Categories: Robot Hacks and Mods Roboquad
Note: This is a work in progress but needs to be shared!
Having been frustrated with the lack of voice command on my RQ and the paltry 5 min. of autonomous roving, I decided to take action. My research led me to this site: www.pdawin.com (TV Remote Controller 5.7 voice operated). The proverbial doors just opened…This software for your PDA clones any IR signal, stores it and lets you activate it by your voice or by a timer! (Up to 25 voice commands).
Think for a minute now, any combination of RQ IR codes can be cloned and played back at will, whenever and however you want. My idea is simple, clone the IR codes prevalent for me from the RQ remote, record my voice saying “Aggressive Explore,” “Guard,” etc. or set up a timer to tell the RQ to do a full reset after 4 min. then transmit an Autonomous code after that, and off he goes until his batteries die. Hours of Autonomy is now possible!
Also the back of the RQ is the perfect spot for a PDA to go, the software is cheap, and a PDA that can operate it is years old and almost as cheap (It just needs an IR receiver/transmitter, most do for wireless docking/file sharing).
So that’s my idea, tell me what you think or ask questions : )
~AlphaCentauri
I just don't find it necessary. I don't need voice command and my RQ spends much more than 5 minutes in autonomus mode. Sorry this idea doesn't interest me.
Keep the robotic dreams,
-BG
http://www.robocommunity.com/article/12811/Cool-Programs-To-Use-For-Roboquad-...
You get more than 5 min. in autonomus mode, who else gets that! Send me your RQ ; ) Kidding, but seriously, this mod is my idea of an RQ version 2.5
~AlphaCentauri
Member
Jacksonville, United StatesNice Idea. I like it. but you can do the same thing with a basic stamp and a voice reconition module with a rf transmitter attached to the quad and the CPU aka overkill PIC chip. just replace or add to the ir signal in line with the rf signal out line on both remote and quad. program your basic stamp to do whatever you want and let it go. and also tie the basic stamp to a eeprom for added stored memory for all the files you need. just an idea that i might do. Thanks for the idea, GWJax
GWJax, To Hack and make mods on robots is a life style and comes natural and not by choice. If a robot has a screw to open it then it must be opened!
Member
Jacksonville, United StatesAlphaCentauri said: You get more than 5 min. in autonomus mode, who else gets that! Send me your RQ ; ) Kidding, but seriously, this mod is my idea of an RQ version 2.5 ~AlphaCentauriYea I wish I had his main board to put in mine. Or at least his program in the chip so ai could reprogram mine. GWJax
GWJax, To Hack and make mods on robots is a life style and comes natural and not by choice. If a robot has a screw to open it then it must be opened!
Member
Nelson, New ZealandM'mmm I have all those Parallax items including the speech module which is on another bot. Nice idea.
People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.
Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/
I thought you might weigh in on the situation and throw in a little more technical insight GWJax : ) But there in lies the rub, my tech. expertise isn’t what it should be…that’s why I came up with this relatively easy solution….~AlphaCentauri
Member
Nelson, New ZealandSTILL NEEDS A BIT OF WORK TO GET IT RIGHT ALPHACENTURI. but worth a look.
People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.
Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/
Member
Nelson, New ZealandAlphaCenturi: Check out my web site below for some tutorials if your interested.
People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.
Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/
Member
Jacksonville, United StatesAlphaCentauri said: I thought you might weigh in on the situation and throw in a little more technical insight GWJax : ) But there in lies the rub, my tech. expertise isn’t what it should be…that’s why I came up with this relatively easy solution….~AlphaCentauriIt's a great Idea don't get me wrong. I just would not like a pda on the back of the Quad thats all. Its only my suggestion. It's called brain storming. this is how things get made. one persons Idea will evolve in time into something great so and an Article can be published so others can reproduce it or just learn something from it. keep going with your idea and don't stop until you get it right. and keep us informed what you are doing. GWJax
GWJax, To Hack and make mods on robots is a life style and comes natural and not by choice. If a robot has a screw to open it then it must be opened!
