I’ve been sitting still for nearly 24 hours, so look out for circuit research. There’s not much else to do around here with a broken arm. Here is the testbed to be used for sensor testing. It is from the dollar store, but I like the separate motors for drive and steering, and how they are placed on different axes. The rubber wheels have been removed and the red stripes on the hubs are to make movement easy to watch. If you copy any thing I do, keep in mind that electronic components can easily get hot enough to melt plastic. And that I’m testing sensors, not toys.
Mostly electronics [discussed] today plus a few words on why that might be: sitting. No attempt at making sense here. Just sitting and thinking. Developing a flow of connections between ideas. And a good illustration of why I watch James Burke, the master of the backward association. I’ll bet that’s how he wrote most of his videos, always with a pocket genealogy reference at hand. Renaissance science is like contemporary country music. By and large, the people doing it are kinfolk.The correlation here is that I think best sitting up. The sore shoulder has me at times even falling asleep overnight in the easy chair because it is more comfortable than accidentally rolling over on the sore arm for eight hours. And how the logic flows. I returned to the problem of how memory gets to the flip-flops I’ve built. Right now, they act independently. I’ve sketched a way to add a gate that passes the output to the next consecutive flip-flop (basic memory circuit). The idea is to chain these together eventually.
I’m as certain as you that I did not invent this process. But the complete lack of documentation means I’m, at the least, re-inventing it. The learning experience has been a near-miraculous time for me. Didn’t I tell you I’ve never done any practical electronics hands-on in my entire life? These circuits are like a trip to Jupiter for me. This I managed in the face of the Internet electronics community, who insist on over-explaining the basics and crowding out all the good writers.
Thinking back to the Arduino concerning this flip-flop, there was one experiment where I ran a shift register and learned a lot. This is a circuit that takes input one bit at a time and organizes them into groups of eight, a byte. For a challenge, I’m going to see if I can design such a register in my head, then write it down, then build it. I’ve changed back to two-transistor flip-flops for the sake of reliability. In my model, if you want it off, you have to locate and operate the off switch at the proper voltage.
I have two additional Arduino boards on order, though some changed situation in California is causing deep delays. For now, I am rigging up the test bed on a [stationary] chassis to test sensors. The on-line examples generally reach an upper intellectual limit of one sensor each. My demo is to test four different sensors and, more importantly, how they work in combination. The key here is research into the type of coding needed to allow groups of sensors to amalgamate results. Can a group of sensors create synergy, or are we doomed to purchasing one sensor for each imaginable activity? Like NASA.
And don’t expect any help. The simplistic Internet examples show only fundamental cause and effect activity. The line-following robot is about as complex as it gets and even that is a bit of a no-brainer. The establishment seems to use all sensors in strictly the most obvious ways, like the sonar to measure distance and light to operate a switch. On the surface, my project looks guilty of the same lack of imagination.
But what I’m aiming for is to have groups of sensors operate in conjunction to produce more than that one-on-one association and to do so without adding more controllers. What I’m hoping for is this will teach me the ways to allow a combination of sensors to overrule the individual sensor, including itself if possible. If I fail, that first robot may indeed cost us a thousand dollars.
As a reminder, the reason for no robot [built here yet], other than cost, is that it isn’t a challenge any more. We know exactly how to do it and could easily rig up an obstacle avoidance unit in a couple of hours from scratch. The Internet is full of beginner’s examples, where a common one is the lamp that turns on in the dark. And who uses a $40 Arduino to turn on a lamp?
ADDENDUM
There is a Davie band advertising for a bass player. Take a look at their song list and see if you can draw any conclusions. I know the hell I can. (I took the liberty of correcting all the mistakes in the original.)
1) Jumping Jack, Rolling Stones
2) Sympathy for Devil, Rolling Stones
3) Last Dance w/MaryJane, Tom Petty
4) Feeling Alright, Dave Mason
5) All along Watch tower, Jimi Hendrix
6) Sweet Home Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd
7) Sweet Emotion, Aerosmith
8) Dreams, Molly Hatchet
9) Roadhouse Blues, Doors
10) Last Time, Rolling Stones
11) Breakdown, Tom Petty
12) Can't get Enough, Bad Company
13) I'm No Angel, Greg Alman
14) Start me Up, Rolling Stones
15) Crazy little Thing Called Love, Queen
16) Dead Flowers, Rolling Stones
17) Slow Down, Beatles
18) Addicted to Love, Robert Palmer
19) Little Sister, Elvis
20) Come Together, Beatles
21) While my Guitar Gently Weeps, Beatles
22) Two Tickets to Paradise, Eddie Money
23) Shakin', Eddie Money
24) You Wreck Me, Tom Petty
25) Running Down a Dream, Tom Petty
26) American Girl, Tom Petty
27) White Room, Cream
28) Alright Now, Free
29) Jealous Again, Black Crowes
30) Train Kept a’Rolling, Aerosmith
Call it a great list if you want, I call it some guitar player’s wet dream. Every item is standard guitar tuck. The entire nature of the band twisted to what the one guy wants. Florida guitarists don’t join bands. They either take over as dictators or quit. I can almost smell the “guitar-think”
Goes like so, “I just don’t understand these drummers and bass players. Here’s my song list. All they have to do is learn the tunes the way I play them. What could be easier? What’s that you say? THEIR song lists? What’s that?
Return Home
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
