Bluetooth for Homebrew Robots? 134
MacGod asks: "As an extra-curricular for my university, I am working some other engineers to try and design a RoboSoccer Project (please don't wipe out our server if possible), with the hopes of entering the RoboCup tournament in the near future. We are currently using some low-frequency Abacom RF communication modules, but would like to able to go to BlueTooth if possible. However, I have found it nearly impossible to locate any suitable BlueTooth modules. We'd really like something that could be put onto a breadboard, and that would come with sufficiently detailed instructions that we'd be able to implement it without being BlueTooth experts. Any suggestion on homebrew BlueTooth solutions, Slashdot?"
Re:Why bother ? (Score:1)
Bluetooth modules for use with mobile robots (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bluetooth modules for use with mobile robots (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Bluetooth modules for use with mobile robots (Score:1)
Aside from the cost of the BrainBoxes stuff, I've been fairly satisfied with the performance. The plan is to start selling/recommending the BrainBoxes stuff to our customers (unless of course a cheaper alternative is found).
Can you comment any more about the difficulties you are having with Free2Move?
moc.oohay_@_12341ekim
Re:Bluetooth modules for use with mobile robots (Score:2)
Re:Bluetooth modules for use with mobile robots (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.circuitcellar.com/PSOC2002/winners/h
I can email you offlist, with my bluetooth links and research if you are interested. My buds and I are building a robotic society for our grad thesis. BT is high on our list of prefs for comm. between the robots.
usenet (Score:4, Informative)
this post's author could be someone to ask? [google.co.uk]
Re:usenet (Score:2)
Most futile slashdot request evar!
Try froogle next time... (Score:5, Informative)
Google's froogle feature is pretty cool, I found board-mountable bluetooth modules in less than 10 seconds (I had to resort by price).
Here's a Site that sells [c-com.com.tw] the modules.
Re:don't hit too hard (Score:2)
Re:don't hit too hard (Score:2, Insightful)
if you don't want your server being hit, don't put a link to it on /. front page !
Better yet, if your page doesn't have a lot of large images, link to a Google cached page instead.
Bluetooth? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why Bluetooth? A better question would have been, "We are currently using some low-frequency Abacom RF communication modules, but would like increased range, bandwidth, and fidelity. Does anyone have any recommendations for a wireless technology which will meet these needs?"
Let the problem dictate the solution. It sounds like you're just itching to make use of Bluetooth because it's buzz-compliant.
Re:Bluetooth? (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe the poster, MacGod, has a Bluetooth enabled computer, and wants to simplify the robot? Bluetooth works, and is has good general support.
Mac users tend to realize it's what your computer can do that's important, not what you can tinker with on the computer. Had he asked the question you posed, the simple, cheap and common Bluetooth protocol might have gotten far less mention than some protocol X which has a range of 1km, supports 64k simultaneous connections, costs $500/unit, and will require the stud
Re:Bluetooth? (Score:2)
Re:Bluetooth? (Score:2)
Let the problem dictate the solution. It sounds like you're just itching to make use of Bluetooth because it's buzz-compliant.
I mainly was interested in BlueTooth because it was faster, and had reasonable range than the RF modules
Re:Bluetooth? (Score:1)
funny joke (Score:2, Funny)
Um you probably should have though of that before you post to /. That is like waving a red flag to a bull. Good luck!
Last time I checked... (Score:1)
Sounds like an exercise in futility. You do know this is
Be honest (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Be honest (Score:1)
Re:Be honest (Score:3, Interesting)
Rhymes with slashdot...sorta (Score:1)
bluetooth distance (Score:1, Insightful)
Wi-Fi Robotics (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wi-Fi Robotics (Score:2)
We get a 28dB signal at slightly over a mile. As long as you don't buy a power-sucking prism-based card, it's not a problem.
Re:bluetooth distance (Score:5, Informative)
Class 1 = 100m
Class 2 = 10m
Class 3 = 2m
with corresponding power demands. All of which are still close to 1/4 the power of 802.11 devices.
LoB
bah bluetooth (Score:1)
(apologies for the many
Bluetooth lego robot (Score:3, Informative)
Also here is a good overview of Bluetooth. Overview. [ucl.ac.uk]
GUELPH RULES (Score:1)
Re:GUELPH RULES (Score:2)
bluetooth gameboy (Score:1)
I did a search for the ericsson development kit that they used and found a few good links:
http://www.icr.a-star.edu.sg/cwci/hw2.htm
http://www.stonestreetone.com/products/bluetooth _d evelopment_p
Those who can... (Score:1, Flamebait)
The team consists of 6 Ph.D faculty, and the vision subsystem description notes that:
There is a saying that is "more true" in engineering: Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach.
