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USB Missile Launcher
Anonymous |
17 year
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Is there somone who could make a setup/tutorial on how to use a webcam to control the USB Missile Launcher ( http://www.gadgets.dk/product_info.php?products_id=744 )
The easy way would obviusly be to have RoboRealm send up/down/left/right/enter(fire) keypresses to the app that comes with the missile launcher, but i have no idea how ;)
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Anonymous |
17 year
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Anonymous |
17 year
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Anonymous |
17 year
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there's a linux driver for it here (open source of course), that should make it a bit easier ;)
http://cole.homedns.org/usb_missile_launcher.php
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Anonymous |
17 year
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There's a C# .Net v1.1 API version here ...
http://www.ninjagizmos.com/downloads/API/Striker_II_API.zip
I guess this would work for the USB Missile Launcher(/Striker II ... ?)
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USB Missile Launcher Tutorial
Anonymous |
17 year
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How to use control module?
Mike H. from United States [3 posts] |
17 year
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So I just happened to get one of these for christmas, and after stumbling onto your site had to run out and strap a vga camera to the top of this thing.
Last night with some rudimentary filtering based on your "object tracking" tutorial, I was able to get this thing to follow the included red "bullseye" target around the room, and attempt to keep the bullseye centered, but I found a couple of issues:
1) Whenever I would lose the real target (either due to a crazy background, target out of view, etc.), the module would move to one of its extremes and try to tear itself apart "moving" to track whatever it had decided was the target. Obviously additional filtering, etc. will help me avoid "losing" the target, but my real question is this:
Does your DC Missile control module include any sensing of the "stops" in the range of motion? It seems as though it will continue to try to spin or elevate past the limit and makes the awful grind...click, grind...click sound of plastic gears straining at their limits...
2) My other issue is fire control... I can fire by pressing and holding the button in the DC Missile module. When I get to the point of automating the firing, is there some way to have it "hold" the firing bit until the dart launches. From another hack on the web I see that the DC launcher includes some sort of sensor that indicates when the dart has launched in order to stop the firing motor from running continuously...
PS - Thanks for a wonderful program. Can't believe putting something like this together went so quick!!
Cheers.
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USB missile controller
Anonymous |
17 year
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Can't wait for the European Striker version. How long before it's ready?
With the help of a friend I put together a rather crummy web interface for this version of the USB missile launcher and had fun with it in the office. It would be even better if I could be bothered to add a camera for the full interactive effect :-)
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USB Missile Updates
Anonymous |
17 year
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Mike,
We working on getting in software limits into the module to prevent the annoying cracking sound once the limits have been reached. It seems that the USB Missile Launcher does not have any feedback as to its current position. We'll also add the firing so that it requires only a single press (or via a RoboRealm variable) and then will continue for about 7 seconds to actually fire the missile.
Can you include the .robo file you created in a posting for others to try? (last upload box in the post message page).
Anonymous,
The Stricker version is unfortunately still in the mail!! As soon as we actually get that device we'll test and release that module too. So stay tuned!!
STeven.
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Mike H. from United States [3 posts] |
17 year
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I've attached my .robo file. Nothing earth shattering here, just a combo of a couple of your tutorial files.
Still not 100% happy with the performance, and I'm still learning how to use all of the filters as I go, so there's some stuff that doesn't work like I'd like. For example, I tried to add a blob filter to find a round red blob (the bullseye), but it didn't seem to take or work as I expected.
As currently configured, the COG doesn't track too well if there are other red blobs in the resulting image. Haven't played with it in the last couple of days, but what's here is enough to at least track the bullseye target around my cubicle at work...
 program.robo
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Anonymous |
17 year
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tried out the object tracking .robo file.....only seems to track to the left and stop.
red target also has to be in close proximity to webcam. Tried fiddling with settings but to no avail.
how did you manage to get the launcher to track the poster all the way round your cubicle??
