Beginner's Robonova Questions

[visuvius]

Hi All,

Last Wednesday I received my Robonova and I got it built by Friday night. This website was a tremendous help as I knew beforehand what problems I might have during the build process and I was prepared for them. Everything came together nicely and I didn't have any real issues.

Let me just say that this thing is SO freakin cool. After my wife and I were finished laughing are butts off at the preprogrammed moves, I decided to study the template for a while. I have 0 programming experience so this is the thing that has intimidated me from the beginning with this project. I'm glad I took the time to study the Overall Template and I recommend it to any other beginner; once you go over it a few times, you really get a better idea of what is going on.

Now i've got some questions:

1) I see that there are multiple methods to use when programming your own custom moves. My question is, what is the preferred method that the more experienced roboteers use? Is the "by-hand" method the easiest/best way to do it, or do you guys manually edit the code or what? Like Matt's Kung-Fu moves (AWESOME), how did he go about programming all of that? I'm sure it took considerable time and tweaking, but how were the original moves recorded?

2) I think I've got some sort of problem with my zero settings. I've got it as close to the manual as possible but he still does some weird stuff. For example, during the "Fast Walk" routine, my Robonova tends to walk in an arc, and not straight. Is this normal? Also, the Turn Left and Turn Right is not equal, it turns more in one direction than the other. The other move I see the problem with is the Left Hand Attack and Right Hand Attack. One of them is super stable while the other is much less so, to the point where sometimes he will fall forward.

How would I go about troubleshooting this? Is this simply a matter of zero settings and further tweaking? How do you guys fine tune your Robonova?

3) I created a very simple motion and wanted to upload it with RoboRemocon. I was able to do so very easily, but my problem is, my zero settings did not stick. Why is this? Why is it that when I reload the Overall Template, or one of the original moves in Robobasic, it keeps the zero settings, but when I upload in an individual move in RoboRemocon, it seems to erase them? I know you can INSERT the code for the settings in the "Robonova Zero Set" screen, but where do I insert that code? Into the RSF file for the move I want to upload?

4) How much run time should I be getting from my battery? Most people say around an hour but this does not seem to be the case for me. Are you guys getting an hour of actual servo movements? I'm definitely not. I imagine if I ran nonstop moves, my battery would last no more than 15 minutes (I've yet to try). I run some moves, program for a bit and the battery is dead. Is this normal?

5) What is some of the first stuff you guys did with your Robonovas?

Sorry for all the questions and I hope they aren't too newbish! Hopefully in time I will be able to help beginners as I have been helped. To be honest, the user community for the Robonova is what made me purchase it over the Kondos or Robophilo. This forum (especially the Search function) has been insanely helpful. Right off the bat it's kept me from frying my board as the other night I was set to program and fiddle with the robot plugged into the wall! Little did I know.


PS, more people need to join the chatroom! It'd be awesome if it showed when there are people currently in the room; maybe a number next to the Chat link.

[Tim]

Hi Vesuvius

I got my RN up and running first thing Sunday so I won't attempt to answer your questions (fellow newbie and all that)

However, my wife and I also had a good laugh at his antics. I think he surprised her by doing more than just walking!

We're planning to use ours as a demo for potential students (Electronics Engineering department) and I was showing it off to colleagues at coffee this morning but the IR remote was not performing at all well. They thought RN itself was ace though. Time to install the bluetooth module I think...

Look forward to seeing what you get up to with yours!

Cheers
Tim

[tom_chang79]

Hey Tim, regarding your IR, check to make sure you're using a fresh set of battery for it. Rattle it a bit to see if you hear anything loose, maybe there are some cold solder joints inside.

Also, anything IR, try to operate it away from fluorescent lights, perhaps the modulation from the light is bugging it...

[Tim]

Hi Tom, All

Turned out that the batteries had gone flat overnight - and a new set soft of fixed the problem (a quick look at the remote through my mobile phone camera revealed nice blue IR flashes after the battery was changed). However, there still seems to be a second or two time out after a move before the next move is registered - being fairly impatient with user interfaces, this was frustrating.

If that is simply fluorescent interference, short of turning off the lights (not an option here I'm afraid), I guess we're stuck with that.

It could of course still be a cold soldered joint - haven't investigated that one yet. I think I'll put it on the scope when I have a chance and take a look too.

Failing that, it seems to me that the standard controller software is obviously occupied with the movements and not with the IR remote - I understand from various interesting posts on here that the controller doesn't implement ISR support . . .

