PhantomX using a Teensy 3.1

[KurtEck]

I will probably wait to order the Robotis board, until hopefully Trossen gets some in.

Yep can automatically add it to the start up like /etc/rc.local (I think some other distributions may have other places to put it as well).
As for not having the legs do something. My version of the Phoenix code base with the Commander, does not do anything until it receives valid input from the commander, which works great for me. As for shutdown, depending on which board you are using and availability of IO pins for a button could add code to the main program that does that. I could also hack my Commander input code that if I do some specific action, it could do the same thing.

For IP addresses, I do a couple of different things:

a) Go to my DHCP server: 192.168.2.1 and look at the DHCP log
b) On some of the boards I have a hardware debug cable, so I just use the ifconfig command (on some if I am logged in anthing but root, have to type /sbin/ifconfig
c) Plug it into TV and watch the boot (on RPI with out it going to graphic desktop), I believe one of the last messages on the screen will be the IP address. (I think Kevin was the one who told me about this one)

[TXBDan]

Another option for checking IP, which i did until i got the LCD going, is to log into my home router and check the connected client list. It has host names and IP's so you can tell what device each IP is.

Err, yeh i see that's basically what you're saying in a) above. My router (Asus N66U) has a nice interface for it that makes it simple.

[KurtEck]

Yep, I used to do it that way,

But my new router (Netgear Prosafe) does not do as good of a job with this. It does have a way to show the IP addresses, but except for PC's it showns "unknown" for the name of the device.

I believe I can edit the information there and put in names. Should do that for the ones I know, and then probably could figure out the new one...

[tician]

When I was still connecting the DARwIn-OP to the university's wifi network and trying to use that instead of a local wifi router or wired connection, I would use espeak to make it say its new IP address after it finished booting up. No longer use that network except to manually update packages (more often just use another PC as pass-through for the router), but the 'speak when finished booting' has been standard on ours ever since. Each one with a different voice, accent, and message.

It was mid to late october when a batch of CM-904 were supposed to be ordered for the trossen shop, so not sure I will be waiting much longer before going the direct order route. Really hope to have the last incomplete course finished before February, and then get to start on my thesis with lots of CM-904 stuff. Also getting $6000 worth of Darwin-Mini in the lab sometime before July, but I should have finished my thesis before then.

[KurtEck]

I like the idea of the Espeak approach. I do try to add sound on most of my robots. And I built in some Espeak stuff into the phoenix code base.

Did not make much progress on the Teensy yet today as the new interruption arrived


Now have some more playing to do.

[KevinO]

I used espeak on Charlotte but I recently switched to google voice. Basically it sends a text file to google and returns a audio file that I play back now. If you like the female google voice it works really well.

I can write a quick example if anyone is interested and wants to play with it.

[jwatte]

As long as you're guaranteed that there will be an internet connection, that sounds like a great idea :-)

[kgranat]

Just FYI we just got the CM9s in - I expect to have them up in the store sometime next week.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the teensy - I've got one I've been meaning to play with, and I'd love to throw one on a crawler.

[KurtEck]

Quick update here: I have my PhantomX Hexapod walking fine with the Teensy. This morning it was having a few issues, but figured out one of the AX12 cables came unplugged. So my current code to detect voltages would at times try that leg and fail and then report low voltage.

If I were taking this farther, I will probably take my patch wire from the Teensy to the AX-12 powered hub and connect up the power wire back to one of the analog inputs on the Teensy, through a voltage divider. My guess is that the voltage on these pins can not exceed 3.3v so will need to choose appropriate resistors (10K 40K?) May want slightly more divider if I ever think of 4s lipo, but for me 3s is the max...

Let me know if anyone would like to see my hacked up version of the bioloid library that uses Serial/Serial1... and has been updated for the Teensy.

[JonHylands]

KurtEck,

I have a Teensy 3.1 also, and am putting it into MicroCrawler (http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/sh...-Micro-Crawler) for now, at least until I get my MicroPython board. If you like Python, btw, but still want an embedded system with none of the startup/shutdown hassles of Linux, my brother is working to port MicroPython to the Teensy 3.1. He has a simple hobby servo-powered rover running with it right now (http://dhylands.blogspot.ca/), and hopefully we'll be adding more hardware functionality soon.

- Jon