HylianSavior

We made a video describing the whole project- check it out!
 

We made a video describing the whole project- check it out!
 

Board all soldered up and working! Hopefully we'll have some demo videos out soon.
 

Board all soldered up and working! Hopefully we'll have some demo videos out soon.
 

Board all soldered up and working! Hopefully we'll have some demo videos out soon.
 

Board all soldered up and working! Hopefully we'll have some demo videos out soon.
 

Board all soldered up and working! Hopefully we'll have some demo videos out soon.
 

Boards have arrived!
 

Design is finished and sent to the fab! It's now been christened as "BoosterBot".

Design is finished and sent to the fab! It's now been christened as "BoosterBot".

Design is finished and sent to the fab! It's now been christened as "BoosterBot".

Design is finished and sent to the fab! It's now been christened as "BoosterBot".

http://youtu.be/I0JuGvbfIIE
 
http://boosterbot.in
https://github.com/Hylian/BoosterBot
http://hackaday.io/project/1845-BoosterBot
 
Here's a BoosterPack that @@szhao, jwp071, and I are working on. It's a BoosterPack that turns a 40-pin Launchpad into a fully functional robot.
 
It has two Micro Metal Gearmotors from Pololu driven by a DRV8833 motor driver IC and has five QRE1113 reflectance sensors from Fairchild for line tracking. It also has breakouts for a Sharp IR distance sensor and a servo. For power, a 3xAAA battery holder fits between the LP headers, which powers the 3.3V and 5V pins, as well as 9V for the motors.
 
No pictures yet, as I'm in the middle of routing the board. I'll post updates as they come.
 
Edit 6/30: A picture of the board in progress: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/538662/robot-boosterpack.png
You can see the motor mounts at the far end.
 
Edit 7/1:
Quick update: https://dl.dropboxus...oosterpack2.png
 
The five sensors up at the front are reflectance sensors on the bottom of the board for line tracking and maze solving. The middle three are for PID line following, and the two at the edges are for recognizing splits in the track

http://youtu.be/I0JuGvbfIIE
 
http://boosterbot.in
https://github.com/Hylian/BoosterBot
http://hackaday.io/project/1845-BoosterBot
 
Here's a BoosterPack that @@szhao, jwp071, and I are working on. It's a BoosterPack that turns a 40-pin Launchpad into a fully functional robot.
 
It has two Micro Metal Gearmotors from Pololu driven by a DRV8833 motor driver IC and has five QRE1113 reflectance sensors from Fairchild for line tracking. It also has breakouts for a Sharp IR distance sensor and a servo. For power, a 3xAAA battery holder fits between the LP headers, which powers the 3.3V and 5V pins, as well as 9V for the motors.
 
No pictures yet, as I'm in the middle of routing the board. I'll post updates as they come.
 
Edit 6/30: A picture of the board in progress: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/538662/robot-boosterpack.png
You can see the motor mounts at the far end.
 
Edit 7/1:
Quick update: https://dl.dropboxus...oosterpack2.png
 
The five sensors up at the front are reflectance sensors on the bottom of the board for line tracking and maze solving. The middle three are for PID line following, and the two at the edges are for recognizing splits in the track

@@szhao looks neat!

I've made a daughterboard for the TI Evalbot using the EM connectors. It has a MSP430G2553, Xbee (Bluetooth Bee), and an XV-11 LIDAR. The goal is to eventually get SLAM working with it. 
 
The LIDAR (laser distance sensor, really) continuously rotates and reports distance values and angular velocity. The MSP430 controls the rotation with PWM and the velocity data, and acts as a SPI slave to the Stellaris on the Evalbot to report distance values. The XBee is connected straight to the Stellaris UART.
 
Example of the LIDAR in use: http://youtu.be/KnspWPlBM_o
 
I just got the boards in and soldered them up. Hoping to have some code written up soon.
 
You can find the design files at: https://github.com/hylian/slambot
 
PCB: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/538662/lidarpcb.png
Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/VZSGb
Video: http://youtu.be/v139k2DG388

I've made a daughterboard for the TI Evalbot using the EM connectors. It has a MSP430G2553, Xbee (Bluetooth Bee), and an XV-11 LIDAR. The goal is to eventually get SLAM working with it. 
 
The LIDAR (laser distance sensor, really) continuously rotates and reports distance values and angular velocity. The MSP430 controls the rotation with PWM and the velocity data, and acts as a SPI slave to the Stellaris on the Evalbot to report distance values. The XBee is connected straight to the Stellaris UART.
 
Example of the LIDAR in use: http://youtu.be/KnspWPlBM_o
 
I just got the boards in and soldered them up. Hoping to have some code written up soon.
 
You can find the design files at: https://github.com/hylian/slambot
 
PCB: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/538662/lidarpcb.png
Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/VZSGb
Video: http://youtu.be/v139k2DG388

One issue I have with Python is the lack of actual public/private classes... Probably due to its origin as a scripting language.
I haven't delved too deep into it though- Maybe I'll get around to doing something with it sometime.

Yup.. it is still in preview mode. Now we have two kinds of wireless boards, which is good. Thanks Poofay.
HylianSavior : +1 for your work.

I'm not trying to thwart your plans, but I found a link to this webpage when looking up info on the g2553.
 
I can't post links since I'm too new, but if you google the part number "430boost-cc110l" the first hit is the webpage.
 
There isn't any info other than it listed as a preview device, but it looks like TI also thinks the launchpad needs a wireless booster pack. The CC110L is named their "value line" transceiver, so they seem like a good pair for each other. It could be months before they release it though!
 
I've learned a ton while following this thread. Finish the board so you can say you beat TI to the punch!

Should be ok. Zeke is better at this.

After much neglect, I redid the entire board, using the Launchpad libraries. Made the traces much tighter this time.
 
Anyone have any opinions on antenna placement? Is it a better idea to move it away from the rest of the components, or just have it the way it is now?

What the filter is doing is keeping a running average so that one large fluctuation won't change the value a whole lot. Right now, for every input, it keeps 3/4 of the current value and averages in 1/4 of the new value. You can change these values through some reasoning and trial and error to get what you want.

http://hackaday.com/2011/10/17/how-to-d ... k+a+Day%29
 
This article may be of interest to some.

http://hackaday.com/2011/10/17/how-to-d ... k+a+Day%29
 
This article may be of interest to some.