Subject:
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Homebrew sensors?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Fri, 13 Nov 1998 19:59:11 GMT
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Original-From:
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Daniel Miller <DANIELMI@nomorespamEXPERT.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
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Viewed:
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2360 times
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I've been brainstorming for a while about what could be done with a
kludge. I'm more into the whoosh-bang side of engineering than the
beep-zap, so I don't know if it would work...
A few years ago, Estes (the model rocket people) made a "rocket tracker"
which consisted of a beeper (to be attached to the rocket) and a
directional microphone with a headphone amp. The idea was to scan the
mike across the horizon until you found the beep, then walk in that
direction until you got to the rocket.
Could the signal from such an apparatus be accepted as an input by the
RCX? It would probably have to be set so it sent the same sort of signal
as the temperature or light sensor. Something would have to be done
electronically to turn the sinusoidal sound frequency into a steady
signal, and maybe to step up or step down the amplitude.
You could set up a 'bot that would turn in place, scanning 360 degrees of
horizon, then rotate back to where it heard the loudest noise (say, a
boombox playing Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel The Noise" or something else
appropriately punnish) and then move toward it. If it lost the signal the
process would repeat, until it got there.
Or, if you wanted something that looked cooler... the sound sensor is on a
turret that rotates as above (with an angle sensor keeping score). When
it finds and returns to the max signal, the robot would then turn under it
while the turret remained stationary. You'd have to limit the motion of
the turret from +180 to -180 so as to avoid winding up your wires.
(You could test the program for either of these using the light sensor
instead... build a tunnel around it and it becomes directional.)
Could any of you who are less electronically challenged than I make such a
sound sensor? Does anyone have a better idea?
Daniel "Dan'l" Miller Senior, School of Aeronautics and
danielmi@expert.cc.purdue.edu Astronautics, Purdue, Indiana
danielmi@cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Homebrew sensors?
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| Daniel Miller wrote in message ... (...) Daniel, I could not help but notice that you are into rockets. If so, then whoosh-bang is not the way to go. I think bang-whoosh makes a much better rocket since it should have a loud ignition, then a (...) (26 years ago, 13-Nov-98, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Homebrew sensors?
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| There is a single channel sound sensor on my web page: (URL) was really designed for picking up loud noises like claps. What you want would require two mics and a circuit that would take the difference between the sound levels. Better yet it should (...) (26 years ago, 13-Nov-98, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | The IR beacon, was Re: Homebrew sensors?
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| (...) The light sensor is directional without a tunnel. I use the IR tower as a beacon. I've got a perl script that listens for RCX messages. Here's the normal sequence of events: 1. RCX sends the message 2 "Turn on your beacon, so I can find you" (...) (26 years ago, 13-Nov-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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