Does anyone think these yahoo's have a chance of actually fielding a working robosoccer team? Maybe they plan on getting a bunch of students to do the lower level design & implementation work, but that
Re:Those who can... (Score:1, Insightful)
They have the much harder job of doing the math and science needed to design and make all the little plug an play devices that people can
Re:Those who can... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think they can. In fact I hope that they kick ass and take names.
This is an academic contest. All of the teams are students and grad students, each sponsored by faculty members like them. There is a lot of work to do for this contest, but all previous work done by all previous teams is open to anyone who wants to join in.
My team [cornell.edu] gives away our design and code every year. Many others do as well. We do
Re:Those who can... (Score:2, Interesting)
It wasn't until 1999 that the actual system was now considered. This is what I believe made Cornell do so well. We focused on the system. How can an improvement in mechanical design change the way to play the game? How can electrical design help out mechanical layout? Its all connected and
why bluetooth? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:why bluetooth? (Score:3, Informative)
What benefit? (Score:1)
Bluetooth Modules (Score:4, Informative)
There do exsist small bluetooth modules, but not for what you want really. Bluetooth is fairly complex, and for small robots you'd be far better off designing your own protocol. And its more fun that way
But if you are dying for bluetooth, Google is your friend:
http://www.national.com/appinfo/wireless/LMX982
http://www.wirelessfutures.co.uk/products/prod_
I think there are others out there - I've heard of them before.
Homebrew robots? (Score:1)
If they're getting "bluetooth", they should turn down the cooling (10-12 degrees C is a good cellar temperature).
Is there a Guinness expansion pack?
GO GO MOO U! (Score:1)
Not bad for a bunch of hick farmers if they can pull it off.
Re:GO GO MOO U! (Score:1)
Re:GO GO MOO U! (Score:1)
I am a student in the school of engineering at the University of Guelph, and I never suspected I would see a story about it on the front page of Slashdot. Although this university is known for it's strengths in agricultural sciences, our school of engineering is actually fairly decent. Coincidentally, one of the members of the team is my first year general engineering professor.
Also, in the first year of entering the Formula SAE race car competition, our team placed 35th overall in the
Microwave? (Score:2, Funny)
Cornell Big Red (Score:3, Informative)
for example, we used Radiometrix RPC's for 4 straight years.. they are really limited but everyone uses them because their problems are well known in the league. all i can say is, good luck
-sergei (cornell robocup 2003,2004)
(sigh...
He speaks the truth! (Score:2)
The only thing I have to add is that Bluetooth lies in the crowded 2.4 GHz. band that is used by 802.11b. The 2.4 GHz. band was very problematic for most teams that used it this year, as the entire place was filled with 2.4 GHz. devices. Imagine a hockey stadium filled with ~500 wireless laptops and base stations, ~100 802.11b wireless robots, ~300 wireless robotic dogs and about 600 other wireless robots using some other frequency.
Now most of these teams were using 802.11b,
Re:Cornell Big Red (Score:1)
Brief experience:
We faced a very difficult time trying to get a bluetooth module working on our system this past year. Some of the problems were getting developer kits, getting spec sheets, and most importantly developing a good understanding of how the technology works. We found that
Re:Cornell Big Red (Score:1)
- Jim from CMDragons 2001,02,03
Touche (Score:2)
-- Len
Robocup Junior is different (Score:2)
The goal of Robocup Junior is to introduce some electromechanical concepts to high school students. It isn't much beyond that.
The team that posed the question about Bluetooth is entering into the small sized class, a research vehicle. Here, communication is necessary, no vital. We have to deal with interference on several levels, or we fail.
Don't get me wrong, there were some impressive "robots" in the Junior competition this year. The problem ther
CSR and Siemens (Score:5, Informative)
For stuff based on CSR silicon, if I were doing things over, I'd go with the Siemens dev kit for their Siemo or Siemo2 modules. Same tools, more or less, but you're working with modules right away that you can spec into a final product. I didn't find them until I was looking for prequalified modules based on CSR's chipset...
Oi vey! (Score:1)
Re:Oi vey! (Score:2)
That's odd (Score:1, Troll)
Is it symbolic of something?
Best regards though, but my teeth are mostly yellow.
Re:That's odd (Score:2)
Slave driver (Score:1, Funny)
How brutally are you working them?
