RoboSavvy Forum

Electronic Brains and Sensors • GND or not GND ... that is my question

2017-06-11T14:33:54+01:00

Hi,

I hope there are some smart electronic circuit designers among the reader who can help me (rookie) solve the following issue I'm having. I am using the L293D Motor-Driver ICs which require a logic supply voltage (VCC1: 5V) and a power supply voltage (VCC2: up to 36V). Since I realized that they draw some current when VCC2 is connected I thought it would be clever to supply VCC2 only once the motors are needed (similar to the 'enable' pin). Question is what do I do with the VCC2 pin when it is not connected to the power supply. Can I pull it to GND or shall I leave it open?
Selection_036.png

Statistics: Posted by Marsman — Sun Jun 11, 2017 2:33 pm

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Jetduino: Smart servo control on the Jetson TK1

2016-02-26T14:46:21+01:00

I just posted a new video and blog showing how easy it is to control Dynamixel smart servos with the Jetson TK1 & Jetduino. The Jetduino is a robotics interface board for the Jetson TK1 embedded supercomputer I am building. It makes it very easy to build robots that can use the parallel processing capabilites of the NVIDIA GPU for vision and neural networks.

Blog Post with YouTube videos: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/32/Smart-servo-control-on-the-Jetson-TK1-with-Jetduino.aspx

Newsletter: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Newsletter

Here are a couple of links describing the Jetduino:

Jetduino V1 description: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/25/Jetduino-prototype-boards-ordered

Jetduino V1 test results: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/26/Jetduino-V01-Test-Results

Control 66 digital I/O lines: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/29/Jetduino-setup-and-digital-IO

Control 24 analog I/O lines:http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/30/Jetduino-analog-IO

Thanks

Statistics: Posted by neurobots — Fri Feb 26, 2016 2:46 pm

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Jetduino: standard servo control on the Jetson TK1

2016-02-21T15:01:12+01:00

I just posted a new video and blog entry showing how easy it is to control up to 12 standard servos with the Jetson TK1 & Jetduino. The Jetduino is a robotics interface board for the Jetson TK1 embedded supercomputer. It makes it very easy to build robots that can use the parallel processing capabilites of the NVIDIA GPU for vision and neural neural networks. If you would like to be kept up to date on the progress of this project please sign up for my newsletter. I plan to launch a crowdfunding campaign to get the Jetduino produced sometime in March or April, and I will need the help of any makers out there who want to make it easier to build robots or electronic projects with the awesome Jetson TK1.

Blog Post with YouTube videos: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/31/Standard-servo-control-on-the-Jetson-TK1-with-Jetduino.aspx

Newsletter: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Newsletter

Here are a couple of links describing the Jetduino:

Jetduino V1 description: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/25/Jetduino-prototype-boards-ordered

Jetduino V1 test results: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/26/Jetduino-V01-Test-Results

Control 66 digital I/O lines: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/29/Jetduino-setup-and-digital-IO

Control 24 analog I/O lines:http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/30/Jetduino-analog-IO

Thanks

Statistics: Posted by neurobots — Sun Feb 21, 2016 3:01 pm

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Jetduino: Robotics interface for NVIDIA Jetson TK1

2016-02-14T13:40:38+01:00

I have been working on a new interface board for the Jetson TK1 embedded supercomputer called the Jetduino. It makes it very easy to build robots that can use the parallel processing capabilites of the NVIDIA GPU for vision and neural neural networks.

The Jetduino mounts above the Jetson and has a small connector that fits in the 2mm J3A connectors. A Raspberry Pi GPIO ribbon cable then connects it to the Jetduino. It has mounting points for a 2.5" HD, wireless antennas, a large proto-typing area, and a built-in shield for an Arduino Due. Just like the GrovePi for the Rapsberry Pi, you can use Python and C libraries to talk directly to the Arduino to set and receive digital and analog data. You can also control regular and smart servos. It has numerous Grove and RobotGeek connectors for modular sensors and motor actuators. I just put out a new blog post and two YouTube videos showing how to setup the Jetduino and perform digital I/O with 12 of the Jetson TK1 GPIO lines, and the 54 lines available on the Due. I am working on videos to show off the other features as well. If you would like to be notified when these are available please sign up for my newsletter. I plan to launch a crowdfunding campaign to get the Jetduino produced sometime in March or April, and I will need the help of any makers out there who want to make it easier to build robots or electronic projects with the awesome Jetson TK1.

Blog Post with YouTube videos: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/29/Jetduino-setup-and-digital-IO
Newsletter: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Newsletter

Here are a couple of links describing what the Jetduino is.
Jetduino V1 description: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/25/Jetduino-prototype-boards-ordered
Jetduino V1 test results: http://neurorobotictech.com/Community/Blog/tabid/184/ID/26/Jetduino-V01-Test-Results

Thanks

Statistics: Posted by neurobots — Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:40 pm

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Re: BeagleBone cape gives Quadcopter ROS realtime brain

2015-03-31T11:27:34+01:00

Dunno - that's kind of odd...

