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OzShan

Eurobricks Citizen
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Everything posted by OzShan

  1. OzShan
    One of these? http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=87408
  2. OzShan
    Looks great. Enjoyed your first book. It's on the Christmas list :)
  3. OzShan
    Another level, well done :)
  4. OzShan
    If it were more like a parasail than a chute it might be of some use.
  5. OzShan
    Correct. I apologise in advance if I upset anybody. It was meant to be a light hearted stab at the futility of using inappropriate materials for a given application.
  6. OzShan
    Bring it into this century of aviation, design some nice jet engines with these: Much better thrust to weight ratio :)
  7. OzShan
    Sounds very interesting. The IR transmitter sends square wave pulses at 38kHz. It sends 6 pulses to represent a bit in the stream, and then the delay afterwards is interpreted as either a 1, 0, start or stop bit. All the low level details of the protocol are published by lego. Search for version 1.2. (If you have trouble finding it let me know). It also specifies how tolerant the receivers are of timing errors. If the app can accurately generate tones, and switch the tone on and off again accurately in time, it should work. You are right about the pi, I also started there and put it aside favouring an arduino instead. Even though the output from the phone may not be square wave you could probably put a little amp in between to drive the LED on fully at the start of the pulse. I think it's worth a go for sure.
  8. OzShan
    Good thread so far, watching with interest :) Just a small word of warning with the arduino software (which may not even affect you). It caused issues on my PC when I tried to re-load NXT firmware. Had to uninstall arduino, then it would recognize NXT brick in boot mode. No NXT, no problem.
  9. OzShan
    I know you said ev3 specifically, but is this kind of thing any use to you? Maybe could be adapted to fit the ev3 hardware? http://www.philohome.com/nxtsupply/nxtsupply.htm Phillo is a member here too.
  10. OzShan
    That is a solid effort. How about separating out issues of stability and control for now and concentrating on outright lift? If you extended a (lightweight) pole about 20l underneath and held that loosely in tube you could limit all the tipping and falling. If the contraption lifts up while being stabilized by the tube, you know you have enough lift and can start looking at stability. If not it's back to the drawing board.
  11. OzShan
    How'd that work out for you? :) I'm keen to see how well it responds left and right.
  12. OzShan
    Sweet, thanks. Is that for a set of three? Just assuming from the photo, it doesn't say one way or the other in the description.
  13. OzShan
    Got any rims from the classic technic "shock cycle" 8838? Pretty sure they are just smooth all the way round. http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/8838_Shock_Cycle
  14. OzShan
    There are a couple of good bluetooth projects around for receivers. One in particular is here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=87340&st=25#entry1917960 There is no reason why this can't be complemented by a bluetooth transmitter inside of this handset. Has the advantage of working at NXT/EV3 level too. Keep the comments coming :)
  15. OzShan
    Any luck there?
  16. OzShan
    Interesting topic over here by Bzroom: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=96788 (Thanks for sharing your code. I was too lazy to implement the PFIR time sharing between channels, I will have to before I share mine now :) I got to thinking that two joysticks might be a better way to go altogether. They would fit in the existing dial holes fine (and could be neatened up with a bit of a shroud). Two clickable x/y joysticks could give three channels (each with red and blue ports) so six devices, without modifying the externals of the 8879. Cars: forward/reverse on the right stick, steering on the left stick as left/right. Shift gear on stick depress, or lights on/off (would require a little custom code to interpret the press as change motor direction or simply toggle on/off but possible) Tanks: forward reverse as with cars, but then right stick left/right could drive a subtractor. Left stick could then control the turret and gun. Depress left to fire....? The joysticks are cheap off ebay, so the parts list is not looking too expensive so far. Would be better if I could find some in orange. Mapping stick to IR channel would have to be set internally via something like dip switches but it shouldn't have to change too often.
  17. OzShan
    Love it.
  18. OzShan
    Spring return on both, or just left-right? I've been thinking about this too.
  19. OzShan
    That is fantastic. Any chance of a video?
  20. OzShan
    Absolutely. I hope they do. Be nice if they released another controller. I'm not stuck as such, more taking a breath before jumping in. I have an NXT controlled PFIR setup at the moment and yes it was very quick to get going. At least with NXC it it was anyway. Pricing for me for the setup you describe runs to about $170 making it a bit excessive though. If I put another $20-30 into a retrofit on the existing controller, I end up with a lot more dollars for parts. Everything is weighed up against dollars for parts :)
  21. OzShan
    After toying with the idea of customising the 8879 speed controller for a while, I'd like to hear what others have been thinking too. After reading here; http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51632&hl=+power%20+functions%20+proportional%20+control#entry1325243 I finally understand why the speed control remote behaves the way it does. In the past I have put together some code on an arduino to independently control each channel of a receiver. If I can find the vid I'll post it. I'm thinking it would be possible to reconfigure (replace) the internals of the controller and keep the external appearance exactly the same. The main functions I want to achieve: - Not do it if someone else already has. I've seen complete 3rd party but not a LEGO retro fit. - Send absolute speed control rather than relative. Jog wheels on the remote will have a mechanical upper and lower limit. - Implement a coast then brake for the stop button. i.e when you press the stop button it floats the output, and when you release it the break command is sent. In practice a short press will apply the break, but a long press will allow the motor to Coast down as much as you want. - Stop sending each time you switch channels. Automatically start sending again after the dial has been returned to 0. - power down when both stop buttons are pressed for 3 seconds. - have a train compatibility mode selectable via switch inside (or maybe button sequence). In train mode, the commands do not time out. If you dial in a negative speed the commanded speed will slowly reduce, similarly for positive speed. The higher the dial setting the faster it will ramp up or down. This way you won't need a continuously rotatable dial. Changing channels stops the output until the dial is put back to 0. Any other suggestions? Anybody know if it's already been done in this kind of way? Cheers.
  22. OzShan
    Now I'm learning something :) that sounds cool.
  23. OzShan
    Sure, I'll put something together over the weekend.
  24. OzShan
    There are a few projects out there, both PF receivers and transmitters. Pretty cool that lego released the standard publicly (for non profit hobbyists anyway) I hacked together a two channel transmitter of my own using an arduino mega and a few basic external components. It doesn't support the full control set but it does take two proportional inputs and sends the full 15 stages to the respective output channels (all I needed at the time). Happy to share if anyone wants it (sorry if this is driving too far off topic)
  25. OzShan
    That's not 100% true.. While you cannot plug PF directly into NXT or EV3 bricks, you can use one of these http://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NIL1046 to control PF motors/lights attached to PF ir receivers in turn powered by PF battery boxes. For a long time it only worked with NXT bricks but they have now released an EV3 block for it. I am using one with NXT and it works great. One sensor port will give you control of 8 PF devices (with 4 ir receivers driving the devices)
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