Bit the RoboDawg

Directing Bit from about 10 feet away.

Saturday, March 28, 2016

Updated comments and descriptions for Version 0.1.0. of BitController. First release version that's pretty stable.

Thursday, March 26, 2016
I noticed that with using Bit indoors in BME, that the light intensity probably doesn’t need to be very high. I also noticed that as Bit gets closer to the Beacon, the light intensity should decrease as to decrease the cross-talk between north, east, and west on the BitReceptor. Maybe there should be a feedback between the Beacon and the Receptor to decrease light intensity when Bit gets closer to the BitBeacon.

Bit also needs an obstacle avoiding mechanism.

Wednesday, March 25, 2016
Changing naming conventions. The light source will be known as BitBeacon and
the photodiode circuit will be the BitReceptor.

Added a non-inverting amplifier to BitBeacon to get a higher peak-to-peak emission from ~5V-4.2V to 1.3V-0.96V for about 3V-3.5V peak-to-peak. Now using 3 IR LEDs (SFH 4545) and a 6.8 kOhm base resistor. But also swap between 5.6 kOhm to 8.2 kOhm. Average current through each LED is on the order of 33 mA.

Moved C3 on BitBeacon (light source) from ground to 5V. It appears to make the sine wave generator much more stable.

Tuesday, March 24, 2016
Moved back to using if/else if/else statements to determine the direction. This is a change from writing sensor intensity values directly to the motors with analogWrite. Using if statements appears to be more fluid. The other method mentioned needs more work.