste.
2) Datalogs PWM and some Digital outputs to a comma delimited file. Great for importing into Excel.

We used number 1 above perform complex movements to the loading arm. The source code replicated this pretty well. However, fast movements are not captured precisely. Lots of opportunity to make real time improvements to the software.

We will use number 2 above to compare PWM outputs to our drive motors with the Analog inputs from the current sensors inline with the motors. We hope to detect wheel slippage and allow the bot to improve positive traction.

It is generally configurable in the source code, not too hard to understand if you are a VB programmer.

Let me know if you have VB programmers who want to play with the code. I'll be glad to share it.

Regards,
ChuckB

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by cbolin

Hi,

Let me know if you have VB programmers who want to play with the code. I'll be glad to share it.

Ohhhh... count me in..

The autonmous code writer seems pretty cool, i was playing around with something similar myself, except you draw the robots movements on the field in waypoints (much like the 116 Dashboard) then edit the waypoints to add events , such as arm movements, relay open/close, IR sensing stuff...

If you are really feeling ambitious you can put the source files in a zip and upload it as a Chief Delphi White Paper.

[seanwitte]

Last year I wrote a VB program to control the mini-RC from a PC. A summary of it and our dashboard program (in CD whitepapers) is here. I can't upload the setup program to the whitepapers area because its too big. The application provides 4 "virtual" joysticks and 8 switches as inputs to the RC, and allows the RC to send back 8 bytes, 6 integers, and 16 bits of feedback.

Last year we worked on a gyro/encoder based positioning system. The robot at all times was aware of its cartesian coordinates and heading. There is an optional workspace view that plots the robot on a 20' x 20' grid based on the coordinates and heading provided by the robot. We mapped one of the PCInterface joysticks to the drive motors and could see the robot move within the workspace in realtime.

The last feature is a data logger that allows you to save and plot any of the values shown in the interface. It only saves them as bitmaps, but you can resample them to reduce the size.

The C headers and source files will be installed in the application folder when you run the setup program. The readme.txt file explains how to use the PCInterface library. The C code is pretty straight forward, just bear in mind that you cannot use printf at all while you're using PCInterface. The input and feedback data are defined as macros in pc_interface.h. Please do not download the setup package more than once.

http://members.cox.net/seanwitte

Sean Witte
Team 116