Member
Nelson, New ZealandThat's what I like about these forums just bouncing of idea's, I don't know about anyone else but I can stare a project right in the eye and not resolve it , then someone else will elaberate on it and away you go. I think you can spend to much time on one project, I find that i have many projects on the go and whilst you are working on one the mind is always thinking about the other one's. And quit often you can resolve any problems this way. Or at least I can.
People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.
Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/
Moderator
United StatesI relish the "Eureka" experiences that occasionally cross my path.
I'm software by employment, and mechanical/electrical by vocation. I find that burying myself deep in one allows the subconcious to resolve lingering problems in the other.
ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)
Member
Nelson, New ZealandYour lucky you can program MrScott, I wish I had your's and other's here on this forum's talent in programming, Then it would be Eureka for me. i could go leaps and bounds with my robotics.
People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.
Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/
Moderator
United StatesI snipped off a subthread about a community site bug, and swept up one comment that belonged in this thread in doing that. I'll attempt to paste Kadeiqus' comment here, unedited.
I think you have a great Idea for your situation AlphaCintauri. You are using your current knowledge and resources that you have available to you, and you are creating a solution for yourself. By seeing your project through, you will also be laying the building blocks for bigger and better things in the future. You will gain new understanding on how this or that thing works, and how you might be able to improve on the original Idea.
I do not have a RQ, but I do love the concept that you have come up with. As RobosapienV2-4mem8 stated, you can stare at something for hours and days... and then someone else might have an idea for something not directly related to your situation, but it opens up possibilities that you had not even considered.
Continue the adventure and see where it leads you!
ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)
Like I said before, I am just not interested. Yes my RQ has spent up to 15 minutes in autonomous mode I timed it! Plus even though voice recognition would be cool, I think he is great the way he is.
I also noticed that there are still a few problems with your plans. Even though you went through all the trouble of cloning codes, based on it's enviroment your RQ is not going to change how long he spends in Autonomous mode. Don't you see? Your basicaly just doing a fancy harder version of pressing the autonomous button.
On top of that, for all you know the codes may be encrypted or locked.
These are the problems coming into consideration here.
Keep the robotic dreams,
-BG
http://www.robocommunity.com/article/12811/Cool-Programs-To-Use-For-Roboquad-...
Member
Melbourne, AustraliaThe IR codes are neither encrypted or locked. You can find the actual codes sent along with info about the encoding scheme here.
You obviously missed the part in the first post where AlphaCentauri suggested essentially transmitting a stop command every 4 minutes followed by the command for autonomous roaming.
still RQ will not alter his time in autonomous mode because of this.
Keep the robotic dreams,
-BG
http://www.robocommunity.com/article/12811/Cool-Programs-To-Use-For-Roboquad-...
MrScott said: I relish the "Eureka" experiences that occasionally cross my path. I'm software by employment, and mechanical/electrical by vocation. I find that burying myself deep in one allows the subconcious to resolve lingering problems in the other.
Mechanical by employment and software/electrical by hobby myself.
As for strapping a PDA to RoboQuad, I like it. It's direct and to the point, you've got a decent processing platform, an IR transmitter receiver (although not all PDAs will be able to use it like a IR UIRT, some will only be able to use it for IRDA) plus a user interface and the possibility of storing multiple programs. Additionally you might have some GPS signal, WiFi/bluetooth support or Voice control which could be incorporated into the programming. As a starter having the PDA listen for voice and activate a number of remote control signals would be cool but I'd like to see how it could be progressed. Additionally, keeping the auton. mode alive is a useful tool and if you could allow it to use a NOP signal (No OPeration, basically you send a packet and the RQ receives it but does not act upon it), the act of recieving such a signal might be sufficient to keep it alive/roaming.
I bought a Palm m100 a few years back, it was grosely out of date when I bought it but it ran a basic interpreter and had a serial port I could send/recieve with. I never did get around to programming it to control the robot it was connected to but I got the proof of concepts working at the time. Building on from that I'm sure it could have been an interesting platform. The Palm m100 is still kicking about, I'll need to dig it out and dust it off, perhaps it will prove to be of some use.