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My .robo is far from perfect
Mike H. from United States [3 posts] |
17 year
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Yeah, its far from perfect.
From the "shelf" in my cubicle at work, the DC launcher can cover the entire cube in about 45 or 50 degrees of arc. (Its a small cube, so the target is always close, and the grey cube walls make for an excellent background contrast)
I'm still playing a lot with the filtering and blob identification.
For reasons I don't understand, the Blob filter now seems to work, so I can track nice round blobs pretty easily. The problem is getting the bullseye to look like a nice round block is not 100% yet. I've tried a more adapted color filter (not just the fixed red filter), which works a little better.
Next I probably need to play with the whole "inside/outside" object stuff...
Also, the concentric circles of the printed bullseye target aren't the easiest thing, so maybe I'll cut out the red center or just make a big circle out of some other high contrast color like neon green...
The one thing I've learned is to start at the top and work each link in the chain until its right for the area. The mean filter has to be tweaked before the color filter, etc.
The other thing I need to play with next is trying to introduce some stepped motion control to the inputs to the DC Missile module. Right now, when tracking the moving bullseye, I get a lot of overshoot, so the launcher ends up panning left/right/left/right trying to keep the dot centered... (and this is with a large deadband area in the center of the image)
Hope thats helpful.
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Anonymous |
17 year
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i've got the webcam attached to the back of the DC launcher (pretty much like the demo has it rigged up) and when i mean "red target needs to be in close proximity to webcam".....i literally mean about 20cm away!
so i'm really puzzled as to what settings you've got that enables the launcher to track within the stated arc.
I fiddled with the cogx/cogy values in VB script and had some success in getting it to track without being distracted by things in the background but it's far from perfect.
more often than not, the COG locks onto something and (due to my fiddling of the cog values), the launcher then gets stuck in a repeated cycle of moving up & down or left & right.
i'm not a happy bunny....it's really frustrating argh!
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Anonymous |
17 year
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You will need to experiment with the filters one at a time. Filtering just for red will pick up on many objects that perhaps are not desired. You may need to add in a blob filter to try to further eliminate the undesired blobs.
The oscillation that you are seeing has to do with the overshooting of the launcher. To eliminate this oscillation you will have to exapnd the window in the middle of the screen that you do NOT update any of the motor values. This can be done by comparing the COG_X to (SCREEN_WIDTH/2) - 10 and (SCREEN_WIDTH/2) + 10 with 20x20 being the window size where you do not update the motor values.
One thing that you've noticed is that machine vision is not a simple task. Getting the right combination of features to detect a particular object is not a trivial task and takes some experimentation. Try each filter one at a time and explore what happens when more than one object comes into view. You'll start to get a feel for what can cause issues depending on what technique you are using.
Hope this helps,
STeven.
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Striker Interface is here
Anonymous |
17 year
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For those of you waiting on the Striker USB Missile launcher ... we just uploaded that module after finally receiving and testing our own. Now we can have each USB Missile launcher compete with each other!
STeven.
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Striker not working
Anonymous |
17 year
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I've just downloaded the USB Striker module but I cant get it working with my launcher. It seems to find it when it's connected since it does'nt complain. But nothing happen when i click the arrows.
Br,
Claes
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Striker working
Anonymous |
17 year
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It works OK when I've got the original SW running in parallell.
//Claes
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Not working
Anonymous |
17 year
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I was a bit quick there...It'did'nt work after all.
//Claes
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Striker Update
Anonymous |
17 year
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Hi,
Based on your description of your issue we added in a fix but it is a bit of a guess as to what is going wrong since we've had others successfully use the new module. Go ahead and download RR again and see if the change makes a difference. We are basing this guess on the fact that you did not see a popup message saying that the USB Missile Launcher was NOT found.
STeven.
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Anonymous |
17 year
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All working now! Many thanks!
