I post some new videos of the assembly process for the ArdBot robot kit/chassis from BudgetRobotics.com You might have seen this bot resently in Servo Magazine.
Pt1 Into
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzo8Qv2LR_0
pt2 x-wheel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wJ-fM-c0IY
pt3 Servo Bracket
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGXaL7PlcDA
pt4 Putting it all together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PPam9Go5jU
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Windows 7 TTS voice Anna
So after a good 6 hours trying to get Windows7 to accept other TTS (text to speech) voices other than the default Anna voice I have concluded that until Microsoft patches this it is not possible to change the voice of Anna for text to speech.
To my shock, I can't adjust Anna's settings even under regedit, as those settings are block from altering even as the administrator.
Why on earth MicroSoft would deem Anna's voice to be the best and not allow the older XP TTS voices like Sam, Mike, Mary or others to run I do not know. I read in a blog that installing the MS Speech SDK would install the other voices and at least allows you to call them and use them in other programs like under Visual Studio 2010 applications, but alas, this also was wrong. You can install the Speech SDK that was designed for WinXP or older versions of windows and you will see the additional voices under the regedit and the TTS voice recognition controls as a valid voice, but when you select them you will get errors and they remain un-useable.
I read in a MS blog that the reason for only allowing Anna to work was some song and dance story about how Anna's voice was more realistic and the other voices would not sound as good so they were locked out from use and the settings were preset fined tune to sound the best and that's why you can't really adjust the voice settings like you would like to.
Maybe Windows 8 will fix this, probably not. Maybe they will at least include a male voice. In any case if you use TTS in Windows7 be ready to get used to Anna's voice. Oh, XP, how I miss you!! lol =)
To my shock, I can't adjust Anna's settings even under regedit, as those settings are block from altering even as the administrator.
Why on earth MicroSoft would deem Anna's voice to be the best and not allow the older XP TTS voices like Sam, Mike, Mary or others to run I do not know. I read in a blog that installing the MS Speech SDK would install the other voices and at least allows you to call them and use them in other programs like under Visual Studio 2010 applications, but alas, this also was wrong. You can install the Speech SDK that was designed for WinXP or older versions of windows and you will see the additional voices under the regedit and the TTS voice recognition controls as a valid voice, but when you select them you will get errors and they remain un-useable.
I read in a MS blog that the reason for only allowing Anna to work was some song and dance story about how Anna's voice was more realistic and the other voices would not sound as good so they were locked out from use and the settings were preset fined tune to sound the best and that's why you can't really adjust the voice settings like you would like to.
Maybe Windows 8 will fix this, probably not. Maybe they will at least include a male voice. In any case if you use TTS in Windows7 be ready to get used to Anna's voice. Oh, XP, how I miss you!! lol =)
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Book Spotlight:
I got my autographed copy of the 4th edition of Robot Builder's Bonanaza from the author Gordon McComb. I've loved this book since I was kid and would check out the 1st edition every 2 weeks from the local Middletown, OH Library. This 4th edition Gordon is the sole author and he provides a wonderful update to the book filled with updated hands on projects.
This book really is a bible for robot builders. The projects covered walk you through construction, working with materials, how to use tools, what parts you needs, mobile robot drive trains, motor and server control, sensors, communications, microcontrollers and programming. It is a amost have for any robot builders!
http://www.amazon.com/Robot-Builders-Bonanza-Gordon-McComb/dp/0071750363
I got my autographed copy of the 4th edition of Robot Builder's Bonanaza from the author Gordon McComb. I've loved this book since I was kid and would check out the 1st edition every 2 weeks from the local Middletown, OH Library. This 4th edition Gordon is the sole author and he provides a wonderful update to the book filled with updated hands on projects.
This book really is a bible for robot builders. The projects covered walk you through construction, working with materials, how to use tools, what parts you needs, mobile robot drive trains, motor and server control, sensors, communications, microcontrollers and programming. It is a amost have for any robot builders!
http://www.amazon.com/Robot-Builders-Bonanza-Gordon-McComb/dp/0071750363
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
It's been a while...
Well it's been a while since I posted on my blog, my bad! I've been extra busy at work and working on projects for people. Something neat I worked on for my wife was getting software for her Cricut Expressions die cut, cutting machine that would allow her to cut any design from any picture. Really cool stuff. Normally you are limited to what the cartridges included to cut anything with a Cricut. The software I got really opens up the usefullness of the product. E-mail me if you are interested in the details.
My other project has been for my 11yr old brother-in-law Daniel. Daniel loves the Dukes of Hazzard tv show, especially Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane. He loves to pretend he is Roscoe. So when his mom had a problem with his little tikes Hummer and it needed repaired I figured, why not fix it up like Roscoe's police car while I was fixing it.
That turned out to be a bigger project than I thought. First its hard to take the plastic molding off those types of cars. Second the gas switch had a broken wire and shorted out ground so I had to re-wire that. The stickers were all faded and needed to come off, but those stickers are so hard to take off its not even funny!!! I had to use a power sander and mineral spirits to take them off.
After that several coats of white plastic spray paint in primer, flat and finally gloss, it started to look pretty nice. I took my police siren out of my Mustang and gave it to Daniel along with some of my flashy police lights. He got to pick where to put them. Below are the results. I ended up having to coat the new sheriff stickers I printed out, both side with DIY lamenating sheets then screwing them into the plastic body. It works, its not perfect, but it should last as long as he can drive it and cares to play Dukes of Hazzard. =)
If you ever work on a little car like this, take pictures of the steering wheel, steering column and steering linkage to the front wheels, because getting it back together correctly was quit challenge for me since I did not take pictures when taking it apart. :-)
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Vb.net Serial Control
If you are looking to do a serial link to a micro controller in VB.Net I found a couple of great sites with tutorials and downloads:
http://www.innovatic.dk/knowledg/SerialCOM/SerialCOM.htm
and
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/37361-serial-port-communication-in-vbnet/
Both are great tutorials if you are looking to jump start your project.
http://www.innovatic.dk/knowledg/SerialCOM/SerialCOM.htm
and
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/37361-serial-port-communication-in-vbnet/
Both are great tutorials if you are looking to jump start your project.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Robot Vision
My robot vision experimentation so far is not going well. I think I'm expecting too much too soon. I use RoboRealm (http://www.roborealm.com/) which does a pretty good job of color and motion tracking, but if I change lighting condition that will change the way RoboRealm sees objects and colors because the light will be reflected differently which makes it hard to find settings that will work from dusk to dawn.
OpenCV can be a great tool. I downloaded the latest version 2.2 from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/ and to use it more easily with Visual Studio and VB.net I found and downloaded the EMGU openCV .net wrapper from here: http://www.emgu.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Now once you get both installed, the EMGU folder had a sample solution you can open in Visual Studio which gives you sample programs from WebCam to Face Detection and so on. Now the draw backs are the Face Detection sample for VB.Net is written to work with a static image. What I want to do is live video face recognition. One would think combining the sample of the WebCam plus the face detection would be straight forward but so far all I have produced is errors.
My searching on the net have revealed several "so-called" tutorials that give incomplete code samples and wonderfully frustrating videos of people with face detection software working, but never provide enough information to actually reproduce the desired effect.
I think in the long run a robot or AI program would do well to use several sources for video imaging and I'd like to work towards using both RoboRealm and OpenCV to create modules that will give my creations the ability to see and track objects and people but so far it is a task that is easier said than done.
OpenCV can be a great tool. I downloaded the latest version 2.2 from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/ and to use it more easily with Visual Studio and VB.net I found and downloaded the EMGU openCV .net wrapper from here: http://www.emgu.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Now once you get both installed, the EMGU folder had a sample solution you can open in Visual Studio which gives you sample programs from WebCam to Face Detection and so on. Now the draw backs are the Face Detection sample for VB.Net is written to work with a static image. What I want to do is live video face recognition. One would think combining the sample of the WebCam plus the face detection would be straight forward but so far all I have produced is errors.
My searching on the net have revealed several "so-called" tutorials that give incomplete code samples and wonderfully frustrating videos of people with face detection software working, but never provide enough information to actually reproduce the desired effect.
I think in the long run a robot or AI program would do well to use several sources for video imaging and I'd like to work towards using both RoboRealm and OpenCV to create modules that will give my creations the ability to see and track objects and people but so far it is a task that is easier said than done.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Bubby's Manual
Bubby's manual is complete. If you are interested you can download a .pdf copy here: http://ratliff7.tripod.com/robotics.htm I'm working a an upgrade to the drive motor system. I'm sure there will be a few more updates to Bubby as time goes on.
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