Can you use a wireless PS2 controller to control a robot? |
Yes |
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No |
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50% |
[ 1 ] |
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Total Votes : 2 |
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ffej
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 22 Jun 2004
Posts: 595
Location: Kurrajong, NSW
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Kind of a useless poll, of course you can, you can use pretty much anything if you want to put the work into it, its just not worth it.
Google turned up this info on the Playstation 2's interface:
http://www.emulatronia.com/reportajes/directpad/psxeng/index.htm
http://www.ntpad.com.ar/index.php
The pads output data in a digital parallel fashion, there is no simple on / off or variable resistance that there may have been in the very old (Commodore days) console pads.
There is no easy way to control your bot using a PS2 controller, except maybe using Jakes new 900Mhz + laptop setup, since I believe it uses DirectX for input, and there are PC drivers written for the PS2 gamepads.
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I still dont really see any point in using a PS2 pad though, except maybe for wank factor, as its designed for belting out moves in Tekken, where you need a whole stack of on / off channels, not RC, where you need fewer, but proportional channels. _________________ Jeff Ferrara
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Last edited by ffej on Sun Dec 25, 2005 3:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Sun Dec 25, 2005 2:46 pm |
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Valen
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 4436
Location: Sydney
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PS2 contoller, yes
digital wireless, yes
wireless PS2, no
range 1-2m no signal indicators or anything nifty.
angus, Ours could be driven by another PIC and a PS2 or some other form of controller, we want the PC because it means we get the 2 way and we can do any kind of funky controll we want.
(ie say a 10 point variablle controll scheme, you get a screen like an equaliser and that lets you tweak your controll inputs over that range.)
One other thing we are looking at doing is a kind of "electronically locked diff"
basically you say forwards, and the speed controller will act to make the wheels turn at the same speed, rather than giving them both the same power (roughly) and steering just gives you a ratio of speeds.
should make 2wd bots much more controllablle i thinks _________________ Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets
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Sun Dec 25, 2005 3:03 pm |
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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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As Jeff said earlier, anything can be done with enough work. Whether it is worth it or not is another thing that is up to you.
You need to look up some introductory information on serial data transmission - try here for starters and explore some of the links to introductory guides at the bottom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232
Your multi-meter is not telling you the whole story - It can only measure constant or slowly-changing electrical pressure (volts).
Electronic data signals (like the ones used for most game-controller interfaces) can change state millions of times a second, and all your multimeter can tell you is the *average* voltage over about 1 second time period. It is the precise timing and pattern of these microsecond electrical pulses that convey the information, not the average voltage.
To "see" these millions of rapid signals, you need a much faster (and more expensive) instrument like an oscilloscope or a logic-analyzer and an understanding of what the signals represent. Trying to decode a RS232 data stream from what may actually be a PWM stream (both are different forms of serial data information) will drive you batty.
Think of a multi-meter like a magnifying glass. The information you seek requires a *microscope* to see properly (and an understanding of what you are looking at)
It can be done, but then again, you could also translate all the length measurements in your robot into furlongs, stadia and parsecs.. but why would you ?
There is a perfectly controllable, well developed standard interface for radio-controlled devices that is used by millions around the world and works very well. Its the joysticks on the radios we all use.
Playstation (and other) Controllers look like a good cheaper option, but they dont really work that well for precise control (we have tried it), and unless you are the Hacker sort of electronics
guru
with a lot of skills and time to develop the software and chippery needed, it is far easier to just buy what works. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:43 pm |
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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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USB is even more difficult to do than RS232 is.
It is a much faster, more complicated protocol (language) that is used, requiring a lot of processing power on the device you want it to talk to. (A PicAxe wont cut it).
There are special USB Interface chips available to use in Microcontroller applications that do most of the hard work for you, but they arent cheap.
Assuming you do get the USB signal from the controller decoded, you then need to get it through the airwaves and into your robot, and then turned into a signal suitable for controlling motors without interference.
Either you hack into a standard RC radio, and simulate the standard joystick inputs with your decoder, or
A Laptop-computer-controlled 2.4Ghz Wireless radio link with custom software to handle the controller encoding and transmission error correction would do the trick.. Talk to Jake (Valen), but bring your chequebook if you dont want to learn how to do it all yourself - about 5 or more years of electronics education and then a about the same in practical experience should get you close
Sorry. I dont mean to discourage you.. its a fun idea, but its probably a bit of an over-ambitious project when all the electronics gear you have is a multimeter. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:37 pm |
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