Thoughts (Score:1)
Audio Communications (Score:2)
Supposedly the real challenge was programming them to do the proper distinguishing between their signals and the cheers of the raving audience.
When I heard HomeBrew robot (Score:1)
Sadly, the project page is Flash only, so I'll never know what the hell this is all about.
Hint: It's the WEB, moron. Use normal HTML like the rest of us. Flash is mainly used for annoying, intrusive, ads, which I do not allow on my machine. It's not a good basis for an entire website, no matter what the MacroMedia salesweasel, or MacroMedia-fed half-assed web designer tells you.
It's a crutch for the inept and useless. There are bette
Re:When I heard HomeBrew robot (Score:1)
[SWF is] not a good basis for an entire website
Try telling that to the webmasters at Newgrounds [newgrounds.com]. Newgrounds has HTML navigation, but the meat of its content is audiovisual works in SWF format.
There are better tools [than SWF] for animation
What format 1. can compress a vector cel animation smaller than SWF can while retaining image quality (thus ruling out DivX, MPEG-4 advanced simple video, RealVideo, and Windows Media Video) and 2. has player plug-ins for major graphical web browsers on Windows,
Re:When I heard HomeBrew robot (Score:1)
I've never heard of Newgrounds. From the sound of it, they don't have content I'm interested in viewing.
For simple, cell animation like most of what I've seen in Flash, pretty much any format that doesnt require the installation of the "take over your screen and generally piss you off" ad client is s
Re:When I heard HomeBrew robot (Score:1)
Advertisers: stick to banners. Use the Internet equivalent of doubling the sound volume so that you can reach me in the bathroom, and I'll block you.
Re:When I heard HomeBrew robot (Score:1)
Re:When I heard HomeBrew robot (Score:1)
The Flash plugin has been an ad client since I walked past less savy co-workers' desks and watched the spaces where I only see a blue puzzle piece on the same page Writhing and Shouting and doing everythign possible to distract the reader from what they came to the page for.
No Flash=no annoying, screaming ads.
Therefore, Flash==Advertising engine.
Re:When I heard HomeBrew robot (Score:1)
Calling flash an ad engine because the way 10% of flash developers use it for ads is just short-sighted.
If you really want to
Re:When I heard HomeBrew robot (Score:1)
But just because I don't prefer it for whole sites doesn't mean that it can't be done. There are specific instances where a whole flash site is done well
Mitsumi WML-C09 (Score:3, Informative)
I have some pictures of the board on the coure web site [qc.edu]. The bluetooth module is just above the "Rev B" sticker in the first picture.
802.11b (Score:2, Informative)
How about a Bluetooth or WiFi enabled Aibo? (Score:1, Informative)
They have never been marketed in the US. (Japan only AFAIK), but the 311b and the 312b models are both bluetooth enabled. They could be imported from Japan if you can find them and are willing to pay the shipping.
On the otherhand, the 2xx series Aibo's have an internal pc-card slot intended for a specific form factor wifi-card (Orin
Let me get this straight... (Score:1, Funny)
Basic Stamp stuff from parallax.com (Score:1)
Grab a issue of Circuit Cellar (Score:1)
Goodluck!
Use the RPCs (Score:1)
Check out Zeevo (Score:3, Informative)
They make a cool Bluetooth SoC that includes not only the RF chunks and necessarily Bluetooth hardware, but also an embedded ARM7TDMI processor core and flash, all on the same chip.
The only problem is getting them to talk to you. I'm an EE for a $20 billion/year Fortune 500 that's currently working on a Bluetooth experiment, and the damned rep won't even return an email to myself or one of my fellow engineers. So all I have to play with is a module I "harvested" from another prototype device from another group. Arg!
Bluetooth module supplier (Score:2, Informative)
Have you thought it all the way through ? (Score:1)
None more of that Old Janx Spirit (Score:1, Offtopic)
(please don't wipe out our server if possible) (Score:1)
Stonestreet One (Score:1)
http://www.stonestreetone.com/products/index.ht
Homebrew robots...? (Score:1)
Now that would be cool, eh?
Bluetooth module from TDK (Score:1)
WiFi on PICs (Score:1)
The source code costs about 60UKP and supports SMTP, DHCP, UDP, TCP, HTTP, and some other random protocols. I'm using them in a network of robots that can all have their own IPs and websites (On an IIC EEPROM)
Bluetooth module for robots (or anything else!) (Score:1)
Re:HEY ALL YOU TENTACLE PRON LOVING WANKERS (Score:1)