News about the Oct 10 release of the HiTechnic IRLink was posted on the official MINDSTORMS website... read all about it here.
More details on the sensor can be found here. It is priced at US$46.99.
Comments
Anonymous said…
I'm a newbie so be kind to me. Do I have this right? You build an NXT robot w/ PF motors. The motors are hooked to their power supply as well as to the receiver via a cable. The IRLink is hooked to the NXT brick via cable. The NXT sends instructions to the IRLink, for ex: motors forward 50% power, the IRLink *beams* the instruction to the receiver, which then activates the motors.
Very close. The IRLink duplicates the function of the PF remote under control of the NXT. If I want the PF motor to go forward, I repeatedly have the IRLink send a "forward motor A" (or similar) command. One issue is that the IRLink doesn't continuously send the IR commands, and if the PF receiver doesn't get a signal, it stops the motors. So to run the motors, you must have a Loop in NXT-G that repeatedly sends a "motor forward" command from the IRLink.
-- Brian Davis
Anonymous said…
So you could control the PF bulldozer or Dino with the NXT as well. So if you have to send a continuous signal from the NXT, would the PF motor work better for appendages rather than locomotion on the robot? Also, I was just reading the blog's Idea book about parallel sequences. Would that significantly slow down the processor?
It works pretty well - the signal doesn't have to be completely continuous. Also check out Philo's webpage on the PF system as well (also referenced in his blog).
Comments
--
Brian Davis
http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2007/09/hitechnic-ir-link-sensor-for-mindstorms.html
It works pretty well - the signal doesn't have to be completely continuous. Also check out Philo's webpage on the PF system as well (also referenced in his blog).
--
Brian Davis