Monthly Archives: July 2012

The trouble with being ethical

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

After I got Vectronix to agree to a sponsorship of my AVC bid, I was compelled to get approval from my employer as we do business with Vectronix. After numerous exchanges, my companies policy prevents me from accepting the compass. … Continue reading →

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First experiments with an HB100 Doppler radar

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

I ordered two HB100 Doppler radar modules from China. They arrived and I took them down to the lab for a quick test. First off, the boards look nice. Good solder masks and silkscreens. On the surface they look of … Continue reading →

Posted in AVC, Projects | 16 Comments

Vibration isoltation

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

So the electronics deck on my RC car is hard mounted to the chassis. When the robot vibrates so do all the electronics including the IMU. This points tons of noise into all the channels of the IMU. I have … Continue reading →

Posted in AVC, Projects | 3 Comments

Pololu MinIMU-9 V2 issue

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

Got all the channels on the IMU to work last night. I then started to perform some crude testing. First thing I did was to get a few minutes of data without any motion. This seems ok, although there is … Continue reading →

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Pololu MinIMU-9 V2 integration

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

I purchased the Pololu IMU and integrated it into the robot over the last few days. I was able to get the magnetometer and the accelerometers to work quickly with the supplied code. But I had issues with the gyro. … Continue reading →

Posted in AVC, Projects | 3 Comments

Progress

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

Last week I got called out of town and did not have a chance to work with the parts that have started to come in. Today I caught up on my sleep (I had 16 hours in the last 3 … Continue reading →

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My first sponsor: Vectronix

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

In my work I have been using a Vectronix Digital Magnetic Compass (DMC) for several years. We choose this component for our project because it was widely recognized as the best magnetic system in the world. Fully calibrated in a … Continue reading →

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Trying to program an ARM processor with a free toolchain

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

So after just a few days of using an Arduino for my AVC entry, I realize that it will just not be up to the task. First it does not provide an realtime multithreaded environment. The environment is slow, and … Continue reading →

Posted in ARM, AVC, Processors, Projects | 2 Comments

AVC update

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

Started to order parts. First thing will have to be a new RC TX/RX with a third channel to control a Pololu servo mux. With this I will be able to have the processor or the receiver have control of … Continue reading →

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Back!

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Skye Sweeney

My son’s surgery went very well. He is recovering nicely at home. He is doing well enough that we actually worked together on the AVC entry. Even with his jaw wired closed, he was a great help.

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