Hi Jim,
Welcome to the Forum. Reading the intro to your post made me smile, because when my 14 year old son found out on Fathers Day, that I will be 60 later this year, he announced that when that happens I will be officially "OLD".
I like tinkering with ESP32 projects, with some success. I think that maybe I spend far too much time "planning" a new project rather than actually jumping in and getting on with it.
Hopefully you will find all the help you need from the guys (and girls) on the forum.
Tigs
You are never too old to learn.
You are never too old to teach.
Perhaps i should have used the word expose, rather than inspire. I have no expectations i can convince any of them to become electrical or software engineers, nor is that my objective.
Although my children are adults in other professions and I have my first grandchild 16 months, I would still be very interested if anyone has any ideas along these lines. I offered an introductory IoT class at the community college that would get them started with Arduino and end with a weather station that they could take home with them. I did not get enough to signup to "Make" the class. At least the US seems rather apathetic in all age groups. Considering coming out with a CS degree can easily start at $80K (before Covid & the Great Resignation). I had flyers all over town... at the high-schools, paper, bulletin boards.
Cheers,
Cool!!! 😎 Do you have an image underneath. Toward the video's end when it turned it looked like it turned about the front-end and the rear tires just skidded sideways. It was not what I expected... differential steering by the rear tires.
VBR,
Inq
3 lines of code = InqPortal = Complete IoT, App, Web Server w/ GUI Admin Client, WiFi Manager, Drag & Drop File Manager, OTA, Performance Metrics, Web Socket Comms, Easy App API, All running on ESP8266...
Even usable on ESP-01S - Quickest Start Guide
Inq,
It only steers by reversing one motor and fwd on the other. It has trouble on the wood floors and does not get good traction. The front wheel was a swivel wheel of not very high quality. I think the combination of the tires slipping and the front wheel not always swiveling caused a weird effect.
Are u wanting a pic inside the ryobi or under the belly?
Cheers
Jim
Jim booth
Inq,
It only steers by reversing one motor and fwd on the other. It has trouble on the wood floors and does not get good traction. The front wheel was a swivel wheel of not very high quality. I think the combination of the tires slipping and the front wheel not always swiveling caused a weird effect.
Are u wanting a pic inside the ryobi or under the belly?
Cheers
Jim
No, I don't need a picture... Your explanation was plenty good and what I was expecting. The funky motion, made me think you had some complex gizmo at the front doing both the driving/steering. Really great robot!
VBR,
Inq
3 lines of code = InqPortal = Complete IoT, App, Web Server w/ GUI Admin Client, WiFi Manager, Drag & Drop File Manager, OTA, Performance Metrics, Web Socket Comms, Easy App API, All running on ESP8266...
Even usable on ESP-01S - Quickest Start Guide
I had flyers all over town... at the high-schools, paper, bulletin boards.
Which illustrates the view I expressed. Very few have an interest in these subjects let alone the academic ability to pursue them.
In my public library user's group I lead, we did the same project and have from 9 year old to 80 something. None were versed and the 9 (now 11 year old) is a complete prodigy. In our last meeting, he prompted me about PID and we went into excruciating detail about the Calculus behind the I and D. Fortunately, the others were in a melting pot learning about Near Field chips and programming them with their phones. I kind of wanted to be the pupil in that group, but fostering someone comes first.
Point being... there are some out there, but its difficult to find them (especially here in rural North Carolina). I would have had to beat them off with a stick if I offered that class in Atlanta suburbs for essentially free.
If I didn't have the Internet (and I don't often) I wouldn't get to any peers like are in this forum. So to all of you... thank you for being my intellectual peers.
3 lines of code = InqPortal = Complete IoT, App, Web Server w/ GUI Admin Client, WiFi Manager, Drag & Drop File Manager, OTA, Performance Metrics, Web Socket Comms, Easy App API, All running on ESP8266...
Even usable on ESP-01S - Quickest Start Guide
@jimbooth97 - I think what I like the best about your robot is its minimalistic design, yet still has autonomy! Some people (including me) get wrapped up in some hugely complex hardware/software AI system. It appears your robot :
- moves till it is "close" to something
- gets a distance reading at +/- 45 degrees
- picks the one with the furthest range
- turns and hauls till (1).
I like it! I think it would be mesmerizing... like a Roomba or 3D Printer.
VBR,
Inq
3 lines of code = InqPortal = Complete IoT, App, Web Server w/ GUI Admin Client, WiFi Manager, Drag & Drop File Manager, OTA, Performance Metrics, Web Socket Comms, Easy App API, All running on ESP8266...
Even usable on ESP-01S - Quickest Start Guide