I'd like to have a fairly responsive system so I'm toying with the idea of following in i-bot and DanAlbert's footsteps (but other work commitments might make this a fairly slow option for me)

The sort of thing I was thinking of was an FPGA based controller <skipping>, so you could queue IR commands into a FIFO for processing when each move is complete. Perhaps FIFO length of 1, a 'clear FIFO' command, and an 'abort move' command (e.g. if you kick off a 8 move karate sequence and change your mind) might come in handy. Popping the first command in the FIFO onto an LCD display might also be a nice way of assuring the user that their button press has been registered.

The other daft thought I have had is a replacement for the £1k laser radar system that is on sale elsewhere.

I wondered if mounting a distance sensor on a small servo, popping it where the RN head is, scanning it around, then deconvolving the response with the beam width, could give a simple indication of either (a) the nearest doorway, or (b) nearest object. I'm guessing this would be a fairly course system, and that the calibration you get with a stock distance sensor would only apply to the angle it was pointed when you calibrated it (all angle calibration would require modifying the control circuit in the distances sensor module, or replicating it)

I've just picked up a fairly ancient and large-ish(!) spartanII FPGA dev board from a colleague to have a play with but I'm not expecting to make progress fast, if at all, due to other work commitments...

Anyway, just some daft thoughts for the minute!

Cheers





Cheers
Tim

[NVR2FST]

There are posts with a fix for your delay with the remote. If you hit your remote with a move, right after the third flash it will work everytime. From what I have read here , it is the controller running code to do a battery check. There is a fix in the code and a little wire mod. It is in the forum here. Or go to the Bauer Independants site.

[DirtyRoboto]

1) I use motion control and then tweek the numerical code when I see the routine run. I mainly tweek speeds and small inc/dec with code.

2) On zeros I have found that I need to tweak and do some moves and then tweak again.

3) Zeros are global and single motions use the global zero. You would include a psudo standard_pose as a soft zero.

4) I now have 2x RN1s and get 40min to 1.4 hrs run time depending on the workload. If I am recording a vid then I will fully charge my unit so it is at full strength to cover the many takes I may need to shoot.

5) Play with the walk routines and explore robobasic, make the RN1 play music.

BTW. I never use the battery check and have removed it from my code.

Dirty.

[Tim]

Thanks guys.... time to chop out the battery check code

T

[visuvius]

1) I use motion control and then tweek the numerical code when I see the routine run. I mainly tweek speeds and small inc/dec with code.

2) On zeros I have found that I need to tweak and do some moves and then tweak again.

3) Zeros are global and single motions use the global zero. You would include a psudo standard_pose as a soft zero.

4) I now have 2x RN1s and get 40min to 1.4 hrs run time depending on the workload. If I am recording a vid then I will fully charge my unit so it is at full strength to cover the many takes I may need to shoot.

5) Play with the walk routines and explore robobasic, make the RN1 play music.

BTW. I never use the battery check and have removed it from my code.

Dirty.

Thanks for the tips Dirty. Your videos and post have been really helpful in this little adventure. Actually, your "starpose" routine was the first complex move I tried making. While its not exactly graceful, I think i was able to replicate a lot of it! Before that I had tried my own walk routine and failed miserably lol. So now I'm trying some easier stuff and moving up from there.

3) Zeros are global and single motions use the global zero. You would include a psudo standard_pose as a soft zero.

Would you mind expanding on this a little bit? What do you mean I would include standard_pose as a soft zero?

This whole thing has been a lot of fun but also a little vexing at times, mainly the programming bit. I've read damn near 14 pages of forum posts about the RN1 so far so its getting a little better. I just ordered an accelerometer and gyro and am super excited (but also a bit intimidated) to start tinkering with those.

[DirtyRoboto]

Soft zero, or alternate standard is what I use as my standard_pose. As most routines goto standard_pose after execution I modded the pose so that the knees were more bent, the hips were slightly back and the shoulders were slightly forward. All of my routines thereafter were started and finished at my new and more stable standard_pose.

With the star pose my intention was to pump the Rn up with a feet flick (both outer edges down and inner edges up) with highspeed on at 15, then the hips do a split to bring the feet flat with the floor in the star pose. I was looking at a way of getting air as the servos are not powerful enough for a vertical jump.

Dirty.

See here for some code...
http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
Star Pose - http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=