|
|
|
|
|
Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
|
I didnt know Rick was going to pop back up suddenly with the PRC in working form either
I developed the concept and prototype, then offered the details to several people, of which Rick was the only one to actualy build it and test it.
There were the expected teething bugs with radio interference since he was using a non-pcm, non-spektrum radio, but he got it mostly working with some dilligent antenna fiddling and vincent competed with it in RoboWars 3.
It was suffering occasional crash-reboot issues which worried us, since he had tried to isolate it from the power rails, and after a failure towards the end of RoboWars 3, he sat it in the corner of the shed and had his time absorbed by other things in life.
Just prior to RoboWars 4, he found the fault with the original (a ground isolation fault) rebuilt a new version and it seemed to run flawlessy at RoboWars 4.
However, the PRC is still not a commercial product. A circuit board has to be made, documentation/kit details developed and various other bits. If someone wants to solder up their own now, we can probably assist, but you cant "just buy it" in working form right now.
If the Silicon Chip/Kit idea goes ahead, it shouldnt be *too* long before you can buy it (We're talking in months I'd guess though) , but thats all part of a larger picture to do with kit-bots and other ideas circling around at the moment, so it may take some time to pull together before comercial PRC's are on the shelves.
The PRC is just a 3 channel 6-relay RC switch with mixing on 4 of the relays and a failsafe. The tricky part is getting the failsafe to work without killing the range/reception, and is what most existing "RC switches" out there *dont* do.
If the Tank controller George has found does the job, and can be made to comply with the safety regs without too much trouble (The addition of an external failsafe ?), then by all means buy them if you are in a hurry for a solution and dont want to have to scratch-build your own PRC. I wont be offended, and neither i doubt will Rick. Once the hard yakka to turn the current prototype into a production unit has been done and they are available, *then* you can get all patriotic and support the locals when they have something to sell.
I'm going to sneak up behind George with a bucket and a camera and shout "PicAxe Relay Controller !" in his ear just to see what the reaction is now.. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
|
Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:57 am |
|
|
|
|
|
|