Category Archives: AVC

Adventures with an Atmel SAM7S256

The Arduino’s I have been playing with are nice and fun, but they do not have the horsepower that I would like for my AVC robot. At work I have been using ARM processors and really like them. They are … Continue reading

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SUNDAR getting close to field testing

I have a nearly complete prototype of the sensor at this point. The scanner will find and then track the sun as the car turns. If it losses the sun, it will open up its scan window to get it … Continue reading

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A hope for the SUNDAR

Last night I started end to end testing of my solar compass. The pre-amp, amplifier, AGC, and digitizer circuits all seem to work. The code for computing Azimuth also seems to work in a lab environment. So far so good. … Continue reading

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SUNDAR Update

After etching the pre-amp board and populating it with parts, my quick test showed that the device did not work. No smoke, but no amplification either. And then some personal issues came up that I had to take care of. … Continue reading

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uBlock LEA-6H GPS arrived!

I placed an order for a uBlock LEA-6H GPS from Hobby King some time ago only to find out it was back ordered. I got my email on a list to let me know when they came in. A few … Continue reading

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SUNDAR update

Today I replaced the opamps with the new ones I just got from Analog Devices. These were SMT parts and I had to solder them to DIP adapters. But they share the same pin outs as a DIP, so the … Continue reading

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All is not lost with GPS

So after looking at the GPS data I collected, I figured I would try another data collection in 2D mode with the know altitude set. That would allow me to use one more satellite for horizontal position. I collected 12 … Continue reading

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GPS error

Towards my goal of entering the AVC competition in 2014, I have been evaluating GPS units. The current model I am looking at is a u-Blox LEA-6H with a patch antenna. The first test I tried was to hold the … Continue reading

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Opamp trouble

Been working on the two stage opamp for my Sundar. The first stage takes the current from the photodiode and turns it into a voltage with a certain amount of gain. The second stage applies a second gain as well … Continue reading

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SUNDAR update

Been working on my SUNDAR in what little free time I have these days. Last night my Digikey order came in and I was able to get the dual channel digital potentiometer working. This will be used for a software … Continue reading

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