Remote Control
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| 11/30/04 - I've
had some issues with the IR remote control. During the Halloween 2004
debut, I had the soil sampler activate a few times by itself. Also, a
couple times the chest light pattern had changed all by itself.
Both of these are controlled by the IR Remote through the IR Interface
Circuit board. Something was sending/receiving false signals causing
these things to occur. I don't know if it was the neon lights
confusing the IR detector or stray spikes on the power line from the motors.
I originally was having a problem with the soil sampler activating
occasionally on initial power up. I put a delay command in the
programming in the Basic Stamp microcontroller so that it waits 10 seconds
after power up before it looks for the Soil Sampler signal. That
solved the startup issues.
I plan on switching to an RF remote control to see if that works out
better. That may be better in the long run since I won't have to be
directly in front of the robot to aim the remote at the IR Detector.
I'll update this page when that happens. Although I'll still need the
IR Detector and IR Repeated board for the Car Stereo remote to work. |
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1/4/05 - Well, Santa came
through with my wish for the 10 Channel RF Remote. I wasted no time
putting it together. I did a test run with it temporarily wired in.
It performed flawlessly. I used it to actuate the soil sampler as
well as switch the modes on my front teeth lights. Now I just need to
decide everything I want to control with it. I have several choices.
I can even wire it to power up the entire robot, if I want. |
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11/30/04 - Here's the RF
Remote Control I plan on using. It is called a "Rolling Code 10-Channel UHF
remote control" and is available from Amazon
Electronics. It's on my Christmas list, so I hope Santa comes
through. |
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11/30/04 - Here's the
Infrared Interface Board schematic. I believe it's now complete.
This board takes the signal from the IR Remote Control (via the IR Repeater
board) and decodes it into 14 different I/O lines. The file is in a
PDF format. You have to click on image to see the whole schematic. |
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12/21/03 - Here the Infrared
Interface chip I'm using. I purchased it from Reynolds Electronics.
They have a great "Remote
Control Store" with all kinds of IR interface components. The
chip gives me 14 separate remotely controllable addresses. I can use
the remote control (below) to turn on and off each one independently.
I will have control over 14 different features on my robot. Already, I
have 4 addresses taken up by the Chest Light controller and 1 used to active
the Soil Sampler. Others will include the Torso movement routines and
maybe the brain and radar movement. |
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12/30/03 - This is the IR
Detector (shown in the above schematic) mounted below the pinhole
camera. It will peer out from inside the collar. To the right
of the IR Detector is the microphone. |
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12/30/03 - Here's a
view with the collar in place. You can see the black camera
support behind the collar rings. There will be a
large black "ring" around the inside of the collar to hid both
of these. This is where Bob May's head would be and there would be
holes in the black ring for him to
see out of. I figured if it was a good place for him to peer
out of, it was good enough for my camera and IR detector. |
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12/28/03 - The
circuit board shown here is my IR repeater board. I have two
internal items that need to be controlled by remotes. The car stereo I am
using for my voice/internal sound effects as well as my IR interface
board. I need to be able to control both of these from
outside. In order to have the IR signals penetrate the torso, I need
to have a remote IR detector and a corresponding internal IR
repeater. The board should do the trick. It is
sold by Ramsey Electronics
a very neat local manufacturer of Hobby electronics kits. I also use
one of these IR
repeaters to control my audio and video equipment in my living
room. I can have the doors closed on the armoire entertainment
center and still control the equipment inside.
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2/9/04 - I cut down the IR
repeated circuit board as it had a lot of wasted space. It also
helps that it is small when finding room for it. Here it is
mounted next to the main speaker. I may move the green "Feedback"
LED up to the collar and mount it on the same bracket as the remote sensor.
I find it convenient to know if the IR detector saw the remote command.
Right now, without the neon installed, I can see the green LED through the
neon opening. Once the neon is in, I won't have that luxury. |
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The
remote is an off-the-shelf Radio Shack universal remote. I programmed
it to send the standard SONY signals, which is what my IR Interface circuit
board understands. |
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