rbasoalto

Ever thought of mounting on the floor, in the middle of the parking spot? Like a cat-eye. You could embed it in clear resin and measure IR reflection on the top. You could even try these cheap not-so-sensitive magnetometers (compass) to measure for changes in magnetic field, and see if that's enough. Other idea could be to use thermopile sensor, try and sense the heat of the engine when the car arrives, but you'd have to sort out the problem of sun heat, and the gradual cooling, which later could mean that the car's temp is indistinguishable from the night's sky temp. A wire loop is also n

Depending on what compiler you're using, you should be able to include the cpp library APIs using extern "C++" declarations. extern "C++"{ #include "cpp_header_file.hh" }

Awesome! I was in the middle of doing the same thing by hand. I bought a very cheap GY80 clone off ebay, and so far I've managed to read the accel and gyro. I haven't messed with the magnetometer nor barometric pressure sensor yet. I think your work will be a good resource to get my IMU finished and ready for my experimental quad based on the Stellaris.

A couple of days back I stumbled upon the Crazyflie, and its firmware source code. It's running on a STM32 (Cortex M3) so it should be easier to port than arduino code. Besides, it's using FreeRTOS (and we're planning to do the same). It's definitely worth a look.

OK, a long time has gone by... I finally made the choice and got the motors, ESC, propellers, and a frame from DX.com. I know there are better places to get these parts, but DX.com had a good price and variety. For around 100 USD I got everything I need to make a "stable flight" prototype. The only things missing are batteries and radio. A friend of mine crashed his R/C airplane and gladly donated the radio for this project. And batteries... let me first get this thing off the ground tethered, and just then I can think about batteries. On the software side, I'm partnering with a friend w

OK, let's see if simplicity can win http://forum.43oh.com/topic/3016-very-simple-ir-remote/

Hi! I made a very simple IR remote control with a MSP430G2211, a 4x4 keypad, and an IR LED. I wanted to make a remote for my car radio, but for the time being, it's a Sony TV remote. You can see the code (mspgcc) at https://github.com/rbasoalto/sonyremote A couple of pictures... The code could use a little rework, but for a quick&dirty hack, it's working pretty nice. BOM: Keypad IR LED MSP430G2211 + socket Resistor for RST (it's inside the socket) Decoupling cap (probably not needed) Salvaged iPod Li-ion battery AMS1117-3.3 regulator (just the one I had lying ar

Long time, no post! I've found a little spare time to play with the F5510 Olimexino. It was pretty much impossible to get the USB BSL working (I'm a Mac user ), but I could use a Launchpad to program it through SBW. The board is tiny, feature-packed, and a pretty good deal IMHO. USB is definitely a selling point. Besides, for some, Arduino shield pin-compatibility is a plus. Olimex's UEXT port is also useful. With a bit of pin hacking I got one of these 8-digit displays from DealExtreme (http://dx.com/p/81873/) working directly off the UEXT connector, pin compatible. For me it was al

Yeah, I guess accepting only increasing numbers is fine. If you use a sufficiently long counter (32 bits?), it'd be fine. I doubt you are ever going to get 4 billion events in the lifetime of the system. You'll need to swapt the battery first (and then you will have to resynchronize somehow). I think a simple synchronization scheme will do. Something based on button pressing and/or jumpers (say, put a jumper in the remote to set it to "sync mode", and then press a button on the server to transmit a new key and start counter at 0). If you get sophisticated, you could have multiple remotes with

Very nice! Maybe you can have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOTP for security. It's the kind of cryptographically-secure unpredictable sequence generators that banks use for two-factor authentication. Google's two-factor authentication uses it too. The idea is that you apply an HMAC function (some kind of hash involving a private key) to a counter. Both transmitter and receiver need to store this counter. Since both will usually be in sync, the HMAC received can be compared to the expected value, based on the shared private key, and the counter. If it fails, it can also try a few

These days everything slightly related to DIY electronics is marketed as "for arduino". This IMU module is just a set of 4 sensors on an I2C bus, making it perfect for anything I2C-capable, and over just 2 wires! The 400khz bus should be more than enough for this purpose.

I've seen a lot of DIY tutorials, etc, but most are using carbon fiber frames, etc. Have you seen a simple guide for something waaaay cheaper? I'm thinking acrylic frame (hand-cut, of course), and cheap motors and ESCs. My first goal is to get it flying, with no human control. Something like taking off, flying steady-still 20cm off the ground, then landing. I'd also love to read something on the control: is proportional enough? or should I go for PID? Also, I'm thinking it's wise to begin with accelerometer-only control, and then start experimenting with gyros. Should be enough for this pu

Oh yes, check this post: http://forum.stellarisiti.com/topic/222-quadcopter-on-the-cheap/

Hi everyone! I saw this IMU (3-axis accelerometer + 3-axis gyro + 3-axis magnetometer + pressure altimeter) for $21 on eBay (link), and the $5 Stellaris launchpad, and I immediately thought: QUADCOPTER! Already placed the order for the IMU and Stellaris, and I plan to design a Boosterpack to connect motors, sensors, and probably a sonar ranger to the floor and/or ceiling (for indoor flight). Anyone has any experience with these flying monsters? Thanks!

Hi! I'm a total newbie here, I'm hoping I learn a lot from you guys. Already ordered a couple of Stellaris Launchpads! See/read you around!

Excellent! I was designing a (way more complex) solution myself... thanks!

Good! Meanwhile I've been playing with Olimex's F5510 Arduino-shaped board. Too bad I haven't been able to get the USB BSL working right under OSX, but the Launchpad makes a great SBW programmer In the end, will you get the boards completely assembled or...? Thanks

Has anybody been able to buy one of these lately? Every time I check the eStore, they're out of stock.

That's a good one! The first board I home-etched years ago was for a L298 too. This was after I saw a L293 burst in flames By the way, I think it's a good idea to put diodes from gnd to each motor terminal, and from each motor terminal to Vmot, to protect the circuit from the current induced when you take the power off the motors.

Hi all, I just got my hands on a Olimexino 5510, which is just an MSP430F5510 with Arduino-shaped headers. I'd love to study and start working with the USB BSL here, but I haven't found too much info on the BSL for Mac OSX. I normally use mspgcc and mspdebug to work with the launchpad, but apparently it doesn't support the USB BSL. Anybody knows something I could use? Thanks! --Rodrigo

I just bought one of these for about USD 20 from a local Olimex distributor (http://www.olimex.cl/). It should arrive tomorrow or so.

Good work! Do you have the USB-UART code in hand? I'm intending to learn to use the USB peripheral in F5510/5529 BTW Nice sawn off LP Ever thought on putting female headers on the underside of the LP for programming boards like this?

Yeah, I guess it's okay. As for assembly, I'd say partially assembled. Better leave the headers unpopulated, for those opting for male or female headers. LDO is not always necessary (when usign internal LDO), but since it can be jumper-disabled, better put it there

I found the discussion, in SA's F5529 breakout thread: http://www.43oh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=11400#p11400 I think the bigger issue is with vias killing the impedance-controlled closely-routed tracks. It probably will work just like that, but it's worth taking a look at.

The answer is in this very forum: http://www.43oh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2956