How do I give a radio control car autonomous control

[Kenjones1935]

John,
My thought was that my light detector would be on the front of my car. The servo searching capability could be done by steering right and left just a little bit. This way the car goes directly to the light.

I imagine that once it gets there, the student operating he RC transmitter will be able to see it and retake control. These things go way fast under RC control. I image it creeps when autonomous.

Make sense to you?

I am having a difficult time figuring out what Basic Stamp starter kit is the best for me. I am USB oriented. I am guessing that I should spring for the 160 bucks for the BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit - Serial (With USB Adapter and Cable)

Your thoughts please. I'm going to bed now. It is eleven o'clock out east.

Ken

[Kenjones1935]

I figured that the very first thing the car would do once under autonomous control would be to make a 360 degree circle. Somewhere in that circle it would be facing the light bulb. That should do it.

Ken

[John_Mac]

Steering to find the source might not converge, but that is part of the fun so try it see what happens.

Dave recommended the PICKIT2 from MicroChip and buy PicBasic compiler. If you know C, you can download a free compiler from MicroChip. I had mentioned the pros and cons of starting with PIC or going to Basic Stamp (ready to go, free compiler, but expensive and one chip/project). Looks like you decided on Basic Stamp.

I would recommend the USB version of whatever you buy. Fewer computers, mostly laptops, have a real serial port.

As I said, I got limited by the number of variables and to some extent the code space on the Basic Stamp. It was a good learning platform, but I eventually went the PIC route, much more flexibility. If you stay in the game and get more complex, you will probably end up migrating to a PIC.

If you go Basic Stamp, USB Board of Education or similar is a good basic system.

You may want Dave to weigh in and see his thoughts.

There is no unique answer.

John

[mackrackit]

I am not up on the basic stamps (SX,propeller), been several years ago that I last played with them. Do they have ADC (Analog Digital Converter) now?

If you go with something like the 18F4550 you have 13 ADCs and it can run at 48Mhz with a 4Mhz external OSC.

Language --- C, ASM, a flavor of Basic??? Of course I am in favor of PBP. It is pretty much bullet proof and the support can not be beat.

How to make an algorithm for automation??? I suppose everyone has their methods but I will study how a human does the task (a large part of my work is automating existing machinery) and go from there. If I find something to make it all more efficient but not something that the humans are doing for whatever reason (360 viewing ?) I will consider a change in the procedure.

It will be interesting to see what the students come up with...

[Kenjones1935]

John and Dave,

I am more than willing to go with PICaxe. We have a MicroChip outlet here in middle Massachusetts close enough for me to enroll in a course or two.

https://secure.microchip.com/RTCV2/C...e.aspx?rtcid=5

I am comfortable with C. Many years ago I coded in Assembly. (Funny thing there. I read the Wikipedia definition of PIC. It talked about a Harvard architecture. This description reminded me of the AN/FSQ7 which did the SAGE Air Defense of the USA in the 1950's. That computer was made of vacuum tubes. It read radar data off drums. The PIC Accumulator and Register structures sound similar. That was my first programming job - Lincoln Laboratory)

Please help me select a PIC product kit that would get me started. I need to have that nudge to dig out my soldering iron and borrow an oscilloscope.

Ken

[Kenjones1935]

I have on my computer screen the 101 page PICaxe Manual1.

I don't think I have enough ink to print all 101 pages. I am too old to be comfortable with reading a whole manual on screen. Sigh...

Ken

[John_Mac]

No perfect solution....

PICAxe are MicrChip CPUs that have a bootloader installed so you don't need a programmer to program them. You can't buy any old PIC and make it work, but apparently there are PICAxe chips that look like PIC family. Also don't know their availability, nor cost. The nice thing is that the PICAxe kit comes with the power supply, proto board etc, much like the Basic Stamp which makes prototyping easy. Also looks like it works with MPLAB IDE (free) and the free MicroChip compilers.

To go with the standard PIC route (which is what I do), you will need a programmer like the PICKIT2 on the MicroChip site (not the dev kit, just tthe programmer and USB cable). Then you would need to build up a proto board. Many places sell these in various sizes as well as the jumper cables to hook up your project. You will need to provide a regulated +5 VDC to the board using something like a 7805 regulator and caps. You will need a 5 pin 0.1" header to connect the PICKIT2 programmer to the board to program the PIC. Buy a few PIC's, caps, resistors etc. You download the free MPLAB IDE and C compiler (or buy the PICBASIC compiler to use BASIC. This gets you to a point you can start wiring up a circuit and debug some code.

Unless you start making PCBs, you might keep your project on a proto board with all the components and get another proto board for the next project. Places like Radio Shack and Fry's Electronics sell these boards for a few bucks.

If you go to the MicroChip site, you can get a list of what chips have what capabilities. Might look at 8 bit processors. On of the chips I use is the 16F88. It has 7K of program space, 1 PWM/Capture hardware port, 7 channels of ADC, 3 timers, and 2 comparators. Plenty of capability to get started.

I have already discussed the Basic Stamp system.

So all depends on how much "ready to go" or "DIY" you want. I think people learn a lot more in the end with the DIY approach, but for people that are easily frustrated, not so good.

As you can see, I went the PIC route (although I used a different programmer).

So now you get to decide. Good luck.

John

[Kenjones1935]

John,

You suggested that I use a PICaxe kit that contains a power supply and a proto board etc.

Trouble is I have been trying to figure out which one that is.

Would you be willing to suggest a PICaxe kit model number.

Ken