I just ordered the Arc32 and being a beginner I’m nervous.
My life-size R2D2 is RC and needs servo ports badly.
I’m currently restricted to 6 channels at this moment n my Ps2 controller.
Will the Arc32 be a hard board for me to learn?
Will basic be the best choice for me?
Thanks
Depends on where you’re starting from!
Do you know BASIC? Or possibly some other computer language?
Have you programmed the Basic Atom or Basic atom Pro? Or perhaps the Basic Stamp?
Knowing one of the Atom products is very close to what you’ll encounter in the ARC-32.
Alan KM6VV
I played with basic a few years back, Ut I better say I’m a fresh Newbie.
I won’t be using the board for anything other than servo control with the Lynx Ps2 controller.
Hi and welcome,
It is a nice board with lots of IO and can run quite a few servos. I have a Phoenix with 18 servos that is running using one of these.
It is pretty easy to learn how to to use this board and there are several of us here that try to help out. You mentioned in your second post that you will only use this for reading the inputs from a PS2 and to control some servos. From your description, I assume there is some other processor or the like that is controlling the whole thing. That is when the user moves a joystick on the PS2 and some action is supposed to happen, what is taking the inputs and deciding what to do with it and then tell the servos or other components what to do?
Kurt
there is PS2 code you can cut and paste.
Start out by driving a servo or two.
You’ll have to add code to decode the joystick commands. the hexapod examples may give you some ideas.
It’s not hard!
Alan KM6VV
I say the same, ist not hard (Im a complete noob allso)
Thank you everyone for the warm Welcome.
My R2 can be seen at Tomsr2.blogspot.com
I only use R/C on him through a Ps2 controller and a C6C board, But I have
Many doors and things to move. That’s the reason for the Arc32.
Maybe in the future I can use sensors for some automated features.
I downloaded the code programmer from MicroBasic and hope this is what I need.
Once the board arrives I’ll start coding.
I’ll have a ton of questions, So I hope I don’t drive everyone nuts.
I guess the Arc32 can handle the load, it will be the only servo driver in the droid.
I plan to use the 12 channel sound card from Sparkfun if it will work with the Arc32.
12 channel sound card from Sparkfun if it will work with the Arc32?
Not sure what a sound card has in common with the ARC-32!
Alan KM6VV
The Arc should be able to send a trip signal to the card.
This will give me sound in R2. The old sound system needs updating.
The Arc will drive my Sabertooth for the feet and dome, The doors and other
Items are just standard servo actions
Can’t wait till the Arc gets here.
OK, sure. You can send simple digital hand-shake signals, or even bit-bang serial messages.
What sound card do you have? You can easily connect up a SpeakJet or SoundGin chip. There is an Arduino board (shield) that supports both the SpeakJet chip and a TT256 chip. Easy to connect up, just TTL RX/TX, and a handshake if you desire. (+5 needed too).
I think there are some R2D2 sounds for the SpeakJet and other stuff on this forum!
Alan KM6VV
Can someone tell me if this will power the Arc while I learn to use the board.
lynxmotion.com/p-753-regulat … 33amp.aspx
I want to order the Ps2 controller and this together.
Thanks
Should work like a champ, at least for a few servos…
Thanks for the quick reply.
I ordered the supply, Ps2 controller and cable, 1 Pico switch for Lynx.
As soon as it arrives I can start setting up the system for R2.
Alan,
Heres a link to the sound card I plan to use.
sparkfun.com/products/9715
I figured on using the 18 triggers and have the Arc coded to make them work.
Now that I’m thinking on how to use this card it may not be a good choice because I don’t want to use 18 channels to trigger the sound card, I was thinking I could code the Arc using 1 channel and I know that’s wrong.
I need a card that can understand the signal sent by the Arc to determine the correct sound to play.
I want to use the Ps2 controller 4 buttons as the control for sound and be able to hold the lower right trigger and the same 4 buttons play a different sound.
I need to look for something else.
That’s an interesting board.
Usually one sends the phonemes to the speech/sound board, or maybe trigger a simple message. Sounds like you wan it all n the sound card. I think I’d consider a separate uP to store messages, if I couldn’t store them on board.
The power supply will be fine if you don’t hang too much on it.
Alan KM6VV
Ps2, cable and power supply from lynx came in today!!!
This weekend I will attempt to setup everything on a table to simulate my R2 droid.
This will give me visual of what is going on as I learn to code.
I’ve got to find the document that shows how to connect the Ps2 cable and install the software.
Wish me luck!
I finally got the USB drivers to work with Win7 and that was a pain.
I ran the Arc32.bas to the Arc and tested to see if the 2 first servos were moving and they are!!!
Sorry guys, That’s a big step for me.
I still haven’t found the doc for hooking up the Ps2 controller, Does anyone know where or how to do this.
Thanks
Not sure if there is a doc on this, but I have it working fine on my my Arc32 version of the phoenix code.
I use the pins that are on the AUX2 header which have pull-up resistors connected to them.
[code];[PS2 Controller Constants]
PS2DAT con P40 ;PS2 Controller DAT (Brown)
PS2CMD con P41 ;PS2 controller CMD (Orange)
PS2SEL con P42 ;PS2 Controller SEL (Blue)
PS2CLK con P43 ;PS2 Controller CLK (White)
PadMode con $73
[/code]
Note: my init code is slightly different than the standard init as I did not try to init it to mode 0x79, instead I just needed default analog mode 0x73. Don’t need the extra 12 bytes of button pressures, since we never use them anyway…
I am pretty sure there is code up on the Arc32 Phoenix thread (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6042)
Kurt
Is it possible to write a code so the Ps2 controller can use the lower trigger as a switching button?
Hard to explain, But I had a code for Phidgets that I could use the 4 buttons on the Ps2 and hold a lower trigger button and the same 4 buttons could now control different servos.
Hold 2 trigger buttons and the 4 do something different again.
Hi not sure what you mean by lower trigger, but you can detect when any of the 16 buttons is pressed and have your code respond to do different things.
Whenever I need information on how the PS2 controller works, I often refer to the data in the link: store.curiousinventor.com/guides/ps2. It shows the data that can be returned by the PS2 and which byte it is contained in.
In addition to this, I would suggest looking through some of the programs like the phoenix or rover or …, that you can download from the tutorials up on Lynxmotion.com. This will show you ways to use the data that is returned.
Kurt