Blog

My thoughts on life, design, kitty cats and other such nonsense. Nothing too serious.

15th April 2010

A nice image

*sigh* excuse the lame lolcat picture but it is perfectly fitting for how I feel right now. Having had a little surge of excitement earlier today with my new servos and managing to get the servos to work nicely with Arduino it was obvious it wouldn’t last. There is something fundamentally wrong with how the whole thing (i.e: WiiMote) links up. The WiiMote constantly overshoots the source resulting in a back and forth motion a la stepper motor (remember those?). This makes me a sad cat. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, I now realise I need some form of limiting of the servo. If I don’t limit it then there’s every possibility that by continuously rotating (due to error or otherwise) that the whole unit will tear itself apart - likely on the day before grading or the degree show , that kind of thing happens to me…

*sigh* excuse the lame lolcat picture but it is perfectly fitting for how I feel right now.

Having had a little surge of excitement earlier today with my new servos and managing to get the servos to work nicely with Arduino it was obvious it wouldn’t last. There is something fundamentally wrong with how the whole thing (i.e: WiiMote) links up. The WiiMote constantly overshoots the source resulting in a back and forth motion a la stepper motor (remember those?). This makes me a sad cat.

Furthermore, to add insult to injury, I now realise I need some form of limiting of the servo. If I don’t limit it then there’s every possibility that by continuously rotating (due to error or otherwise) that the whole unit will tear itself apart - likely on the day before grading or the degree show , that kind of thing happens to me…

Tags: sad cat servo university SlopeScope

13th April 2010

Some nice text

SNO!zone & servos

Video

As it turns out a friend of mine works at the SNO!zone in Braehead - an indoor ski slope. I have been thinking that it may be best to angle my project towards an indoor centre as it allows for more control over the environment in which the cameras operate. I know the scope of my project doesn’t really cover all these details but it also means I am not limited by there being snow or not as to whether I can film.

However, filming at the centre is strictly forbidden (even taking photos of your kids requires a photo release form and even then only from the balcony). I have been in touch with the centre and am waiting on a response from the PR and Marketing director as to whether I may be granted special permissions. Here’s hoping.

Other news

I spent a little time today working on the new code for the camera which I received from johnnyonthespot (at the Arduino forum). I had hoped that I may be able to apply the logic of the new code to my hardware setup but as it transpires my servos may be fatally flawed.

Johnny’s approach uses continuous rotation servos, I (think) I have standard servos. I manipulate mine by telling them which angle to go to - I can’t manipulate speed, etc. I fear that to be able to use Johnny’s approach I will need to rebuild the hardware.

I know I had thought of this, but I had hoped to be able to rejig my setup and fix my issues using code. So, the decision here (assuming I do need new servos) is whether a build a second unit (at cost and time) or modify my current unit (at a lower cost and shorter time but more risk). Why is life never simple?

Tags: SNO!zone arduino servo university SlopeScope

18th February 2010

A nice image

Apologies for the generic ‘my desk in the studio’ photograph. Tomorrow is the Make Mark 1 hand in. Here’s how I expect it to go… Since the beginning of the Make Phase I have been striving to get my stepper motor system working. I had wanted to use steppers because of the 360˚ movement it would enable. However, after spending a good few hours in the workshop building the casing for the WiiMote and attaching it to the dummy CCTV camera shell I have I realised that the entire unit will be just too heavy for the steppers and that the type of movement will be too jerky. Still, what I have is a very dirty proof of concept which will suffice for the purposes of Make Mark 1. I have however been shown a pitch and an servo kit on Cool Components. Initially I thought it was a bit too small and flimsy but the more I thought about it I began to realise that for what I’m trying to achieve it would be perfect. So I ordered it. I have spent the past few hours starting from scratch (kinda) again with a new arduino and a couple of servos. I much prefer the servo approach actually and my initial fears and dislikes of servos (e.g: 180˚ movement range) is fast disappearing. I think I won’t actually be able to tell if this is going to work well until I get the goods, but here’s hoping that the servos in the foreground of the photo above will retire my shaky attempts with stepper motors.

Apologies for the generic ‘my desk in the studio’ photograph. Tomorrow is the Make Mark 1 hand in. Here’s how I expect it to go…

Since the beginning of the Make Phase I have been striving to get my stepper motor system working. I had wanted to use steppers because of the 360˚ movement it would enable. However, after spending a good few hours in the workshop building the casing for the WiiMote and attaching it to the dummy CCTV camera shell I have I realised that the entire unit will be just too heavy for the steppers and that the type of movement will be too jerky.

Still, what I have is a very dirty proof of concept which will suffice for the purposes of Make Mark 1. I have however been shown a pitch and an servo kit on Cool Components. Initially I thought it was a bit too small and flimsy but the more I thought about it I began to realise that for what I’m trying to achieve it would be perfect. So I ordered it.

I have spent the past few hours starting from scratch (kinda) again with a new arduino and a couple of servos. I much prefer the servo approach actually and my initial fears and dislikes of servos (e.g: 180˚ movement range) is fast disappearing.

I think I won’t actually be able to tell if this is going to work well until I get the goods, but here’s hoping that the servos in the foreground of the photo above will retire my shaky attempts with stepper motors.

Tags: servo stepper motor university SlopeScope
(1/1)