Project Two

We are now into project two, yay!

For this one we need to create a robot that expresses some sort of human psychology, so some sort of emotion. I'm thinking I might look at something hysterical perhaps, really wound up... A modified Taz perhaps from Looney Tunes? I'm not sure, will have to have a good think.

Finished Controller

Thought I'd just quickly post up a couple of pics of my controller which is now fully functional and all assembled. Yay!

Whole Controller:

Switches: Can you find the sweet spot?

Controller Update

Well it turns out the initial wiring I did previously was completely wrong. Had a talk to Tiago on how to fix it. My main problem was that I had it all wired through only 1 resistor and so only one of the buttons would work, I think I also had it grounded a little wrong. Anyway with a bit of tinkering Tiago and I got it going, we also had to change a value in my code. Strangley one switch is set up the same as the others so that it is off and you need to turn it on for anything to happen but when the controller is operational, for some reason this switch thinks its turned on and so you have to turn it off for a result... its rather confusing but at least it now works. Time to seal up the controller so its all contained in the one unit, then I can move on with the last of my code and refining/finishing my animations.

Controller Componentry

Here I have linked up the arduino to my controller. Looking pretty good. Have got it talking nicely to arduino, now I just need to get it to talk to flash.

Building The Controller

Today I decided I would make up the the controller for my project. Controller you ask? I have changed my original idea of making a switchboard to instead creating a controller. The main reason being that the switchboard was intended for use with pressure sensors and since that failed to happen due to time constraints, it seemed silly to continue with this idea. I thought that a controller would be better suited. The panda is a tye of experiment that was intended for human control upon its completion. So it makes sense to have a portable controller that can be used to manipulate it.

After playing around with the little switches I got from Mindkits I decided that it would be best to change from these smaller ones to bigger ones. 1) They mount onto the breadboard which I want to be on the inside of my controller and 2) They are all the same. I wanted 3 different switches that 1 from each set of 3 would initiate some reaction (animation) from the panda. I took a trip down to my local Dick Smiths, bought myself some new stuff. Managed to get some sweet silver switches for only $2 each, pretty sure they are worth $6 each. EDIT: they were worth $7! For the controller box I am using a empty container box I found in Dick Smiths. I was going to build one myself from wood or something but that tends to take way to much time. Cutting out, measuring, painting etc. So not into doing that, and this looks much more solid and more in keeping with my story as it is properly engineered rather than looking like something from a kids homework project.

THE PLAN:

Plan is to have the box hold my arduino etc. Will cut out a slot for the usb port in one of the sides to achieve this. Then on the top will be a series of 9 switches however only 3 of these will do something. It's a bit of a game, find the sweet spot to make the panda happy. Hit the wrong switch and well, you'll get a different result. For these "wrong" switches I have decided that one will put him to sleep, the other will bring more discomfort to him.