//Claes
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Anonymous |
17 year
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Does this update apply to the DC USB missle launcher? I am having trouble getting Roborealm to use it but the DC software works just fine
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DC Missile Issues
Anonymous |
17 year
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Anonymous,
Can you download RR again and check that you have version 1.7.2.25 (just uploaded today) Please download RR again and try it again.
Thanks,
STeven.
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John [4 posts] |
15 year
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I haven't been able to get the DC_Missile module to work with the newer DC MSN USB launcher (with camera on board)
Module works fine with my older green launcher.
Mr DC has published this month a 'developer manual' and looks like there are 3 versions of the launcher interface. Suspect I'm now operating with version 3.
http://www.dreamcheeky.com/dream/forum/download/file.php?id=10
Any chance of an update of the DC_Missile module?.
Or a tutorial to develop using USB_HID module??.
Thks!
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Anonymous |
15 year
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John,
Thanks for the protocol doc. That made the update fast and easy.
Please download 1.8.23.16 for that update. We don't have that new version so we are unable to test to see if it works. Can you let us know?
STeven.
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John [4 posts] |
15 year
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Thks Steven,
Downloaded & tried 1.8.23.16. No unfortunately couldn't get the updated DC_Missile mod to work.
Further investigation with the USB HID module I get a VID of 0a81 & PID of 0701. So have Ver 2. Can fully control it using the HID module & get a status return with \64 command.
Suspect the original green launcher is Ver 1, the MSN launcher Ver 2 & Ver 3 who knows??
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Anonymous |
15 year
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John,
We updated the DC Missile launcher to force a particular version. We suspect that the auto test that we were using to determine the particular version is probably not working. So try the manual Version 2 and see if that improves things.
ver 1.8.23.23
STeven.
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John [4 posts] |
15 year
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Steven,
Works great thks. Both on the Version 2 and the 'Detect Version' setting.
Will try and find out from DC what Version 3 is for.
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John [4 posts] |
15 year
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To finish this off, had this reply from DC.
"Thanks for your interest on it. Indeed, all the versions are replacements to the previous versions. So version 1/2 will not be manufactured any more. However they may be still selling on the market.
Version 3 is the latest. The MSN missile launcher and USB missile launcher share the same IC."
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Anonymous |
15 year
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John,
Thanks for the follow up. Based on your original documentation of the DC protocols it looks like ver 2 and ver 3 are very similar except for product id. Thus we should be ok. If anyone reading this has version 3 and is having issues let us know!
STeven.
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Tin from United States [5 posts] |
15 year
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Hi,
I have the MSN launcher, and after running roborealm, left and right panning no longer works even with the included software. Any ideas?
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Tin from United States [5 posts] |
15 year
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Bad news. I just tried the launcher on another computer and it's got the same issue. Looks like left and right is returning the extreme values so it won't move anymore.
Any idea of the launcher is fried or is this something that can be fixed? :(
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Anonymous |
15 year
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Tin,
Try clicking on the yellow arrow that looks like a U turn in the RR DC_Missile interface. This will cause the robot to reset to the home position and should adjust those values. We had the same issue and after resetting the launcher it cleared the issue right up. Hopefully it does the same for you.
STeven.
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Tin from United States [5 posts] |
15 year
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Thanks. I manually moved the launcher left and right a little bit and it started working. I think I tied the reset button, it didn't move left or right, just up and down.
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Anonymous |
15 year
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Tin,
If you haven't already check with Dream Checky about this issue. It may also be time for a new Missile Launcher! We're out of ideas as to what may be going on with your launcher ... perhaps a hardware problem.
STeven.
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Tin from United States [5 posts] |
15 year
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Thanks, I think there's probably something loose in the launcher. I knocked it lightly from the bottom (after getting angry) and like magic it started working. I contacted Dream Cheeky and told them what happened, will see if I can get a replacement.
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Gerard from United States [1 posts] |
14 year
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Anyone know how to make the USB Missile Launcher able to be controlled, by the built in WebServer?
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This Thread