ADVANCED BRAIN Training

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ADVANCEDBRAIN Training
Presented by
Matt Lapolla matthew_at_mattandsuz.com
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Topics for this class

• Why program your BRAIN?
• Vocabulary
• Useful References
• BRAIN Software Rev 3.pdf
• IR Communications
• More functionality than just 4 channels
• Selection Stick
• State Machines
• Readjusting the driving joystick
• Debugging
• LEDs
• Serial Communication
• Example

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Why program your BRAIN?

• Make Things Simpler for the driver and designers
• Automate operations
• Use the BRAIN to its maximum potential
• Have better control of your robot

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Why program your BRAIN

• Dont Over complicate the controls
• Your drivers have understand the controls
• Cant put stickers, tape, etc on transmitter

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Vocabulary

• String vs. Number
• Integer Number
• Real Number
• Proportional

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Vocabulary

• How you see the number 13
• 13
• How the computer sees the number 13
• 1101 lt- this is a number
• How the computer displays the number 13
• Character(49) and Character(51)
• 1 and 3
• 13 lt-this is a string of 2 characters

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Vocabulary

• Integers 1, 54, 742, 34532
• Real 1.233, .3532, 33453.22. 1.00

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Vocabulary

• Proportional is the same as variable
• Think of a dimmer switch in your house
• Non-Proportional is On or Off
• Think of a normal light switch in your house

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IR Communications

• The IR transmitter (on your robot)
• Is optional But can help the points
• Sends commands to the game field
• Uses a modified servo port
• You will not be able to verify until mall day or
  game day.
• ALWAYS bring your most current program with you
  to mall day and game day!
• Laptop
• Thumb drive
• CD

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IR Communications

• To use the IR transmitter you need to change the
  way the servo port operates.
• The code looks like this
• Declare Variables and Initialize our port
• unsigned short now
• ...
• int main( void )
• InitBrain() // initialize the BRAIN
• nowgetClock(0) // Give 1/5 sec
• while(getClock(now)lt10) // delay for CP
• setServoRange(0,180) //if 0 is IR port

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IR Communications

• Now we need to use our IR commands
• Commands are numbers sent to our IR port
• Read the rules on page 21
• To send the command 300 to the IR port
• setServo(0,300) // if 0 is our IR port
• To send the command 900 to the IR port
• setServo(0,900) // if 0 is our IR port

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More functionality than 4

• More functionality than just 4 channels?

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Selection stick

• The Transmitter has 4 proportional channels

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Selection stick

• Channel 0

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Selection stick

• Channel 1

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Selection stick

• Channel 2

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Selection stick

• Channel 3

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Selection stick

• So you should only be able to control 4 things
  with our transmitter.
• Is it possible to control 5 things with
  proportional channels?

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Selection stick

• YES
• Instead of using channel 2 as a proportional
  control of a motor or servo, we use it as a
  selection switch.
• It will select what the right joystick (channel 0
  and 1) control.

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Selection stick

• For example If the left joystick is up, then the
  right joystick controls the drive motors

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Selection stick

• For example If the left joystick is DOWN, then
  the right joystick controls the robotic arm

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Selection stick

• So now we have 5 proportional controls with only
  4 channels
• 4 on the right stick (depending on the up/down
  position of the left stick)
• And one more left stick side to side.
• A total of 5!

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Selection stick

• The code for this looks something like this
• if(getRcValue(2,DEADBAND,125)lt512)
• // Do this if the stick is in the Upper half
• else
• // Do this if the stick is in the Lower half

Left Stick Up and down
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Selection stick

• If we use the entire left stick (channels 2 and
  3)
• We can easily create 9 sensitive areas.

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Selection stick

• Separate the left stick in to a 3x3 grid

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Selection stick

• The vertical and horizontal limits of the
  joystick are 0 to 1023

0
1023
0
1023
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Selection stick

• If we integer divide the vertical and horizontal
  limits of the joystick by 342 we will get a range
  of 0, 1, and 2

0
0
1
2
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Selection stick

• Now we combine the row and column into one
  number. 00, 01, 02, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21 or 22
• Row10Column

0
0 (00)
1 (01)
2 (02)
11
10
12
21
20
22
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Selection stick

• The code to make 9 sensitive areas looks like
  this

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//Get and determine Vertical cell of Left
joystick Row getRcValue(2,8,125)/342
//determine Horizontal cell of left Joystick.
Column getRcValue(3,8,125)/342 Cell
Row10 Column // Combine the cell //
Determine what to do in each cell of the left
joystick switch (Cell) case 0 // Left
Joystick in the Upper Left corner // Put
your code here break
case 1 // Left Joystick in the Upper Center
Corner // Put your code here break
case 2 // Left Joystick in the upper Right
corner // Put your code here
break case 10 // Left Joystick in the
Center Left // Put your code here
break case 11 // Left Joystick
in the Center Center // Put your code here
break case 12 //
Left Joystick in the Center Right // Put
your code here break
case 20 // Left Joystick in the Lower Left
// Put your code here break
case 21 // Left Joystick in the Lower Center
// Put your code here break
case 22 // Left Joystick in the Lower Center
// Put your code here
break
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Selection stick

• With this arrangement we could have 18
  proportional channels or..

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Selection stick

• Any combination of Proportional channels and
  other functions

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State Machines

• What other functions?
• Non-proportional channels
• For Example Open the hand, close the hand

Open Hand
Close Hand
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State Machines

• What other functions?
• State Machines

Close Hand then Lower Arm then Tip
Bucket then Etc...
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State machines

• State Machines execute a series of actions
• They can be time based
• Turn on Motor 0, wait 3 seconds
• Then, Set servo 3 to 800 and wait for 4 seconds
• Then...
• Or they can use some feed back (input)
• Turn on motor 0 until switch 1 is pushed
• Then turn on motor 1 until switch 2 is pushed

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State machines

• A timed state machine code looks like this

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//To turn on your sequence Seq1 0 //Set
the first sequence number DelaySeq1 0
//Enable the timer . . . //To turn off your
sequence DelaySeq1 65535 //This is the highest
clock value . . . //See if time for next
sequence if(getClock(LastClockSeq1) gt
DelaySeq1) LastClockSeq1 getClock(0)
//Reset Timer for next sequence switch(Seq1)
//Choose next sequence case 0
// Put your code here
DelaySeq1 150 // set delay 50 1 second
Seq1 1 // Set Next Sequence to
execute break
case 1 // Put your code here
DelaySeq1 150 // set delay 50 1 second
Seq1 2 // Set Next Sequence
break case 2
// Put your code here DelaySeq1
150 // set delay 50 1 second Seq1
3 // Set Next Sequence
break case 3
// Put your code here DelaySeq1 250
// set delay 50 1 second Seq1 4
// Set Next Sequence break
case 4 // Put your
code here DelaySeq1 DelayOff //
This stops the timer Seq1 0
// Reset Sequence Number break
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State machines

• A feedback state machine code looks like this

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// To turn on the state machine then // Start
Sequence ArmSeq 1// Enable Sequence Seq2
0 // Pick an initial condition
movement -----------------------------------------
------------------------ // To turn off the
sequence ArmSeq 0 // Stop Sequence ----------
--------------------------------------------------
----- //Check to see if the Arm Sequence is
being used. If so then.... if (ArmSeq 1)
// Check to see if at any limit switches.
If so switch direction if(getSwitch(0)1)
Seq2 0 if(getSwitch(1)1)
Seq2 1 // Select the
direction based on Sequence switch(Seq2)
case 0 ArmMotor 430 break
case 1 ArmMotor 594 break

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Readjusting the drive joystick

• When is forward not forward?
• When you dont use your BRAIN

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Readjusting the drive joystick

• Normally to drive forward you need the left motor
  and right motor at full power.

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Readjusting the drive joystick

• But this is not very intuitive.
• There is a better way!

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Readjusting the drive joystick

• By creating a simple function that you call, it
  will adjust your steering for you.
• You pass it the steer value (usually channel 0)
• And the Speed Value (usually channel 1)
• It will return to you the adjusted motor values
  for the right and left motors

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Readjusting the drive joystick

• void remapDrive(unsigned int steerValue, unsigned
  int speedValue,
• unsigned int rightMotor, unsigned int
  leftMotor)
• int xInput, yInput // declare some
  signed integers
• int rightValue,leftValue
• xInputsteerValue-RCIDLEVAL // grab the
  input values
• yInputspeedValue-RCIDLEVAL // and make into
  delta
• leftValueyInputxInput // combine the
  input to create
• rightValueyInput-xInput // output delta
  values
• // bound the delta values (remember RCIDLEVAL is
  half RCMAXVAL)
• if (leftValuegtRCIDLEVAL) leftValueRCIDLEVAL
  // becomes RCMAXVAL
• if (leftValuelt-RCIDLEVAL) leftValue-RCIDLEVAL
  // becomes zero
• if (rightValuegtRCIDLEVAL) rightValueRCIDLEVAL
  
• if (rightValuelt-RCIDLEVAL) rightValue-RCIDLEV
  AL
• // output the values and include the idle offset
  

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Debugging

• What happens when my program does not operate
  correctly?

