Linux Robots

[markw at mohawksoft.com]

Well, I actually have the serial code. One of the things I was smart
enough to do was create my "consultant" library. I write the specific
client code and link it to my library (which is GPL) and give my paying
clients the right to use/modify/distribute (or not) my library.

It works out well because it means that I get to keep most of the
"generic" portion of my contracts. Between work and hobbie, I have a whole
bunch of things rangine from SQL interfacing to I2C devices.

One of my contracts was a digital tourque wrench that had to work on Win32
and Linux. This I have the serial class all written.

On another note, I'm going to Microcenter some time today to get some
cheap serial mice to disect. whooo hoo.

I'll take some digital pics (later today) of the robot and post them on my
website if anyone is interested.




markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
>>Yes.  Rip open a $5 serial mouse and use its encoder.  I've seen this
>>outlined in an old Circuit Cellar article, though I doubt I still have it.
>>You should get pulses at the mouse's 300DPI.  You might even be able to
>>just mount the mouse pushing up against your wheel without modifications.
>
> Hmm, that has some interesting prospects I hadn't considered. The one
> problem I have is that I need two: I have a diametrically opposed wheel
> setup.

OK, $10  ;)


> I very much like the idea of an interrupt driven and kernel buffered
> system that I don't have to write or debug. If I rip apart the mouse, I
> could use an axis for each wheel and the buttons for contact sensors. I
> could use select to wait on the serial port. Since the encoders are read
> at the same time, maybe the relational movement will also be more
> accurate.
>
> I need to think about this, it is a very good concept. Very good inded.
> Thanks.

OK, here's another one, making even less work for you:  gpm has a -D debug
option that will spew mouse events out to stderr.  Call that and read its
output and you don't even have to write the serial mouse interface code.
And, depending on what mechanism you use, the events will be buffered so you
don't miss any.