Would it be better to order the special reflective tape from MMH? Or, do you think using some bought from Home Depot is good enough?
make sure its retroreflective and not just regular reflective tape…cuz the retro reflective tape has special properties making it ideal for sensing situations.
Having the retroreflective tape is very important. Regular reflective tape won’t work, because it doesn’t return light directly to its source. Without that, the optical sensors won’t work well at all.
actually it depends on your application,
for line tracking it is ok to use regular white tape.
upto like 8" or so and it can still detect the line.
But for greater distances > 216" (6meters),
gotta use retroflective tape. (e.g. scouting for stacks)
As far as I know, the white line on the ground isn’t even “reflective”, it is just white tape.
The boxes have the retroreflective stuff on them.
Actually white tape is reflective to a certain degree.
you can believe me, as I’ve already made our robot’s
sensors.
i’ve tested it on black surface, carpet, and if i put
a peice of tape (white), the sensors become “active”
*Originally posted by crazycliffy *
**Actually white tape is reflective to a certain degree.
you can believe me, as I’ve already made our robot’s
sensors.i’ve tested it on black surface, carpet, and if i put
a peice of tape (white), the sensors become “active” **
Isnt that because the sensors see the change between white and black? I’m told thats what happens by our electronics people… but im not a programmer, so feel free to ignore my ignorance:D
Cory
We did get some reflective tape from the bus shop called 3M Scotchlite Reflective Material Stripe that I think will work. I’m looking for it on 3M’s site now for any specs.
the difference between retroreflective tape and regular reflective tape if i can remeber my physics class…has to do with the fact as stated above the retro tape will reflect it back at a 90 degree angle from the source no matter what angle u strike it at…i think i said that right…basicly if u hit it at 45degree’s it’ll bounce right back into the sensor just like if light strikes it perpindicularly.
Regular reflective tape just has properties similar to a reflective surface and i believe it probably either diffuses the light a bit or polarizes it…dont know for sure as this is not my area of expertise.
All i know is they wont work the same…
Josh