Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Improvements

I finished building the pan mechanism for the camera and the tilting mechanism
that will fire the rocket. I built it all out of Vex parts, and I am still working on getting
the vex motors to work with the arduino. I know it has been done,
I just have to figure it out. I looked up how to use a relay with the
arduino and it was way more complicated than I thought, so I think I will
try to sacrifice a vex motor. I think they run off of 6-9v which should be enough
to set off the ignitor. If not, then I will do it ye olde style and just
have the motor flip a physical switch. I talked with another guy who is
working on this project with me and we thought that we should also try to include
a vex microcontroller or 2 and maybe a lego RCX just for fun. If we need something
done either repeatedly or once something physically triggers it, then that
is a good solution. We just need to find something they can do.

I added support for these 2 new additions to the code and after I get it tested and
working, I will post the next version. The software we are going to use for
wifi hopping is called Wepbuster and version .6 beta came out yesterday.
It may need some customization. Still no luck on ZoneMinder, which is the
software we are going to use to stream the camera over IP. I haven't finished
fiddling with it yet, but I am going out of town on Thursday. The rover which is
now at my house is going to be transferred to my friends house since he gets
back from vacation the day after I leave. He will work on maybe a bit of hardware
but mostly software. I can SSH into it from where I am and work on code as well.

I am working on building my own server and hosting my own website. It isn't up
yet, but when it is, I hope to be able to drive the rover from there. The eventual
goal is 100% web based, and no need for any software on the drivers computer
except a browser.

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