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Author Archives: engineerzero
Servo Chatter
When I initialize my robot, the starboard (right-hand) servo chatters at the neutral position. As you can see from the video, for some reason this affects only the starboard servo and not the port (left-hand) servo. I think the reason … Continue reading
Arduino reading screen flashes
I’ve upgraded the hardware to include two LEDs in addition to the phototransistor. Based on the reading of the screen flashes, the LEDs flash according to the key shown. Here’s a video of the system in action: This is at … Continue reading
Adventure in Over-Engineering
To take a break from working on my main project, I decided to do a mini-project. The problem: I keep losing my daily do lists in all the clutter of my life. So I thought, I needed a do list … Continue reading
Arduino Phototransistor Signal Protocol
I’ve designed a signal protocol for the Arduino to convert phototransistor readings from the laptop screen into bytes of data. Here’s what I came up with today: In the illustration, the white boxes in the black strip are light pulses … Continue reading
Arduino reads screen flashes with phototransistor
This is the first test of the communication system as described in the previous entry. The flashes are one millisecond, followed by a one second delay. The serial monitor informs me that the microcontroller is able to count them. Here’s … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged arduino, communications, phototransistor, processing, robotics
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Computer/Arduino Communication Via Phototransistor
Here’s the basic idea: I’ll send commands to the Arduino by flashing a rectangle on the screen and having a phototransistor on the Arduino read the light level. The above photo shows the test bed set-up. This is very similar … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged arduino, Atmel, communications, phototransistor, robot, robotics, serial-ttl
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Time to Clean Out My Spam Filter
I have a new hobby, collecting spam bot comments. Yes, I’m mystified too. Bear in mind that spam bots attack blogs because they want their comment published with its embedded link that will help the spammer promote his product. Since … Continue reading
Robot Chassis with Plastic Ball Caster
This is the 1″ plastic ball caster that I ordered from Robotshop. The white ball pops out of the black holder, which has three bolt holes to secure it to the robot chasis. I positioned the holder on the wooden … Continue reading
Casters for a Small Robot
Poor little cheapbot is undergoing surgery this week. The purpose is to change the caster wheel, but in the end the whole chassis will be replaced. Because I’m trying to build my ‘cheapbot’ robot out of readily available parts, I … Continue reading
Engineer Zero 