We’re planning on contacting IFI as we’ve realized that we never received our sensor panel, but I think it’s too late to request something like this. Just in case, does anyone know where you can buy the Dual Axis Accelerometer and Yaw rate gyro?
I know there are quite a few comparable (if not better) ones out there for not much money, but I don’t really know what we need to interface with the board. Any suggestions?
We e-mailed our request for the sensors by the January XX (? can’t remember) deadline and received them today (Feb. 9). Perhaps yours is still in the mail?
Jason
Were we meant to email a request? From the Kit of Parts list, it sounded like everyone was meant to recieve one in the mail. We have yet to take any action (and it is probably too late), but where do we ermail it to? IFI?
And also looking for suggestions for alternatives that might come in the mail more quickly. You know, last week and everything.
There was an e-mail from FRCteams mid January with the title “upcoming deadlines” that included the following:
"Gyro/Accelerometer Board Deadline: The deadline for requesting the gyro/accelerometer sensor boards is this Friday, January 15, 2007, 5 pm EST. Remember, there is no charge for these boards. If you think that these boards would be an asset to your robot design, please email [email protected] and let us know!
"
I can’t recall if was also mentioned in one of the earlier team updates or not. My apologies that this information does not particularly help your current situation. Perhaps someone more familiar with alternative sources for these sensors will point you towards something at digikey or another on-line source with speedy shipping.
Sorry for the not particularly helpful reply,
Jason
Oh bummer…
Well then I guess I definitely need an alternative. I’ll blast off an email, but somehow, I imagine that even if they still have extra sensors, they won’t get here in time.
Any suggestions for alternatives?
My team ordered the panel, and will probably not use some of the pieces.
Unfortunately, I brought the YRG chip to a local team this week since they needed it, but put out some feelers in your area, and see if any teams DID order it and have no intention of using those parts of the board.
If you have no luck in that, and still need the DAA chip, I can see if we are going to use that, and if not mail it out to you.
They are each the size of a stamp, so shipping is really nothing in terms of cost.
No promises, but let me know.
As for an alternate source, www.sparkfun.com seems to be good. I haven’t actually ordered from them, but they appear to have a good selection, and I believe others on CD have used them.
The exact same chips as on the FIRST boards are available from them (though with a slightly different pinout):
DAA: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=845
Gyro: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=396
Note: the different pinout is due to having a different PCB layout; the chip itself is the same chip and therefore has the same pinout, but you’re connecting to the PCB, not the actual chip.
I’ll probably buy this today, but can you explain how exactly I’d do the pinout?
It seems like I’d make one white goto the YA, another white goto the XA, and then just hook up a red to VCC and a black to GND. Right?
What exactly are the Y-PWM, X-PWM, and ST ports? And in the schematic there is the BIAS output, does this one actually do something with that?