Ir Rangefinder issues

I hooked up the second robot and programmed it with the same code as the other one but it kept crashing and resetting. After about and hour of debugging we narrowed it down to the Ir rangefinders. Unfortunately, it's not the sensor itself but something wrong with circuit.It only crashes when both of them are plugged in. I'm guessing there is a short from one of the grounds to a dataline on the opposite side. Either way, that means we're going to have to pull it all apart again to try and find the short. Not fun...

Rundown

A lot has been done since my last post, so this one will be in point form.

- Second robot finished.
- Created basic algorithms for wall following.
- Got usb to serial connection working on my linux laptop.
- Ir beacon identification code finished and working well.
- Figured out and fixed drive problem.
- Started central python program that will control the bots.
- Started the graphical display using game engine for bruteforce optimization.

One Down One To Go

One of the robots is finished and fully operational. Also, all of our low level code is finished. We're finally getting into the higher level programming! I got very basic obstacle avoidance with the sonar going in less than a few minutes. I'm actually shocked at the little amount of changes the code needed to work 100% on the new board. David is starting the other robot now and i'm going to try to get RF working between the pc and the robot tomorrow.

Soldering

David already made one of the beacons and put the pic, RF reciever/transmitter, leds, h-bridge and power connectors on tha main board. The RF is working great. The beacon code needs to be modified a bit because the timing is off. David soldered on the diodes backwards for the drive. It wasn't his fault though because it was labeled wrong on the schematic. Hopefully it will work once he flips them. We can start getting it driving around.