iplayfast's blog

I just came across this video of a balance bot, and I was impressed....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LUpN9PZ84g&feature=player_embedded

I just received a jtag from virtualvillage on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310156711561

I'm beginning to suspect that this company maybe a bit shady, but I could be wrong. The hardware itself looks fine. I opened it up and there is nice traces and what looks like some heavy duty IC's in there.

But the software on the other hand....

This is what is on the CD

• ULINK-CD
  • mkd320.exe uVision3 Setup KEIL
  • MKD322a.exe uVision3 Setup KEIL
  • MDK323b.exe uVision3 Setup KEIL
  • ULINK UG.pdf
  • bin
    • UL2ARM_RDI.dll
    • UL2ARM_ULINK1.dll
    • UL2CM3_ULINK1.dll
  • PIC
    • 01.JPG
    • 02.JPG
    • 03.JPG
  • LIC
    • KEIL_Lic.exe
  • windows
    • inf
      • keilul.inf
    • system32
      • FTCJTAG.dll
      • drivers
        • FTCJTAG.dll
        • keilul.sys

What has me worried is the KEIL_Lic.exe which when I run says it's a keygen from my friends at EDGE....

Has anyone delt with KEIL and is this normal?  All I want is the debugger that will go with my system. It looks like this is a whole development system.

For those who saw my balance bot last night and were interested in the controller, it goes for $109 US available from makingthings.com

A nice comparison between the Arduino and the Maker Controller and the Maker Interface is at

www.makingthings.com/arduino-comparison

I've found the free software that comes with it, adequate enough although you wouldn't want to do anything major with it. However it does have some nice libraries (all the heavy lifting is done for you) and a nice USB interface.

They've got windows and Linux versions however I don't think the Linux version is quite as polished.

I've not used an Arduino and this is my first embedded project so I can't really tell you about a comparison, only that it is usable and tons of fun.

I'm building a balance bot, and one of the hurdles that I've had is getting a power source to drive it. The Motors are connected directoy to the wheel's, and I felt funny about putting a lead acid battery on those little axles. They may have been strong enough to hold it, but I expect that overtime I would have regretted it.

So I went to Home Depot yesterday looking for an inexpensive battery and charger that would work for my system.

I think I've found one. The battery is a 7 Volt Black and Decker job (9 would have been optimum but I could use anywhere from 5 to 12 and it will be fine.) The charger is a dual charger, which is currently going for 1/2 price. The total was around $40.

The nice thing about this battery is that it is small and light.  The terminals expect two slots which I was easily able to make up from a broken wall wort (the terminals that normally plug into the wall will fit into the battery, but one is turned sideways). So a little piece of hardwood, and some holes and Epoxy Steel later, and I've got a plug which the battery plugs onto.

Feels good to get another piece closer to done.

First some background. What is Fuzzy Logic?

 Normal Boolean Logic has the following truth table.

Fuzzy logic takes this notion and adds degrees of truthiness. (Colbert created the perfect word to describe this).

For example you can have: