PBP projects for R/C models

[ScaleRobotics]

EMCelectronica's price is ok, but their shipping really gets you. The CPUStick is 49 Euros, but shipping is 52 Euros ... ouch! Of course, it could be their store is set up wrong, and shipping wouldn't really be that expensive.

Here is one that fits your breadboard better than the other Sparkfun device:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=8971

I have trouble with some 44 pin devices, so I am a little scared of soldering one of these big guys. I would use an off the shelf product for testing, then if it looks like it would do the job, you could have some boards made and try some soldering.

[Kenjones1935]

Thanks for the tip. The board looks OKAY, but only if I can solder pins into those holes and plug the thing into a solderless proto board. Of course some of the pins across the bottom would not have matching holes.

Oh, I see. The picture of the red board in your "http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=8971" is the same as the picture of the green board in my previous posting. True? Do you think? The price there is OKAY if shipping is reasonable.

Ken

[mackrackit]

There is a link on Sparkfun's web site going here
http://www.schmalzhaus.com/UBW32/

[Kenjones1935]

What else do I need? I am confused but very impressed by the young man in the video. I'll get the ZIGflea later.

Ken

[ScaleRobotics]

What else do I need? I am confused but very impressed by the young man in the video. I'll get the ZIGflea later.

Yes, me too!

That should be all you need. However, this one does not come with StickOS installed. But you can use your PicKit2 to install StickOS firmware into it. And, by doing that, you will get the latest 1.80 version. You will need to download a windows driver from this page CPUStick.inf : http://www.cpustick.com/downloads.htm

But with that, and hyper terminal, you can start writing some code. Oh, and you won't get a manual either, so you will have to print one.

Walter

[Ioannis]

Hi Ken. I do not see why you should leave PBP and start another similar language and your project all over again.

If you do need RF communication between nodes maybe a Zigbee modules or RF transceivers can give you a good solution without almost a line of code.

Look at Digi modules (Zigbee or not, does not matter) for out of he box communication. Other brands also exist, many I can say.

Ioannis

[ScaleRobotics]

I do not see why you should leave PBP and start another similar language and your project all over again.

I wouldn't normally suggest it, as PBP can do just about anything. But here is why I think it might be a good idea in this case.

Configs are confusing for adults, I would hate to frustrate middle school students. This would keep them from having to worry about those.

PBP kind of expects you to read and understand the data sheet. StickOS would just require them to get read the device pinout. They could just start with the data sheets for their sensors, and not be overwhelmed by a 200 to 500 page data sheet.

They would not have to worry about setting ADCONx, trisx, cmconx etc...

With StickOS, they can just say:

10 dim pot as pin an5 for analog input 
20 print "potentiometer= ",pot

Now here is some PBP code that does a similar function:

Define ADC_BITS     10  ' Set number of bits in result
Define ADC_CLOCK     3  ' Set clock source (3=rc)
Define ADC_SAMPLEUS 50  ' Set sampling time in uS

adval Var Word          ' Create adval to store result

   TRISA = %11111111    ' Set PORTA to all input
   ADCON1 = %10000010   ' Set PORTA analog and right justify result

mainloop:
   ADCIN 0, adval       ' Read channel 0 to adval
   serout2 PORTC.6,396,["Value: ",DEC adval,13,10] ' Display value
   Pause 100            ' Wait .1 second
   Goto mainloop        ' Do it forever

End

And pretty high up there in my opinion is the cost. I know the school my son goes to has trouble buying pencils and paper. They would pretty much need everything donated to be able to do it. I think Ken said the cars were $80, this CpuStick is about $40. The PBP software is $250. So the cost per unit is $120 with StickOS vs $370 for PBP. That's over three times the cost. So, for the same cost of having 30 students share 10 PBP units (one kid does the work, while the other two watch), they could have one for each kid in the class.

[Kenjones1935]

There is already an educational oriented company, www.Ten80Education.com, which uses model level 1/10 scale radio control cars. They focus on automobile related engineering, toe-in, tire friction, gearing, power usage, damping, suspension. The car they use, the HPI Sprint, costs about $200 retail. Coincidentally I chose this same car for my project. I hope to integrate my PIC car into their curriculum.

It is the add on cost for my project that must be controlled. The sonars cost $28 each. It is really too bad that the PBP cost is just for a one PC license.

Big question?? What kind of games could our robocars play if they could talk to each other over zigFLEA?

Ken

[ScaleRobotics]

Yes, ignore the warning. That is a default if Windows doesn't know what the file is.

[ScaleRobotics]

Now you can start to write some simple programs. They show some examples in the manual. You will need to look through the Quick Reference guide here: http://www.cpustick.com/downloads/quickref.v1.80.pdf for all the commands.

Some of the interesting ones are:
help
help pins

And you can set the heartbeat LED (if it is not blinking already) by:
pins heartbeat RA1
(You will have to look on the board to see which port goes to the LED you want to set as heartbeat, RA1 is PORTA.1 and works on my Explorer 16 board).

This prints out an analog result to the terminal:

10 dim pot as pin an5 for analog input 
20 print "potentiometer= ",pot

You would probably be interested in the Servo example on page 30:

> new
> servo
45
> 10 dim servo as pin dtin1 for servo output
> 20 for servo = 50 to 250 step 10
> 30 sleep 50 ms
> 40 next
> run

Note that you will have to change the servo out pin to one your hardware has. To see the available ones, use the "help pins" command. It will show you at the bottom which pins are available for the servo command. In my case, I changed dtin1 to rd1.

[rtestardi]

Hi,

However, this one does not come with StickOS installed. But you can use your PicKit2 to install StickOS firmware into it. And, by doing that, you will get the latest 1.80 version. You will need to download a windows driver from this page CPUStick.inf : http://www.cpustick.com/downloads.htm

But with that, and hyper terminal, you can start writing some code. Oh, and you won't get a manual either, so you will have to print one.

Walter

I just stumbled onto this thread...

I'd like to also point out you don't actually need a PicKit2 to program the UBW32, since it comes with the Microchip HID bootloader installed -- you can just download StickOS to the board using the procedure here: http://www.schmalzhaus.com/UBW32/doc...mentation.html

Be sure to use the proper version of StickOS for the UBW32: http://www.cpustick.com/downloads/St...v1.80c.elf.hex

I'm definitely game to help folks get this into a classroom setting -- let me know if I can help. (Just drop me an e-mail; unfortunately I'll be out of town for a week starting tomorrow morning.)

One small comment on an earlier post -- if you are using pins rd0-rd4 on the PIC32 and configuring them for PWM/servo mode, then they are controlled in hardware without CPU assistance -- so the BASIC program can do any other things while they are generating pulses, without affecting the pulses.

-- Rich
[email protected]

[Kenjones1935]

For reasons to messy to explain I am trying to get a robocar to run on a blank 32MX460F512L. I was hoping to use Microchip's C compiler pic32-gcc.exe. I am having a very difficult time getting started. Do you know of a beginners example that will take me though step by step?

[ScaleRobotics]

Oops, I guess it is not free anymore. Or at least, only free for 10 days. Looks like it is 9.95 for one month, or 59.95 for a year. They have added a few features since I last looked. Here is a shot from their logic probe demo:



And I guess there are 9 chips it supports from Microchip:

[ScaleRobotics]

VBB is tri-lingual. It can do Arduino, Amicus, and 7 flavors of Microchip. I have not looked at it for a few months, but for free, it looked pretty cool. But, the closest thing to an 887 that it has is an 877.
Walter

[ScaleRobotics]

Not a problem Ken, this is definitely the hardest part. And the manual doesn't really pull it all together for me either. Once you have a connection, you almost don't have to worry about those parts again though.

Here is the hex file you need. I have it in a zip file attached. It also has the driver you need. You must install the driver into your computer. Right click the driver, and select install. Then hopefully when you plug the USB cord from the UBW to the computer, you hopefully will see something happen.

We will get it going, or die trying. Hopefully the former.

[Kenjones1935]

Thank you scalerobotics!

The .hex file you sent compares exactly to the one I used. At least each displayed using 'notepad' are identical. The .inf file you sent enticed WINDOWS XP PRO into displaying a GUI warning me against installing it as it had not passed the WINDOWS LOGO test! Do you think I should ignore the warning?

Ken

[Kenjones1935]

scalerobotics:

I was hoping I would find in my MicroCode Studio Target Processor pull down menu a reference to the PIC32 that we are using. Nope! Do they sell an appropriate BASIC compiler?

Ken

[ScaleRobotics]

scalerobotics:

I was hoping I would find in my MicroCode Studio Target Processor pull down menu a reference to the PIC32 that we are using. Nope! Do they sell an appropriate BASIC compiler?

Ken

No, they do not. I think you are limited to C, assembly, or StickOS with the 32 bit devices. I thought you were going to try StickOS though? If so, you really don't need to learn too much about the chip. StickOS does most of background stuff for you.

[rmteo]

AFAIK, no one makes a BASIC compiler for the PIC32 (or any other 32-bit MCU for that matter). Your best bet is to go with C which is pretty the de-facto language (not a lot more difficult to learn/use but far more powerful/flexible/reliable).