My question to you is, how much of this is a theoretical exercise? Have you got a PDA lined up for the purpose and ready to give it a go? (okay that's two questions).
markcra.com
I direct you back to my last contrevercy. You are doing nothing but adding voice recognition. It won't make him last longer in one continuous Autonomous mode. Comon guys don't you agree?
Keep the robotic dreams,
-BG
http://www.robocommunity.com/article/12811/Cool-Programs-To-Use-For-Roboquad-...
Moderator
United StatesI guess it depends upon what you consider "continuous".
In the strictest sense of the word, if the robot dropped out of autonomous mode for even 1 picosecond before re-entering autonomous mode, then you would be correct in stating that it was not a continuous autonomous mode.
By the same approach, it could be argued that a movie doesn't show motion. There is a non-infinite frame rate that breaks any motion down into a series of still images. It is only by playing those still images in rapid sucession that we perceive the image as a moving picture.
Just like the flickering still pictures in a movie appear as motion, if our pal the Quad drops out of, and then reenters, autonomous mode without any significant pause, then it is, for all practical purposes, a period of continuous autonomy only limited by the battery life.
Having an effectively uninterrupted hour of autonomy might be of interest to some people.
ScottE -- Member (always) & Moderator (when needed)
Mr. Scott, your above post are my thoughts exactly. It's not an extension of the atonom. timing, it's just a continuation of the atonom. movement and continued behavior. It really doesen't matter if every 4 min. the bot does a little reset, gets another atonom. signal, then continues on with it's exploring.
I really like markcra's idea of having a NOP signal sent, I'll see if that works, right now I have the software and tested it in my school's enginering department, (nerds in high places with PDA's), it works on TV remotes...but it will be some time till I get a personal PDA off of ebay and do all the work to make it functional. I'm a Sr. in college working 30 hours, so my time is tight right now, give me a few weeks and we'll see what happens.....
~AlphaCentauri
Member
Nelson, New ZealandCool AlphaCentauri, Keep us posted on your exploits.
People yearn after this robotic dream, but you can't strip your life of all meaning, emotion and feeling and expect to function.
Robotic madness http://robosapienv2-4mem8.page.tl/
AlphaCentauri said: I really like markcra's idea of having a NOP signal sent, I'll see if that works, right now I have the software and tested it in my school's enginering department, (nerds in high places with PDA's), it works on TV remotes...but it will be some time till I get a personal PDA off of ebay and do all the work to make it functional. I'm a Sr. in college working 30 hours, so my time is tight right now, give me a few weeks and we'll see what happens..... ~AlphaCentauriSo much to do, so little time to do it all. All the best with your experiments when you do get a chance. If I still had my PIC programming stuff up and running I could have tried injecting the NOP command straight into the IR Receiver circuit (I never tried using an IR LED and modulating the signal though I had thought about it). Unfortunately I reckon I'll have a hard time finding the equipment.
markcra.com
May be true if you think of it that way but it still doen't sound like any more autonomus mode than pressing the button over and over. You would need to reprogram him to beable to continue a sequence. Plus you only have an eight hour battery life.
Keep the robotic dreams,
-BG
http://www.robocommunity.com/article/12811/Cool-Programs-To-Use-For-Roboquad-...
Robo BG said: May be true if you think of it that way but it still doen't sound like any more autonomus mode than pressing the button over and over. You would need to reprogram him to beable to continue a sequence. Plus you only have an eight hour battery life.
Your right Robo BG, but my idea allows for voice control, (who wouldn't want this?), and the ability for the instructions you want to be sent to the robot from the PDA at certain times of the day or repeated over and over again so he can roam autonom. for as long as his batteries last. I don't have the skills nesessary to crack into the RQ's main cpu and reprogram it the way I want. Do you know how to do it? Cause I think my idea seams like the easiest way to expand on the control and manipulation of the RQ without completly cracking into it. I just don't want to have to keep pushing that darn button! lol, I want a little robot that roams around and lives without my continual attention :) Now if I only knew how to make him dock with a charging base station and wire on some front leg sensors....GWJax, V2-4mem8, mrscott, markcra, you guys have any idea's on making front leg sensors? Cause that's a main problem I want to solve, no more getting stuck on shoes!
Thanks for all the input guys,
~AlphaCentauri
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