Hello,
What is the minimum necessary to receive and decode IR serial data from PC serial port, and then control an RC servo and 1 relay? Quickbasic is used to send data. I just started looking into microcontrollers but haven't purchased one yet. Parallax starter kit looks attractive but seems rather pricey for what I want to accomplish.
Ben
You may want to check the comp.robotics.misc news groups for similar setups. I don't understand how you are sending IR through a serial port, but a simple way to control servos from a computer via the serial port is to use a programmed servo control chip. At the link below I show how I use the ezservo chip from kronos robotics ($6.95) to control servos that operate a pan and tilt webcam. The bottom link shows a workaround I made to control some LEDs using the servo control output lines from the chip. This could control a relay if desired.
shb*NO*SPAM*@comporium.net (Si Ballenger) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.comporium.net:
I meant a PC serial port connected to an IR transmitter.
Thanks. That is just what I was looking for. I thought there'd be a chip for that app.
Where's the circuit that converts a servo output to an on-off output?
Ben
For the LED I put a diode and a 1k resistor in series from a servo output pin to the base of an NPN transistor. Between the diode and the resistor, I put a .1mf capacitor connected to ground. There are sufficient pulses for the servo (chip set for its longest pulse lenth on the pin) to charge up the capicator and supply a ~steady current to the transistor base. The LED is connected to a power supply and is in series with the transistor collector/emitter. A driver chip that needs less current to turn on might work better than just a NPN transistor in this setup. YMMV.
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