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Aussie Sawppy - Progress & Intimidation

A project log for Aussie Sawppy

An antipodean sibling

teamsgTeamSG 07/18/2019 at 11:465 Comments

Yeah, so...

And...

The more I read, the more I'm getting a bit intimidated with the whole control system thing. I have zero problem with the mechanical & electrical build - I'll happy work away at that kind of thing all day, any day. Car-related tinkering is my forte. But the whole software part is well outside my comfort zone.

Early in my life I was into coding / software, but my interests subsequently drifted to mechanical engineering - with "computers" being essential tools but definitely something that specialists dealt with in detail, not me.

So with regards to all things "Pi", I'm rising from a low base. Going in I certainly expected a struggle, but jeez my brain hurts a bit at the moment. 

I'm sure I'll work it out one way or another. Plenty of time. No hurry. She'll be right!

Discussions

TeamSG wrote 07/20/2019 at 09:06 point

Thanks for your comment, Roger. I appreciate you taking the time.

I did see the joystick option - tidy, if tethered.

For now, I'm going to persist with the target of a Pi, wireless control scheme and see if it ends in tears. 

Philosophically speaking, I'm OK with a struggle.  Didn't Camus say something like "The struggle to control the bytes is enough to fill a man's heart". (I'm long-time fan of Sisyphus' work with stick / rock / mountain.)

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TeamSG wrote 07/21/2019 at 01:20 point

Or, throwing back fifty years and channelling Nixon:

I choose the Pi-based control system, not because it is easy but because it is hard.

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Ken Yap wrote 07/21/2019 at 01:36 point

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TeamSG wrote 07/21/2019 at 12:37 point

Doh! Thanks, Ken. I need to bone up on my historical presidential speeches evidently.

I think I was half-watching a speech (or press conference) by Nixon about Apollo 8 when I heard it - maybe he was quoting Kennedy???

Or I just mashed a bunch of loosely related historical events together and came up with my own version.

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Roger wrote 07/19/2019 at 19:50 point

If it helps, I've recently added an option for much simpler control via Arduino instead of web server running on Raspberry Pi. Joystick -> Arduino -> Servo control board. The upside is simplicity, the downside is tethered wired controller, not wireless.

Wiring diagram is up on Sawppy's Github /docs folder and code under /arduino_sawppy folder.

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