RQ Huno with arduino / wiring of serial cable, and sensor

[hugobiwan offline]

Hello,
tonight i decided to make some tests with an arduino and the RQ Huno.

First, i tried to use an IR led and to send packets using softserial, in order to emulate the remote controller. It didn't work. So i remembered that on the manual we should "pair" the remote (button 2+power, then "stop" on the remote). I tried to send the corresponding packets at the right moment, but nothing.

Then i unplugged the IR LED from the arduino and tried to send the packets via the serial cable of robobuilder, (plugged in the robobuilder controller) and with 3 wires on the arduino from pin 11 (i use softserial to transmit via this pin), GND and 5V. You can easily unplug the USB connector from RQ Huno cable (where you plug to the computer) and then you have three holes where you can plug wires. No problem to control the robot sending packets like explained on this document :http://robosavvy.com/RoboSavvyPages/Robobuilder/080201-remote_control_command.pdf

It works.

This can be useful : the wiring on RQ Huno serial cable is GND TX RX from left to right with the empty hole on the right

Next, i unplugged everything and decided to plug directly the distance sensor on the arduino in order to check the wiring of this sensor. You can use 5V to get values between 10 and 350 with the analogread() example script given in arduino package. It works.

This is the wiring of the distance sensor : white->signal/middle->5V/right->GND.

Next i think it is possible to mix the things and use the RBC protocol with arduino (to control the actuators, check the sensors...), but also to benefit of the great action builder "catch and play" feature. For example, program a gesture with action builder, launch it with a remote control order, then move only the arms using SAM actuators with the RBC protocol, etc. All with arduino programming. You can also verify that you can very easily put an arduino on the back of the robot, put a simple tilt and so on. I am not skilled in C language and like the idea to add all the sensors you can with an arduino.

Last thing. When i built the RQ Huno, i did'nt have the bluetooth option. I found very annoying that i should take off the controller every time i wanted to plug the serial cable to program the robot. So i simply let the serial cable plugged in the Robobuilder controller and put the cable through the chest, then through the hole at the back of the head. I can make a king of little "roll" here. Then when i want to plug the robot, i just "unroll" the cable (look like a phone cable) and i plug the USB connector to the cable, then in the computer. Little trick but much more confortable

I apologize for my bad english.

Best regards.
@hugobiwan

[freddyzaz offline]

Hello,

I bought an arduino board and a Raspberry Pi mainly to drive a Huno and give it a little intelligence. Happy to see that I'm not alone, at least with the arduino

What I plan to do (it's my first day with the raspi) is to communicate with the robobuilder kit using bluetooth (I own the BT module ).

The raspy is fully configured, with BT and wifi enabled (I use it via a rdp session on my main computer). I'm just surfing the web to find all the documentation or ideas, then I'll pair my Huno and begin to learn Python (easy) to communicate with Huno

Regards,

Fred