DFrobot Rover 5
Posted by: Mark Millar on December 17, 2012 Comments: 270I started learning robotics over a year ago when I got my first arduino. I quickly made some static projects to monitor room temperature and log data, but I wanted to do more than monitor temperature. I wanted a rover I could control over the web that could move around its environment. So I made one using an arduino and a raspberry PI. I hope to document the development steps that I went through over the last year to build this rover.
The goals for this project were to build a rover:
- For use in an indoor environment
- Wireless Control
- Controlled over the web
- Provide visual feedback
- Provide sensor feedback
My girlfriend got me a rover 5 kit from DFrobot last Christmas and I hacked together a way to control it using PHP. It has been a fun project and I have been asked by a few friends to document the project. It would have been easier to have done this when I was doing the project but I will give it a go.
To start with I assembled the rover and had it connected to an old laptop. Here I could develop the PHP to control the rover and the interface that I would use for seeing what the rover could see.
The first step was to get the rover working using the serial interface in the arduino IDE. Being a first person shooter FPS ...
Arduino Datalogger
Posted by: Mark Millar on December 17, 2012 Comments: 261The data logger project has come about from the requirement to monitor the energy output of a solar panel that I am made. The project is currently using a arduino with a Ethernet shield, but I may change this to a standalone data logging shield at a later date.
The reason for using the Ethernet shield was to allow access to the sensor data over the web so I can keep a track of the power levels of the solar panel which is located at my parents house 70 miles away from where I live. It also has the added bonus of being able to sync the time to an NTP server, this allows the data to be accurately timestamped.
Things you will need for this project:
- An Arduino
- A Ethernet shield or Ethernet board
- Some sensors
- A microSD card
- Working internet connection
The sensors are using the analog inputs A0 to A3. There is a LDR to gauge the current light levels, a temperature sensor for the ambient heat, and a current and voltage sensor to determine the out power of a solar panel. You can use what ever sensors you like, these are just the ones that were required for this project.
Code Used:
Arduino Code
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First Blog Post
Posted by: Mark Millar on December 17, 2012 Comments: 5This is my first post on my new blog. This is a DIY blog that I made to document some of my some of my projects. I made the blog myself to help get a better understanding of PHP and MYSQL so if the site is a little buggy please let me know.
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