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Robot Studio v1.0 - video online
A quick introduction to version 1.0 of Robot Studio.
A flash-based editor (so animations can be stored online and shared) for controlling servos using a 12-channel board with build-in eeprom playback. Add a point by clicking anywhere on the graph. Move points around by dragging. Delete points from anywhere in the graph and it will rebuild to "mend the hole" (for any nerdy-types interested in this kind of thing, it was achieved using a double-linked list, not nasty arrays!)
All points above the centre line mean the servo turns clockwise (at the very top of the graph = full right), and below means turn anti-clockwise (points at the bottom of the graph = full left). Servos can be designated as "angular" (normal motion) or "rotational" (hacked) and the distance of the point from the centreline then controls the speed of the servo.
Because different servos behave differently (one continuous rotation servo may be at dead stop at 50% pwm, whereas another may creep round until at 55%) each servo channel can have its own centre line. All points above this line turn the rotational servo clockwise, all points below turn it anti-clockwise.
The absolute minimum and maximum values for each servo can be set independently. Any points added outside these absolutes are snapped into the acceptable range.
Playback animation and watch the software servos onscreen. Press the export button and you're presented with a stream of bytes. Copy and paste these bytes into the eeprom loader application, and your servo-board is loaded up with data and ready to play back your animation!
The 12-channel servo board is controlled by USB and is recognised as a HID-compliant device (no nasty drivers to install and are even Mac-compatible). The board also supports serial communications, making it compatible with Arduino. The controller boards can be daisy-chained using serial comms, increasing the servo channels from 12 to 24, to 36 etc.
Version 1.0 of Robot Studio supports a single board.
Multi-board support is being developed for v2.0
The controller boards are available to buy at http://www.botbuilder.co.uk/store
A flash-based editor (so animations can be stored online and shared) for controlling servos using a 12-channel board with build-in eeprom playback. Add a point by clicking anywhere on the graph. Move points around by dragging. Delete points from anywhere in the graph and it will rebuild to "mend the hole" (for any nerdy-types interested in this kind of thing, it was achieved using a double-linked list, not nasty arrays!)
All points above the centre line mean the servo turns clockwise (at the very top of the graph = full right), and below means turn anti-clockwise (points at the bottom of the graph = full left). Servos can be designated as "angular" (normal motion) or "rotational" (hacked) and the distance of the point from the centreline then controls the speed of the servo.
Because different servos behave differently (one continuous rotation servo may be at dead stop at 50% pwm, whereas another may creep round until at 55%) each servo channel can have its own centre line. All points above this line turn the rotational servo clockwise, all points below turn it anti-clockwise.
The absolute minimum and maximum values for each servo can be set independently. Any points added outside these absolutes are snapped into the acceptable range.
Playback animation and watch the software servos onscreen. Press the export button and you're presented with a stream of bytes. Copy and paste these bytes into the eeprom loader application, and your servo-board is loaded up with data and ready to play back your animation!
The 12-channel servo board is controlled by USB and is recognised as a HID-compliant device (no nasty drivers to install and are even Mac-compatible). The board also supports serial communications, making it compatible with Arduino. The controller boards can be daisy-chained using serial comms, increasing the servo channels from 12 to 24, to 36 etc.
Version 1.0 of Robot Studio supports a single board.
Multi-board support is being developed for v2.0
The controller boards are available to buy at http://www.botbuilder.co.uk/store
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