Category Archives: AVC

Comments on an LDROBOT LD-Air Lidar

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Skye Sweeney

I purchased an LD-AIR LIDAR from LDROBOT as part of a Kickstarter campaign. I received it some time ago but did not have any time to play with it then. I just got some time this week and these are … Continue reading →

Posted in AVC, LD-AIR, Personal, Teensy, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Comments on an LDROBOT LD-Air Lidar

On watchdog timers

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Skye Sweeney

For many embedded software engineers, the watchdog timer is something that is designed in at the end. The thought is you just turn it on prior to shipping and “She’ll be right”. But this is a terrible travesty.

Posted in AVC, Processors | Comments Off on On watchdog timers

XBee radios

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Skye Sweeney

I had gotten a pair of 1 mW XBee radios a while ago. I had wanted to use them to communicate with my robot while it was running. Normally I use an RS-232 cable in the lab, but in the … Continue reading →

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IMU heater

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Skye Sweeney

I am using a Pololu 9-DOF module as the IMU for my robot. Its a very small device (1.0*0.8″) using MEMS bases gyro, accelerometer, and magnetometers. The trouble is these sensors have some drawbacks. The first is that MEMS sensors … Continue reading →

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It has been a while

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Skye Sweeney

Life got in the way. I hate it when it does that. Why can’t things like work, taxes, dishes, and doctors appointments just take care of themselves? Why must I be involved? But over the last few weeks I got … Continue reading →

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Interesting bugs

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Skye Sweeney

Over the last few months, I have been sending to my software group at work a puzzle/quiz in the form of a bug I have found in my robot code. They seem to get a kick out of especialy since … Continue reading →

Posted in AVC, Personal, Software | 4 Comments

Data collection. 1 of n

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Skye Sweeney

Today I took my robot to my test area. I collected two battery packs worth of data. I am now begging the long process of analyzing 15 megabytes of binary log files. Oh Joy! No sarcasm here. I love data. … Continue reading →

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Long time no post

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Skye Sweeney

It has been a while since I last posted. A lot and a little has happened in the meantime. I went on vacation to London and had a great time, but I have not made a huge amount of progress … Continue reading →

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Major milestones fall!

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Skye Sweeney

Today I was able to check out a few major milestones today. The first is that I determined that I can indeed control the steering servo and ESC via the ARM processor. I was a bit worried that they would … Continue reading →

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LSM303 bug fixed!

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Skye Sweeney

After several very frustrating days, I have found the root cause of my bad readings. It was not in the sensor or in its setup. It was in fact the the TWI/I2C driver code that I took from the ATMEL … Continue reading →

Posted in ARM, AVC, Pololu 9DOF IMU | Comments Off on LSM303 bug fixed!