I am new in this forum and first of all I would like to say hello to everyone.
As a part of my research, I have to buy a robot meeting some requirements. My department and I agree with T-Hex(4DOF) and AH3-R are the most suitable robots. However, we still have a couple of doubts I would like to sort out in this forum with your help.
As far as I have seen, there are no “officially recognized” touch or pressure sensor for the T-Hex robot, but some topics on the forum suggest that Tubing Foot Switch Kit (lynxmotion.com/p-626-hexapod … -pair.aspx) can be added to the T-Hex legs? Is there any tutorial explaining it step-by-step?
Finally, reading through this forum, I could gratefully discover, that plenty of programming languages are available for the SSC-32 controller (c++, python, MBasic…). Do this languages support sensors? I mean, is it possible to attach sensor to the robot being recognized by the c++ or python API?
As for T-Hex pressure switch, I am not sure if those parts were released yet or not. If not I expect they will be. There are a few of us who are starting to work on using the phoenix code to use the switches. As you mentioned there are some tubing switches that have been released. I personally like the T-Hex type switches better as they are more foolproof (at least for me). I don’t think there are any tutorials yet on these new switches. As for the ones you mentioned, the T-Hex has tubing at the end of the legs so you should be able to adapt them to the tubing switch. Might change the leg dimensions some so the software would have to be adjusted slightly.
Yes as you control the SSC-32 by sending serial data to it, you can control it by just about anything that can generate a serial stream, including a PC, Microcontrollers… You can also use any language supported on these platforms.
As for sensors, that is a very large question. What sensors? What are their input out output requirements? What are you using as a controller that needs the sensor inputs? … You can hook up to 4 simple sensors (analog or digital) to the SSC-32, and with that can use any language as above. However if for example you wish to hook up the leg sensors, with 1 per leg, this requires 6 inputs. The standard T-HEX kit ships with a Basic Atom Pro28(BAP28), which can handle these inputs. The BAP28 is typically programmed in basic, but you can program it in C or C++ as well (GNU compilers). Basic Micro the makers of the BAP do not supply any support libraries for these except the ones that ship with GNU. There are a few of us who have built up our own libraries. If you are interested in this, there are a few threads up on the forum on this.
Thanks for the info. Yes you are right, sensors has a lot of connotations. Particularly, I am interesting in equipping the robot with 1 or 2 either ultrasound or infrared sensors plus 6 pressure switches, one per leg. All these sensor are compatible with the SSC-32 controller, thus are the recommended ones for the AH3-R robot. So I suppose (maybe wrongly) that those sensor meet all I/O requirements…
Mmm… Do you mean that the SSC-32 has only 4 I/O (digital or analog) when you say “you can hook up to 4 simple sensors…”?
Basically I have to throw away the idea of hooking 7 sensors… (unless fusing maybe a pair of touch or pressure sensors in just one input or change the controller).
Sorry, again you have not specified what you are using to control the hex. My guess from what you are saying, it is some form of PC or maybe a Linux processor. So I don’t know if your controller has other inputs available to it.
Note: I have never used the inputs on an SSC-32 so …
But you could probably easily hook up several touch sensors to 1 IO by setting them up on a resistor ladder and using the analog input
With some simple circuitry like a MUX, using a couple servo connections as digital outputs to control which IO line, you could probably hook up many devices to those 4.
Could simply use a Microcontroller to handle the inputs with the option of having the SSC-32 connected to the microontroller or not…
Note: All of the sensors you mentioned do work with BAP28 on Bot Board 2 setups.
With all of the inputs you want, it would be good to add a BBII and Atom Pro to the SSC-32. Run the SSC-32 commands through the BBII, and then you can use one BlueTooth or WiFi link to control both.