Statistics: Posted by PaulL — Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:27 am

Electronic Brains and Sensors • BeagleBone cape gives Quadcopter ROS realtime brain

2015-03-30T18:29:21+01:00

Launched on KickStarter, Spanish team launches the PixHawk Fire Cape targeting Linux based Quadcopter fans
Includes realtime Ubuntu distribution called Snappy

The board comes with 3 IMUs no less:
MPU6000: 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer and temperature sensor.
MPU9250: 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer and temperature sensor
LSM9DS0: 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer and temperature sensor.
MS5611-01BA03: Barometer that includes pressure and temperature sensors.

What can you do with 3 IMUs that you can't do with a simple $2 Inversense 6050 ?
I'm not quite sure but one of my personal interests is IMU odometry (double integration of acceleration. currently impractical due to dramatic accumulation of error). With 3 IMUs in sync maybe something new can be done ?

Statistics: Posted by limor — Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:29 pm

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Re: Machine Vision Module

2014-06-03T07:53:24+01:00

There is also the option of getting a miniature embedded android/linux, linking a webcam and running opencv.
Alternatively there's RoboRealm which offloads the processing to a remote Windows PC. The embedded linux only needs to send image frames over wifi.
It all depends on the image processing requirements

Statistics: Posted by limor — Tue Jun 03, 2014 7:53 am

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Machine Vision Module

2014-04-15T17:37:34+01:00

Hi all!! here find other options to vision mdule

Pixy (CMUcam5)

http://charmedlabs.com/default/?page_id=211

preorder price $69

Technical specs

Processor: NXP LPC4330, 204 MHz, dual core
Image sensor: Omnivision OV9715, 1/4", 1280x800
Lens field-of-view: 75 degrees horizontal, 47 degrees vertical
Lens type: standard M12 (several different types available)
Power consumption: 140 mA typical
Power input: USB input (5V) or unregulated input (6V to 10V)
RAM: 264K bytes
Flash: 1M bytes
Available data outputs: UART serial, SPI, I2C, USB, digital, analog
Dimensions: 2.1" x 1.75" x 1.4"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8sl3nMlYxM

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/254449872/pixy-cmucam5-a-fast-easy-to-use-vision-sensor/

And there a open source module

OpenMV (Open Machine Vision Module)

OpenMV is an open-source tiny machine vision module based on an STM32F4xx ARM Cortex-M4 MCU and an OV9650 sensor, it's currently capable of doing face detection at 25FPS, color tracking at 30FPS+ and has USART interfae and USB-OTG support for debugging and firmware update. This repo contains the hardware resources, drivers, image processing and userspace code.

https://github.com/iabdalkader/openmv

Face Detection With OpenMV (25FPS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdQF5JI4kzU

Color Tracking With OpenMV (30FPS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-oMfnEsa1o

And for arduino users

ArduCAM Shiled

Incorporating standard SPI slave interface
Reduced IOs consumption, only 4 IOs for SPI, 2 IOs for I2C and 1 IO for SD are required
All IOs are 5V and 3.3V tolerant
Support all Arduino families including Arduino DUE
Can be easily ported to any platforms which have SPI port like Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, BeagleBone, pcDuino and etc
Support 1080p still JPEG image capture
Provide low power mode, reduce power consumption and prolong battery life
Well mate with Arudino UNO R3, MEGA2560 R3, Leonardo R3 and DUE boards

Can be easily ported to any platforms which have SPI port like Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, BeagleBone, pcDuino.

ArduCAM Shield Demo

http://www.uctronics.com/arduino-camera-shield-arducam-for-uno-mega2560-board-p-1445.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb5szs5-yMg#aid=P-jYuFhVB0w

http://www.uctronics.com/arduino-camera-shield-arducam-for-uno-mega2560-board-p-1445.html
$29.99

Statistics: Posted by nicolas gomez — Tue Apr 15, 2014 5:37 pm

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Re: new chinese gumstix competitor 74 USD AllWinner A10 Andr

2014-04-15T17:15:07+01:00

HIi all!!
here tha last update.

