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Subject: 
Re: Web controlled robot back up and ready!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
Date: 
Mon, 29 Sep 2003 23:59:06 GMT
Viewed: 
679 times
  
The inner ones drive the one set of wheels forward whilst driving the other set
of wheels backwards.

THe outer buttons just drive the one set of wheels, whilst the other set of
wheels remain stationary.

I can change the programming.  IIRC, there can be 25 separate tasks that can be
accessed with buttons.

Thanks for the help!

Dave K

That's what I thought. To keep things simple for the user, you can get rid of
the outer set of buttons because those are really only appropriate when you have
a joystick-type interface and the latency between the user and the robot isn't
so high. From the user's point of view, it's easier to steer the robot by
spinning it on its axis than by making wide turns. Wide turns only work when you
can keep the robot moving forward at the same time, which isn't possible in this
case. Unless you reprogram everything. I hope that makes sense.

I'll draw you a nice little diagram for emailing. Until I send it, though,
here's the text version of what it shows.

I would give the user only six buttons: four to control its direction, and two
to control the claw. So you'd have forwards, backwards, spin right(clockwise),
spin left(counter-clockwise), open claw, close claw. Clicking the buttons once
tells the robot to wait the small amount of time (10 in this case), which from
the user's point of view is a small movement. SHIFT-clicking a button tells the
robot to wait 50, making the movement farther.

That's basically it. You could also easily map the arrow keys to the four
direction controls and two other keys to the claw. Then the user can either use
the mouse and the Shift key, or completely use the keyboard.

The extra buttons for beeps and such should be better labeled, and put them at
the bottom as optional things, like you did for the RCX uptime and current temp.
I think it would be better for the RCX to automatically tell the user its uptime
when the web program first loads. The user can then refresh it, but at least
give him some information to begin with.

Oh yes. You have one more wait time for the forward direction, 100. I would
either eliminate that one or make yet another command of CTRL-SHIFT-click. The
thing you absolutely must do is somewhere tell the user that SHIFT-click (or
SHIFT-arrowkey) equals a larger movement. And of course tell them that
CTRL-SHIFT-click only works for forward. Otherwise they'd get annoyed at its
moving so slowly when they click on the buttons.

Maybe the diagram isn't necessary after all. Whatever -- I'll still draw one.



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Web controlled robot back up and ready!
 
(...) The inner ones drive the one set of wheels forward whilst driving the other set of wheels backwards. THe outer buttons just drive the one set of wheels, whilst the other set of wheels remain stationary. I can change the programming. IIRC, (...) (21 years ago, 29-Sep-03, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)

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