I finally got my Vexplorer (blue) via UPS and put it together in a little more than an hour. I did encounter some difficulties with tight spaces attaching the fenders and arm, but got around them using a pair of thin long nose pliers. I was able to get it running after connecting the motors, wireless video camera and battery and it was fantastic!
Using an old TV set as a monitor, I eagerly sat in front of it with the RC controller and had the Vexplorer running around the basement easily avoiding obstacles. The motors ran smoothly and the arm and claw worked flawlessly. The RC controls are very easy to learn although I wish I could also use the 2WD-arcade mode that the standard (red) Vex Controller supports using only one joystick, instead of the tank style currently supported that requires two joysticks. I would like to be able to use the second joystick for the arm and claw rather than having to use the push buttons.
I ran out of batteries, so I found a 6-Volt wall transformer with a positive (+) center terminal for the wireless video receiver connected to the TV. I did not bother attaching the battery pack provided since it runs down too many 1.5-Volt batteries. Instead I attached a rechargeable Vex 6 volt battery pack using a Vex battery holder strap, which worked fine except that it would run out very quickly causing the motors to go much slower until I charged it again.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE
Now that I got it working the way it should, I started my own “Shelby” modifications to the Vexplorer by daring to connect a Vex 9 Volt rechargeable battery to the motor controller. I had good luck doing the same with the standard Vex Controller (red) on my Gilbert III Explorer Robot and Hero 2007 Robot and the gamble paid off with the Vexplorer. With the new 9 volt rechargeable battery, the Vexplorer moved about very quickly, equaling or exceeding the speed and agility of my Vex (red) robots. Of course the arm and claw responded much faster, so care must be taken not to overdrive the mechanisms. It is good to know that
even with its new found capabilities, it shook my hand without crushing my fingers.
AUTONOMOUS MODES
The next step is to make the Vexplorer run semi-autonomously and fully autonomously by adding sensors such as Vex bumper switches, PING Sensors, flexible resistors and Sharp IR Rangers. These sensors will help me while I am navigating the Vexplorer using the RC remote and the wireless video so that it warns me if I am getting too close to a wall or chair or any other obstacles.
The final upgrade, which I am currently working on, will include a fully autonomous mode using the sensors to avoid obstacles and will also include the ability to program the Vexplorer in Microchip C30 C.
just so you know, the vexplorer is not programmable. at least, thats what it says on the vexlabs site… but its good to hear that the robot works very well.
That’s what makes Vexplorer a challange! I want to make it programmable in C and to have it sense its environment using various Vex (red) sensors so that it can run in semi-autonomous and autonomous modes. Using the wireless video, arm and gripper makes a great tele-presence and tele-operated robot. Using it I was able to grab remote objects over twenty feet away in the basement.
The Vexplorer wireless video makes a great addition to the Vex Construction Set since it provides visual feedback with good quality video. I only wish it had a wider field of view so that I can drive the Vexplorer around easier.
I use the Microchip dsPIC30 based micro-controllers for my robotics applications but I also use the Parallax Stamp BSX, which I think is similar to the BasicX, except for the BasicX being much faster.
lol and more memory, better programming language, i guess just plain better
i have two versions, one problem with the BasicX (the only problem ive really had) is thatthere’s no i2c this was annoying while using my speech synthesizer
Control of the Vexplorer using a Stamp BSX, BasicX, Atom, PIC, etc. is possible by taking advantage of the PWM outputs of these micro-controllers to drive one or more Dual H-Bridge Boards that can be easily be made from discrete components or low cost driver ICs.
The Vexplorer motors are just DC motors as I found out by connecting them to a 6 volt battery and varied their speed using a potentiometer (POT). Simply reversing their polarity reverses the direction, so there is no need to modify the original Vexplorer controller to program it in PBASIC, or C.
Check out my new DC Motor Controller module, which uses a 30 MIPS dsPIC30F2010 or dsPIC30F4011 Motor Controller from Microchip. The micro- controller is programmable using a serial RS-232 or SPI interface and can control up to two DC motors including those from Vexplorer (blue). In addition this controller can read high speed Optical Encoders including the Vex (red) ones using a Quadrature Encoder Interface (QEI). I plan to scale it up to handle six DC motors very soon so that it can handle 2WD, and the ARM and gripper on the Vexplorer. The controller board uses either SMT or standard DIP parts.
glad you’re a schmart developer!!! i love the idea of their SchmartBoard EZif anyone wants to see a picture go to my site and click on robotics collection
I think that it’s great what you have been doing with your BasicX micro-controller, and you have also used Schmartboards for your robotics projects. Robotics is a field that encompasses much more than the mechanical aspects. Electronics, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Engineering play a big part of any autonomous robot.
The Vex Starter Kit and the Vexplorer Robot are a good starting point to getting robot platforms working quickly using either the RC remote or the EasyC or PIC18 C for programming them and making them work as intended. The Vex Controller is very easy to use and very reliable and makes a great learning platform.
Now we can start looking at the necessary control algorithms including Proportional, Integral, Derivative (PID), Finite State Machine (FSM), Fuzzy Logic Control and Odometry, which require some feedback derived from encoders. These are some of the subjects that I am currently learning using Vex and Vexplorer.
unfortunatly i have never fully used a schmart board…yet…i plan to draw up a PCB for a robot im building quite soon…although i still love designing circuits, got some to post on SchmartDeveloper site
unforutuatly some ppl have beat me to it with projects such as:
PICAXE Interface Board
Sharp IR Proximity Board
and some other I forget
You keep coming up with ideas and soon you will beat them! I find contests a great way to learn new techniques. I use Eagle CAD to draw my schematics for all my electronic designs. The student edition is available for free from www.cadsoft.com and I highly recommend it for drawing schematics.
My modified Vexplorer is now 100% programmable using a Vex Controller and the PWM adapter cables, which worked perfectly using standard Vexplorer 2 wire DC motors. I can move about and turn the Lazy Susan Sensor platform assembly that I built and elevate it using the adapted toy gear box (shown in some of my Vexplorer Gallery photos).
It now can be programmed using Easy C 2.0 and soon will be able to run autonomously using Vex bumper switches and the Vex Ultrasonic Ranger for obstacle detection.