A80 OptimusBoard - AllWinner Octa-Core , SoC – AllWinner Ultra Core A80

CPU
4x Cortex 15, 4x Cortex A7 At 2.0Ghz

GPU
Imagination Technologies PowerVR GPU 64-core G623

System Memory – 2GB DDR3
Storage – 8GB NAND Flash
Video Output – HDMI 1.4a
Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and Ethernet (GMAC)
1x USB 3.0 OTG HIC
2x USB 2.0 host ports
Audio codec – AC100 Codec

Camera
Camera I/F – 12MP MIPI CSI
Integrated parallel and MIPI I/F sensor
Supports 5M/8M/12M/16M CMOS sensor
Supports 8/10/12-bit YUV/Bayer sensor

Debugging – UART and JTAG
Expansion – 32-pin GPIO header
Misc – IR receiver, reset and power LEDs.
Power management – AXP806, AXP809
Power Supply – DC IN (5V), and battery

Size – 135x70mm
be available in May-June for less than $100.
Here a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et0tUD_mL0E

http://www.allwinnertech.com/en/developer/board/

Allwinner A80, with USB3.0 support (faster transfer and charging), Allwinner A80 Optimus Board, 4K H265 Encode and Decode in real-time, talking performance/power advantage over competition, 64-core G6230 GPU, Allwinner for car safety.
Support Opencl 1.X,Opengl 3.x, Direct 3D, Renderscript.

Here a more complete review about Dev-boards - GPUs - mini pc- SoM modules
https://forum.poppy-project.org/t/vision-system-for-poppy/92/5?u=niko2009

Statistics: Posted by nicolas gomez — Tue Apr 15, 2014 5:15 pm

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Re: New EasyVR Voice Recognition Module now in Stock

2014-02-03T00:52:49+01:00

Hello,

Its not much difficult to connect easyvr with arduino uno ..... Check out this example .... http://www.theengineeringprojects.com/2 ... -with.html .... They have explained this thing very clearly and in full detail .... I think it will help you out. They are very thorough. Still having problems ask here and I will reply.

Thanks.

Statistics: Posted by xainnasir — Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:52 am

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Re: new chinese gumstix competitor 74 USD AllWinner A10 Andr

2013-10-25T05:40:25+01:00

Hi! It is kind of a late comment, but has it been an update lately? I'm interested but I´m not sure if it has already been upgraded.

Statistics: Posted by kasierchiefs — Fri Oct 25, 2013 5:40 am

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Re: Zig2serial Problem

2013-09-24T06:15:37+01:00

Thanks for your reply siempre.

I have read data from zig2serial using c#. i found my problem. the problem is switch usb2dinamyxel (rs232 switch) is bad contact. i repair it, and i found my solution.

Statistics: Posted by nepotech — Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:15 am

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Re: Zig2serial Problem

2013-09-23T09:59:42+01:00

Do you receive absolutely nothing?
There is no data to read? (serialPort.BytesToRead)

The divide and conquer tactic,
- create the most simple PC program to receive data, so you are sending data correctly (CM-5xx->PC Test code)
- cerate the most simple CM-5xx program to send data, testing that you are receiving data correctly (CM-5xx Test code->PC)

- If all works you could continue adding code step to step until it fails or your initial program works.
- If all fails, probably you should learn a little more about it, search articles, books, tutorials, examples... you may find some help at http://softwaresouls.com/softwaresouls/tag/serial-port/
- If a part fails you can focus in that part to find and fix the problem

Hope it helps

Statistics: Posted by siempre.aprendiendo — Mon Sep 23, 2013 9:59 am

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Zig2serial Problem

2013-09-23T04:49:25+01:00

Hi All,

I have zig2serial,zig100 and zig110. I connect the zig110 to atmega16, ang zig100+zig2serial in PC.
I sending a data from zig110 to zig100+zig2serial. I see the indicator RX in zig2serial is blink, but i can't read the data
from my computer. I using C# code program to reading zig2serial data.

Any solution for this problem?
Please help me.

Thanks for all.

Statistics: Posted by nepotech — Mon Sep 23, 2013 4:49 am

Electronic Brains and Sensors • Brain Power - DC to DC Converter...

2013-09-08T13:00:44+01:00

I found and bought a couple of these, Naos Raptor series:

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/NSR020A0X43Z/555-1139-ND/1964566

They're rated at 20 amps, very efficient and compact for their rating.

I'll use this to feed 5v to my Kontron PicoITX 1.6 Ghz board.

I'd like to power the PC board AND the hands (MKS DS-450 servos require 5v, won't take more!) from one of these, but I won't know if that's going to work until I test it (noise, etc).

On that same note, I found that BatchPCB (Sparkfun's board service) went defunct and customers are being pointed to OSHPark.com - seems to be a better, faster service. I'm probably going to end up making a custom controller board to host an STM32F103CBT, PWM connections, a PCA9685, gyro / accelerometer, a stereo audio amp, and one or two of these DC to DC converters - and probably a few connections for some sensors. The nice thing about OSH Park is they'll take a .brd file from Eagle - doesn't get any simpler than that.

I've got about all of the components I'd want as separate boards, but I'm doubtful that I could get it all to fit in the space I have available on my revised torso design. I can pack things in tighter with a custom design.

Statistics: Posted by PaulL — Sun Sep 08, 2013 1:00 pm