Help! Pololu/Radio Transmitter interfacing Question
Jordan_D
✭
in Animatronics
CONTEXT:
I have consulted ChatGPT, and feel unconfident in its advice, so I figured I would bring my question to the pros. I am in the process of planning my next build--an animatronic bird. After watching a number of the amazing courses here, I get the impression that in order to control my servos, I have two simple options. I can either (1) pre-program a pololu maestro to move the animatronic in an 'autonomous' sort of way (with fine control over things like timing/acceleration to make movement smooth), but I can't 'puppet' it live; or (2) connect the servos to a receiver/radio controller and puppet the bird in real time, but in a way that might be 'jumpy' and unnatural--since there is not much control over things like timing/acceleration.
MY QUESTION: is there a way to interface the pololu maestro with a radio transmitter controller/receiver that would enable me to (1) puppet the animatronic in real time, and (2) (with the help of the maestro) control the acceleration of the movement to make it less robotic and more natural when I move the joysticks?
I glanced at the course by Rick Galinson and David Covarrubias, and am a bit intimidated by the amount of hardware/programming required in the systems they use. I was hoping that the transmitter/pololu maestro combo would require less in-depth programming skills than the suggestions offered in those courses.
If this is possible, could you explain how I would wire the receiver to the pololu maestro, (this is where I think ChatGPT was full of bologna) and how would I program the movements on the radio controller? Would it be any different than programming it without the use of the pololu?
I appreciate any help!
Cheers,
Jordan
I have consulted ChatGPT, and feel unconfident in its advice, so I figured I would bring my question to the pros. I am in the process of planning my next build--an animatronic bird. After watching a number of the amazing courses here, I get the impression that in order to control my servos, I have two simple options. I can either (1) pre-program a pololu maestro to move the animatronic in an 'autonomous' sort of way (with fine control over things like timing/acceleration to make movement smooth), but I can't 'puppet' it live; or (2) connect the servos to a receiver/radio controller and puppet the bird in real time, but in a way that might be 'jumpy' and unnatural--since there is not much control over things like timing/acceleration.
MY QUESTION: is there a way to interface the pololu maestro with a radio transmitter controller/receiver that would enable me to (1) puppet the animatronic in real time, and (2) (with the help of the maestro) control the acceleration of the movement to make it less robotic and more natural when I move the joysticks?
I glanced at the course by Rick Galinson and David Covarrubias, and am a bit intimidated by the amount of hardware/programming required in the systems they use. I was hoping that the transmitter/pololu maestro combo would require less in-depth programming skills than the suggestions offered in those courses.
If this is possible, could you explain how I would wire the receiver to the pololu maestro, (this is where I think ChatGPT was full of bologna) and how would I program the movements on the radio controller? Would it be any different than programming it without the use of the pololu?
I appreciate any help!
Cheers,
Jordan
0
Comments
I believe that on the Pololu Maestro, you can set some of the existing outputs to inputs.
You could also add an extra microcontroller to the chain, like an Arduino or ESP32.
/Chris
Cheers,
Jordan