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Layered Intent Control Architecture

LICA (Layered Intent Control Architecture) is a robotics control architecture designed to unify autonomy, safety, and human control while remaining observable, debuggable, and explainable in real time. LICA is particularly suited to mobile robots operating in uncertain environments, where layered autonomy must coexist with reactive safety systems and human override. The core principle of LICA is…

Measuring Above Ground Height for Outdoor Robotics

Test 1 As I start my design of an SRS Robo-Magellan robot I have the strong desire to build off my successes and failures and of course; try something different. On my list of “wants” is a sensor to measure distance to ground. Obviously this is normally fix unless you have suspension, and indeed I have suspension. I want to ensure my robot doesn’t bottom out while climbing hills, or if I’ve…

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Combining serial stream bytes/nibbles to make a number.

I thought I’d drop this here for someone who needed a copy-paste solution.

I am parsing a serial string output from a YDLIDAR X4 rotating lidar. I have to do this because the library sucks. a lot. I mean I’m not over my heels with the unit anyhow, first off who the hell outputs at 128,000 baud? I’ll post the code when it’s done enough for someone to build off of it.

I was getting an…

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iButtonLink / DS18B20 Arduino Datalogger

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#DS18B20 #iButtonLink #One-Wire

Re-Post: iButtonLink T-Sense 1-wire sensor (Maxim DS18B20) + PIC 18F14K22

Using a PIC Microcontroller to pull temperature of iButtonLink T-sense sensor.

I pulled this off the wayback machine because I lost this post in the great database loss of how ever many years ago. I’m re-posting because I’m working on an expanded version of this with an Arduino dev board and wanted a reminder of what I did five years ago. Originally posted 1/2/2015. No edits.

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eBay Mini-vacuum Pump

Quick version: Hey this little thing works and seems practical for robotics, specifically the Pop Can Challenge.

I had to add “mini” to the title of this post, calling this a vacuum pump seems odd when you’ve played around with big pumps. Which leads me to make a mental note to share some information my industrial vacuum pump sometime; my big pump is currently at the SnoCo Makerspace but it…

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Programming ESC with Arduino

The story: I hit a break wall with ODrive. ODrive is an open source brushless DC motor (BLDC) driver built with robotics in mind (my application..). I don’t have faith in the project and after months of trying to make it fit my application I’m abandoning it. It’s painful to spend that kind of money on a product (two even!) … but I’m not hopping back on the Stepper bandwagon just yet. I’ll see if…

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ESP32 Boot Camp

I got a rando e-mail offering me “free parts” and I usually don’t even bother opening the e-mail. It’s ALWAYS garbage right? Well, maybe I hadn’t slept well the night before but I opened it. (psss. You can scroll down about a page before I actually get anywhere in this post…)

What was I thinking? I hovered carefully over the link… seemed pretty safe… short-ish domain ended with a .com .. not…

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#ESP32 #LoRa

PIC versus Arduino

This is terrible comparison but why not… my apologies Microcontroller gods.

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MODbus/RTU on a PIC Microcontroller

By request one of my long lost blogs was a MODbus RTU application for a PIC 18F27J53. You could easily plop this onto many of the 18F series micros. It doesn’t do much but it’s a great stepping stone for throwing in your own IO. I’ll probably follow up with an Arduino version in a while.. I’ll put it on my “todo” list.

The code…

/* File: main.c Author: Charles M Ihler Contact at:…

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#MODbus #PIC #RS-485

Why you shouldn't open a makerspace.

Why you shouldn’t open a makerspace.

Five years ago I had an itch to talk to other people; so overrated.

The End.

OK, fine.. I originally was thinking of some electronics club but after talking with a few people and refining my ideas through research, it was clear this idea fit best as a makerspace. I bought a meetup.com subscription. For as crappy as it is, Meetup does have a surprising network of members and access to…

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Cheap 40W Chinese Laser ... quick start.

Cheap 40W Chinese Laser … quick start.

I understand these lasers come with a variety of different software packages. I bought my laser off eBay from this listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/141690337410?roken=cUgayN&soutkn=EWCTN4 there are more for the purchasing. I was having a speed issue while raster etching.. I hadn’t really done much besides burn some lines, etc.. well I found this issue. So here is my ultra-quick start-up guide.…

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YACC40WL - Cheap lasers don't seem THAT bad.

YACC40WL – Cheap lasers don’t seem THAT bad.

Yet Another Cheap Chinese 40W Laser. Okay, 366$.. how could I NOT buy this laser.. I tried to convince myself out of it… they’re in LA, it showed up in 3 days. I had zero expectations of using the thing as-is. I got spoiled by the Full Spectrum we have in the makerspace and it’s not as fancy as an epilog but using the print driver and being able to easily, in plain English, adjust power, speed,…

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Get ready for MPLAB Express, throw away your Arduino

I credit the maker movement with bringing electronics back from the crusty old and lonely electronics hobby back into the main stream. The Arduino is the micro of choice for this army of makers and I conceded it made sense… you install the IDE, plugged in your board into the USB port and a couple clicks later and you have an LED blinking.. the most exciting blinking LED you’d ever seen in most…

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WS2812 RGB and BNO055 IMU PIC Projects

This weekend I spent my Friday afternoon and Saturday at the NW Hobby Expo; talk about an intense desire to get another hobby. Oh wait… oops; don’t tell me wife ;) Should be here tomorrow. A little small guy to get me started. I was out helping a friend sell 3D printers and interest people into joining our Makerspace.. mission success? I don’t know we’ll see at the next open house. The makerspace…

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MiniSumo Ring

Before I continue on you might have noted a little bit of an absence in my blogging. My wife delivered my first son two weeks ago; a beautiful little man, 8lbs 9 oz, 21.25in. Missing a little sleep isn’t helping but I think we have finally gotten into a schedule that is nearly do-able!

So what have I been working on?! I’ve been dedicating what free time I do to the Snohomish County Makers Group.…

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#ring #robot #sumo

The Sumo Roomba is back on the bench

I had to tear my Variac apart today because the wiper was missing on bits.. I gave it a solid cleaning got rid of some rust on the case. I used alcohol to do the cleaning.. worked out great. I don’t use my Variac as much as I used to.. in fact I nearly got out of the hobby over my very first. When I was 14 I understood what transformers were and I had been playing with very high voltage (neon…

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