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Debugging

• This is called Debugging.
• The BRAIN has 2 useful debugging tools.
• The first are 8 LEDs that you can turn on with
  your program.
• I will use this to help me determine where the
  program is going.

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Debugging

• Here is a sample code for turning LEDs on
• setSingleLED(0) // Turn on 1st LED
• setSingleLED(1) // Turn on 2nd LED
• setSingleLED(2) // Turn on 3rd LED
• setSingleLED(3) // Turn on 4th LED
• setSingleLED(4) // Turn on 5th LED
• setSingleLED(5) // Turn on 6th LED
• setSingleLED(6) // Turn on 7th LED
• setSingleLED(7) // Turn on 8th LED
• writeLED(255) // Turn on all LEDs

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Debugging

• Here is a sample code for turning LEDs off
• clearSingleLED(0) //Turn off 1st LED
• clearSingleLED(1) //Turn off 2nd LED
• clearSingleLED(2) //Turn off 3rd LED
• clearSingleLED(3) //Turn off 4th LED
• clearSingleLED(4) //Turn off 5th LED
• clearSingleLED(5) //Turn off 6th LED
• clearSingleLED(6) //Turn off 7th LED
• clearSingleLED(7) //Turn off 8th LED
• writeLED(0) //Turn off all LEDs

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Debugging USB

• There is also a more advance debugging tool.
• The BRAIN can display information on a PC.
• You simply build up a string that you want to
  send to the PC then call the outHostsz procedure.

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Debugging USB

• // Declare 2 strings for your USB message
• //buf1 is a temporary string for converting
  numbers
• char buf110
• // outbuf is string to be transmitted to the host
  PC
• char outbuf70 // max of 70 characters, or
  change num
• // just after the main while(1) loop
• // Clear out the display string before each loop
• outbuf0 '\0'
• // To add a message with out variables
• strcat(outbuf,My Message") // Add words to
  message
• // To add a variable Cell to the message
• itoa(Cell,buf1) // Convert the var Cell to
  text
• strcat(outbuf,buf1) // Add new text to buffer

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Debugging USB

• //Lastly you need to send out your completed
  message
• strcat(outbuf,"\r\n") // add carriage return
  line feed
• outHostsz(outbuf) // send outbuf to the USB
  port
• You will need a program on the PC to receive your
  message.
• Have IAR workbench installed on the PC (included
  on DVD)
• Use Realterm (included on your DVD)
• Settings
• Display Tab
• ansi
• Port Tab
• BAUD is 9600
• Port is (that varies from computer to computer,
  Try the largest number you have listed)
• OPEN button is pressed in
• Pins Tab
• DTR Press Clear Button
• RTS Press Clear Button

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Example

• Here is an example program that I came up with.
• The program in its entirety will not be helpful
  to you, but some of the examples used may help
  you get started planning your own program.

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Example

• The start to every program you need to decide
  what you want it to do.
• So let me outline what my program does.
• The Right Joystick controls the drive motors
• Note I dont have any drive motors hooked up
• The Right Joystick controls the arm.
• The left joystick was separated in to 9 sensitive
  areas

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Example

• If the left stick is in the upper 3rd
• Then the right stick is used for drive wheels

I control the drive wheels
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Example

• If the left joystick is in the Center 3rd
• Then the right joystick up and down, controls the
  arm

I control the arm
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Example

• If the left stick is in the Bottom 3rd
• Then the right up and down controls the arm with
  parabolic_scale

I control the arm with parabolic_scale
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Example

• If the stick is in the top right then
• Raise Red, Yellow, Green and Blue Flags
• Example of a switch

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Example

• If the stick is in the top left then
• Lower Red, Yellow, Green and Blue Flags
• Example of a Switch

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Example

• Start a timed state machine
• First raise the Red flag then wait 3 seconds
• Then raise the Yellow flag then wait 3 seconds
• Then raise the Green flag then wait 3 seconds
• Then raise the Blue flag then wait 5 seconds
• Then lower all flags
• Example of a timed state machine

• If the stick is in the center left then

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Example

• Slowly rotate arm until limit switch
• Change direction until limit switch
• Repeat
• Example of a State Machine with feedback

• If the stick is in the Lower Left then

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Example

• Stop the arm State Machine

• If the stick is in the Lower Right then

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Look at the code

• Look at the code

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What did we miss?

• QUESTIONS?