Duel Servo control with a wireless Xbox or TV Remote?

Community General Discussions
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1

Hi all,

I own a 60' telescopic mast for taking elevated (aerial) photos. At the top, I have a robotic camera mount for the camera. 2 servos, one pan - one tilt.

At the moment, I'm using an RC 2.4 ghz transmitter/receiver to control the camera mount. It works fine, but it's a bit of a pain carrying the rc transmitter around.

I was hoping to lessen the "load" by using either an Xbox wireless controller, or a TV remote of some kind. I have a portable DVD player for a "live view" of the shot, so the range would only have to be 60' or so. However, please keep in mind I would be in the sun much of the time. So ..... Infrared?

Any ideas or links much appreciated.

dan

2

Lynxmotion has a wireless
Lynxmotion has a wireless PS2 controller, which can be combined with their PS controller cable to connect to a Basic Atom micro shown in their tutorials. The Basic Atom program should then be able to be modified to drive a couple servos based on the PS2 controller.

3

What he said
I actually just ordered that setup, seems pretty good and relatively cheap. Also very easy to program.

4

Thanks a lot.I would have to

Thanks a lot.

I would have to find a friend to help me with it. Let me make sure I understand what your recommending.

First, I already have a wireless Xbox controller. Do I have to buy theirs?

The Sony Play Station Controller Cable, that acts as a receiver? The Atom thing acts as a control/brain for the servo programming?

Is that basically how this works?

Thanks

The

5

**Yep **
Thats exactly how it works but i dont think you xbox controller will work. You can buy thiers for $20 or any wireless ps2 controller should work.

6

To use the XBox controller,

To use the XBox controller, a program and interface electronics would need to be made to read and decode the signals that are coming from it. It appears they are like USB signals, but I haven’t seen anyone showing they’ve decoded them with a micro yet.

The PS2 cantroller has a ready made solution at Lynxmotion, which should be adjustable to run the 2 servos with minimal difficulty. The wireless controller has a transmitter inside and a receiver that plugs into the cable which conncets to the Basic Atom at the camera end, running your servos.

It’s a choice over trying to make something work (XBox) that may not be able to, versus using something that has already been shown to work (PS2).

7

Thanks Guys.I just may have

Thanks Guys.

I just may have to try this out.

Peace

8

Help! Can’t get this to work.

Hi guys,

I thought I would try and figure this out on my own, but no sucess yet. I bought the BOT BOARD, the PS2 controller, and the PS2 controller cable. I’m reading the directions, but I don’t have the know how to get it to work.

The green led light is on - on the board, and the 2 lights are on - on the ps2 receiver, but I can’t get the servos to move.

If I using the PS2 controller, how do I know which terminals to plug into for each control stick on the controller?

Do I need to program it with a PC? Totally lost.

HELP.

Thanks,

dan

9

Yes, programming the

Yes, programming the Botboard would help : read this tutorial http://www.lynxmotion.com/images/html/build034.htm

and then this one : http://www.lynxmotion.com/images/html/build035.htm

 

10

More help please

OK,

I’m understanding the directions from the links(mostly). I do have the PS2 cable plugged in, and it IS powered.

What about the physical connection between the computer on the Bot Board II? I have a MaC Super Mini. Is there a cable/adapter that I can buy to connect the Bot Board to my Mac with a USB connection? I’m not sure how to connect it to my mac.

Also: "Step 2. Copy & paste the program from the bottom of the page into the editor."

I hope I don’t seem like an idiot here, but is there a program I’m supposed to download? If I copy and paste everything into my EDITOR program (“text edit”) how do I program the board from there? do just drag it over to what ever port the board is connected to?

Thanks a lot for the extra help.

dan

11

Some real Basics

Ok, you said you have the BotBoard, but do you have the Basic Atom 28 to plug into it? Or some other micro, think it will take a Basic Stamp 2 or a Basic Atom Pro 28. Whichever one, please make sure it is plugged in correctly (not turned around) before going any further.

The Bot Board II has a user guide showing some connections, and the specific one to use in programming is the DB9 port shown on page 2. Another guide is the 228 page Basic Atom Syntax manual, that tells how the Basic Atom runs the Basic commands and accepts programming.

It appears your Mac Mini has a number of USB ports. It might be possible to use one of these to take a USB to RS232 converter to plug into the BotBoard to program the Basic Atom 28. I found this page on the Basic Micro site that talks about getting the USB to serial adapter and Virtual PC, but it appears Virtual PC is no more, or is to become a Mircrosoft product. Before purchasing anything, it might be good to call Basic Micro at (800) 535-9161 to ask if the current Basic Atom IDE can be used on a Mac, and if so, ask for a pointer to the steps of how to do it. The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a program that connects serially to the Basic Atom to send the typed commands to program the Atom. It is sometimes refered to as an editor too. The program to test the Playstation controller is the long text section below starting with :

;-----------Bot Board Selection----------
;PS2 Controller / BotBoard I
;DAT con P4

That whole section would be copied into the IDE or editor to be sent to the Basic Atom. So the essential steps are:

1. Check to see if the Basic Atom (if that is the micro you have) can be programmed on a Mac currently.

2. If so, get the required USB to RS232 converter and PC emulation software for the Mac, and install the Basic Atom IDE inside the PC emulation software.

3. Run a test to check connections between the Mac and Basic Atom, maybe try blinking an LED, from following the Getting Started Instructions found in chapter 3 of the Basic Atom manual.

4. Try the test program on the first “get connected” tutorial from the Lynxmotion site.

5. Try the PS2 remote control tutorial from the Lynxmotion site.