wasson65

Great read, if you think java sucks. I enjoyed it immensely!!

There are obviously a lot of feelings around Java, and it's not hard to see the two camps that we've split into here. So here's my conclusion on the entire thing: If you want to learn Java then just write Java and run it on something that makes sense. MSP430's and Java don't make sense. The wonderful, excellent, most helpful super great parts of Java really won't help you at all in a micro, and the not-completely-great bloated parts will make life miserable, where the idea is to be close to the hardware instead of completely abstracted away from it. And (IMHO) once you've endured

I've written in my fair share of languages. I don't think it so much that the problem is with how java got done, I think the problem is with the mindset behind java. To me, this essay sums it up pretty well: http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html

The closeness to the hardware is a different experience. If you try some assembly language you can really get a flavor for the silicon and the designers point of view. Welcome aboard!

Sorry, hit the button too soon. Yeah, brisket and crawfish are my two favorite adopted delicacies... I wasn't born here but I got here eventually. "I'm from Texas, what country are you from?"

Ziegen Bock Amber at Rudy's BBQ

I was trying to get at something a little different - that there are people with quads already, who might switch out their motor driver board for this one if they knew they could easily 'switch brains' with it. For those people, buying another frame and set of motors isn't strictly necessary. Just a thought.

I think you should consider selling the populated PCB separately - there are a lot of quads out there already, and if I had one and could swap out the brains for ~$75, that's an option I would find more interesting than an entire second copter. Obviously I don't know what your BOM is and how the costs split out, but I suspect the board and it's parts are not the lions share of the cost, but I could be wrong - hard to believe, I know, but it has happened! Plus it gives people a way to buy it in smaller pieces that don't attract the attention of spousal units as much....

I haven't played much with serial output from the '430 to the outside world, so I'm going to have to defer to someone else, although it seems to me that there is a bit more to getting serial into a normal PC than what you have described. Here is another thread that discusses getting directly from '430 to PC: http://forum.43oh.com/topic/1156-communicate-with-pc/ It says you need a device like this: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/718 Hope this helps!

What they are getting at is that the power supply will happily and safely supply 3.4 volts at waaaay more amps that it would take to melt wires if something gets shorted on the breadboard. A simple 2 to 5 amp fuse inline with the 3.4 volts would also do the trick I'd think.

Worked on the 'navigation table' for Henry last night. The idea is basically that you can put an entry into a table in RAM that will have call a routine at a given number of 'tics' from now, where a tic is some time period that you find relevant. Once the tics counts down to zero, the routine is called and that section of the table can be re-used. When avoidance movements need to be performed, the existing table entries will have their 'tics' counters bumped up to compensate for the time to perform the avoidance movement. This is going to be my general approach to sequencing, as it's th

That's great stuff Sergi!!! I'm on the robotics side of the house as well, and you've got an excellent project going! I look forward to updates.

It's super easy. Just mount a socket on your board, be sure to put a pull-up resistor on the reset pin. 47k if memory serves. Program the part on the launchpad, and pop it into your board. TaDAA! Finished. The '430's are great that way. You can also use the launchpad to program your chip on your board. If you search for 'in circuit programming' you should find stuff here. Welcome aboard! Let us know how we can help.

You're well within 10 percent of 3.3, I wouldn't worry at all. Love the trainer, it looks like it would make tinkering around an absolute pleasure. Nicer tools make a difference... Did you route the USB through the trainer or will the host connect normally to the launchpad?

Here's a picture of my bench. I spend the week in the travel trailer up in Dallas and commute home to Houston on the weekends. Nothing fancy, just the basics.

And that's a perfectly reasonable approach - the scaler makes a lot of sense. You have to run it on something, so it might as well cut down your BOM and assembly time. Looking forward to seeing it working!

24bits for temperature? That's going to be one VERY precise oven, and that little controller is going to be banging the heck out of that TRIAC trying to keep it juuuuust right... lol. Can a TRIAC wear out? Heck, pointing an IR remote control at the door will be enough to throw it off!!! Then again, some might say 'don't use a hammer to kill a mosquito', but have you ever seen what happens to a mosquito when you hit it with a hammer? ------- Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and... Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. An

Always glad to see new people - what are your general interests or ideas around the '430?

Nice - Using your capabilities to extend your capabilities - Using tools to build tools - that's what makes us human! One of these days I've got to stop changing my mind long enough to start laying out PC boards...

Here you can see the sparkfun motor controller that is used. The grey wires go to the '430 and power, and the heavy wires are from the motors. The controller is hot-glued to the top of the batter case to keep it out of the way. The Sharp IR sensor is hot-glued to the underside of the Radio Shack breadboard-style PC board. The sensor has a slight downward tilt, although perhaps not enough to keep me from running off the edges of things. The Sharp sensor has a simple analog output which will be read on pin 14 of the 2553. The top level board is supported on 4 legs of 22 gauge solid h

This is the Launchpad with the msp430G2553. The Launchpad is hot-glued to the radioshack breadboard. I used female connectors and soldered the ribbon cable strands to the pins on the female connectors, so it's possible to unplug if needed. Inputs are pins 2-5, motor controls are 9,10,12,13, Sharp IR sensor is 14 (but inop right now...) Note the use of 30 gauge wire-wrap wire as cable bundles. Easier, smaller, and lighter than zip ties.

Here you can see the IR controller that I've hacked. The IR controller motor driver outputs now goes to 4 input pins on the '430, and the '430 is running the motor controller. So he functions as a 'remote controlled' robot right now, but only because that's what his software says to do right now. The IR controller was easy to hack, it runs fine off 2 AAA batteries (same as '430) but I did have to add 5k and 10k pulldown resistors on the outputs of the IR motor driver because they would float high if they weren't being driven. You can see them in the pictures.

This is the 'new' Henry - he is a Radio Shack IR remote control 'Moonwalker' chassis. Here you can see the overall configuration and the handheld IR controller.

I just put in '8051' and that's the curve it gave. The dropoff is quite a bit sharper than it is for msp430. Just for kicks, go there and put in 'Arduino' and 'Raspberry Pi', and you'll understand how rapid and popular RPI has become. Interesting stuff.....