#BlackgangPi 1

RE: #BlackgangPi 1

drlucyrogers — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 21:53:53 GMT

Thank you all for your very interesting comments and suggestions [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-3714a0bf-382a-4b7c-940f-b7af5ee5ce1e/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

RE: #BlackgangPi 1

e14 Contributor — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:05:15 GMT

Many areas have local web-sites like streetlife.com, or free papers like Freeadds, a small comment in one of these that you are interested in old video recorders, printers, etc, will often produce results. There are many people who just keep old items with an intention of getting rid of them, then when they see an add like this they will often do something about it, normallt giving them away for free. One of the best ways to learn about interfacing sensors, motors, etc, is to build robots, printers in particular have all the gears already attached to motors, with rubber rollers, for use as wheels, connected to a shaft or axle.You will also find IR transmitters, receivers, and even micro switches, in printers, video recorders, etc, to use as detectors so a robot can detect an area and move away from it, before hitting it. Although the Raspberry Pi is perfectly okay to be used in such a situation, it does consume quite a lot of power compared with say the Arduino, although the newer Pi model does consume less. Less power means your robot will operate longer, thus if you do not need Internet, HDMI connections, it is better to use just a basic microcontroller like the Arduino. Nod-RED is also available for the Ardunio and the BeagleBone Black. Once the Arduino is programmed, one does not actually need the USB chip or some of the other components for it to operate when it is in its control mode, thus the main controller chip can also be removed and placed on a small PCB board, with a couple of other components, to reduce its power consumption even further. The basic Arduino UNO 3 on its own board uses about 50mA, the original Pi was over 10 times this.

RE: #BlackgangPi 1

Workshopshed — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 00:08:42 GMT

I have an IR sensor, small motor and switch from an air freshener that the supplier stopped making cartridges from

RE: #BlackgangPi 1

e14 Contributor — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 18:15:22 GMT

Many people tends to get hooked on micro controller/computer applications, but then find some of the hardware a bit too expensive to experiment with. I salvage a lot of video recorders and computer printers because they are filled with all types of sensors, switches, motors, gears, and many other components. Ideal to make your own animatronic projects from scratch, or experiment with. Remember to use a fuse with anything you connect to the mains, and keep all the mains circuit away from being easily touched. One might also consider opto isolating the relays with an opto isolator switch, thus separating the low and high power devices. Where your diagram shows an LED coming from the GPIO pin, imagine the light from this being detected by a sensor in a small sealed integrated circuit like device, with the output feeding through to the relay. There is no actual physical contact between the two parts of the circuit, except for a beam of light. Ports on the Raspberry Pi can only take a very small amount of current, and this is a safety measure.

RE: #BlackgangPi 1

Workshopshed — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:47:52 GMT

Have been following the dinosaurs on Twitter. The great thing about having a mixture of techniques available is you then can make choices about where things get implemented.

RE: #BlackgangPi 1

markvenn — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 19:15:33 GMT

Let us know how you get on. I live in Bembridge and will be interested to come along next year to see the dinos running around. Assuming you don't lose all your work over the cliff during the winter of course! [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-3714a0bf-382a-4b7c-940f-b7af5ee5ce1e/contentimage_5F00_938.png:16:16]

RE: #BlackgangPi 1

DAB — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 18:48:36 GMT

Interesting project.

There are a lot of simple animatronics that you can pull off with just a few small microcomputers under control of the RPi.

Definitely looking forward to your progress.

DAB