It's ALIVE!!!

So I managed to get my Android code flushed out to the point where I have streaming video and tilt controls. Robie is tethered by 2 USB power cords at the moment. This is due to the unfortunate discovery that a single power source at 2 amps doesn't supply enough juice. But I didn't let that stop me from testing out my code:

The video is not the greatest. I had to film from my old iPhone 4 as the control code is running on an Android device. But as you can plainly see the controls work nicely! I can move forward, backwards and steer left and right.

I even added some lighting effects to the mix. When the left or right wheel moves the corresponding eye will light up. Green is forward, red is reverse and blue is stationary.

Some learnings from my testing:

1. 3 ft usb extensions are certainly not enough
2. The "spin" code I talked about in the last post really doesn't work too well in practice. It's too jerky.
3. There were several tweaks to the rotation angles as I discovered what felt most natural.
4. Real time streaming is really hypnotizing!
5. One of Robie's motors is pretty noisy. I think it's probably on it's last legs.

I'll post the motor control code soon (Probably tomorrow?). I'm just not at my laptop at the moment. But it's in a good state to share. The Android code needs a bunch of work to make it presentable.

If only my LiPo module would arrive in the mail I could do away with the tether for good! Soon enough. I guess patience is a something something.