[Blackpool] Thanks for a friendly welcome

Mon Aug 18 17:52:54 UTC 2014

Thanks from the Garlick clan for being so friendly on Saturday.

I’ve had a chance to look more closely at Arduino and I think the penny has finally dropped - thankyou for helping me get there. I don’t think there is as much difference in the hardware as I thought, but once you’ve paid out for a programmer and happy with in circuit programming then to go to a bootloader system doesn’t make sense for me anyway (which is what Mike said).  As a platform for my sons to have a go, I don’t think it could be beaten.  

I’m writing an interrupt based servo controller now, I need a test bed for the 2.4Ghz communications for my planned model boat, and on reflection a robot would be easier and better than a test model boat.  

So I am building a wooden one of these:  http://www.instructables.com/id/BoB-the-BiPed/

I misunderstood some stuff Les was telling me at the end, he was talking about Pimoroni and I was thinking of Pololu…  I’m very much not used to talking out loud about the hobby.

Anyway my inspiration for the interrupt driven servo controller is this: 

http://www.pololu.com/blog/21/advanced-hobby-servo-control-using-only-a-timer-and-interrupts

and this:

http://www.pololu.com/blog/22/rc-servo-speed-control

Apart from controlling more servos, controlling the speed of the servos and the need to free up the processor to do other things; the most interesting thing is the programming required to get this to work.  Take a quick look at that first pololu link for an interesting look at what the problem is and what their solution is.  I think there is another way with the Pic I am using, quite excited to see if I can get it to work.

We can’t come next Saturday, but if you are meeting we’ll see you the week after. 

Regards

Arthur

Sent from Windows Mail

From: Michael
Sent: ‎Friday‎, ‎15‎ ‎August‎ ‎2014 ‎12‎:‎41
Cc: blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk

Morning,

There's no need to compare Arduino and PIC. At the hardware level they are
one and the same thing, A PIC becomes an Arduino when it has the bootloader
burn into it.

Where they differ is that its much easier to program for the Arduino due to
an IDE using a implementation of the Wiring language and taking care of
downloading the code.

Compared to the bad (good) old days of messing around with op-codes and
compiling the result for burning it is a much nicer environment in which to
learn about microcontrollers.

No doubt you will be introduced to the shrimp (
http://shrimping.it/blog/shrimp/ ) this weekend. This is in essence and
Ardunino that has the minimal required components to run and can probably
be built from parts you already have kicking about.

On 15 August 2014 11:17, Arthur Garlick <arthur_garlick at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Yes please Les.  I'm a Pic guy but it's just the first thing I tried.  I
> looked at PICAXE and dismissed it as not for me compared to spending a
> little extra and having the massive choice of the Pic range and tools, but
> never looked into Arduino.
>
> I think my two sons will show to see what its about and if they are there
> my wife will want to come too (she loved the MOSI Maker Faire), I hope
> that's OK space wise.
>
> I will bring my Pic setup and our useless machine to quickly show - it
> might be good to compare Arduino vs Pic and discuss the pros and cons.  My
> 10 year old is pretty good with Scratch and together we are looking at
> Unity if there is any interest in that.  Both my sons and my wife will be
> interested in MAME too.
>
>
> Regards
>
> Arthur
>
>
>
>
> > Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 10:36:34 +0100
> > From: lespounder at gmail.com
> > To: blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > Subject: Re: [Blackpool] meeting Saturday 10-12
> >
> > I'll be there.
> >
> > I was wondering if anyone would fancy an Arduino session? Do a bit of
> > programming and light a few LEDs?
> >
> > Kieran, you are the Arduino Master at school, bring your Shrimp kit along
> > and lets hack!!!
> >
> > Les
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 11:07 PM, MJ Hewitt <admin at pcrecycler.co.uk>
> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi folks
> > >
> > > I will be open on Saturday 10 -12
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > > Mike Hewitt
> > >
> > > PC Recycler Ltd.
> > > 29-35 Ripon road
> > > Blackpool FY1 4DY
> > > 01253 293258
> > > 07711 736899
> > > www.pcrecycler.co.uk
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Blackpool mailing list
> > > Blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/blackpool
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Les Pounder
> > http://bigl.es/
> > @biglesp on Twitter <https://twitter.com/biglesp>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blackpool mailing list
> > Blackpool at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/blackpool
>
> _______________________________________________
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