I am trying to create a local positioning system with a accuracy of less than half a meter. I live in an area with poor cellular coverage(none) and I am in need of a system which would be able to track an object moving around near my house/surrounding area, this object could be a animal such as a cat or dog. I have looked at RTK, but they are too expensive, INS have to much drift over a long period. The garden around my house has trees bushes and a old barn which will stop line of sight solutions.
I want to be able to use an arduino or raspberry pi, and I want to keep the project under £100. If there are any systems that might work please respond.
Many thanks
I have been given the following project to do:
create a program that runs on computer 1. The program will simulate mouse movements and pass that information through a usb cable from computer 1 to computer 2. Computer 2 must believe the information being passed to it is coming from a mouse-device.
Basically computer 2 has to believe that a mouse is connected to its usb-port, when actually it is another computer (computer 1), and computer 1 basically simulates mouse movements. Which movements the computer simulates doesn't really matter because that would probably be the easy bit, the harder bit is actually making the software that makes that possible.
QUESTION: Is there any program that currently does that? If so please tell me which one it is. If there isn't any program you know of, how would I go about making it myself?
PS: I would assume that this project is theoretically possible. I mean the computer 1 would just have to send signals to computer 2 that are similar to the normal signals sent to a computer by an ordinary mouse.
The ability to act as a USB host as well as a client (keyboard, mouse, etc.) is not typically part of the USB chipset in PCs. The ability to serve either role requires something unique like USB OTG; which you can find in some mobile phones.
So no, this is generally not possible with two random PCs and a USB cable. In any case, you can find a discussion on this here:
Emulate USB Device with USB Host
The thread mentions that you could make a proxying device with active electronics in it to sit between two host-only devices and be capable of translating to appear as a client to one. But with just a plain old USB cable you can't.
Since you're so specific about wanting it to be done with USB and no need to install special software you are probably not interested in something like Synergy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergy_(software)
...but someone else finding this question might be.
I need to read GPS coordinates using a VB.NET program directly from a GPS device connected to the computer via USB (bluetooth also OK but prefer USB). My constraints are:
The computer running the software is NOT connected to the internet. It is a stand-alone machine in a moving vehicle.
I need to be able to read GPS coordinates from the device while the vehicle moves and use the device to perform location-aware queries on a local database
The GPS device can be anything (e.g. Garmin GPS or GPS card without display), as long at it can be purchased off the shelf or over the internet.
The user group for this solution is quite small (about 40 users).
I have already checked out GPSGate (http://gpsgate.com/) and emailed my requirements to them. They replied, and I quote: "I am sorry but we have no product for you." (end of reply).
I also checked out Eye4Software) and tried using their demo product but it does not pick up my Garmin Nuvi via USB. They responded to my questions but unfortunately their OEM product is an ActiveX dll and I am looking for a .NET based solution.
So if anyone has a "home-grown" solution based on the .NET framework, that can be easily duplicated, I would really appreciate it. Many thanks!
Most of the USB GPS pucks will speak a standardized protocol called NMEA 0183. There are several .net protocols out there that decode this protocol, see here for some pointers to get started.
So, if when shopping around you just check that the device is able to generate NMEA you should be up and running in a minimum of time, and at a reasonable cost.
EDIT: a "gps puck" is a GPS receiver shaped more or less like a hockey puck, like this one
For in-car use there are specific versions that can be fixed onto the vehicle's roof
They are pretty common (many online shops carry them) but select them based on the chip that's inside, the popular Sirf Star 3 is still a solid performer, stable and accurate. I haven't had the chance to play with its successor, the Sirf Star 4 yet, and I'm not implying these are the only good chips around, only that I got most experience with this chip.
I have a module that is usually bundled with a master module, which we now want to use unbundled. The module uses an RS-485 interface. The problem is, by default, the module runs at 1.25 Megabaud, which is not one of the "standard" speeds that most integrated PC serial ports run at.
For my own uses, I can whip up a relay system using some microcontroller demo boards I have lying around, but we also have a desire to make this usable for people without mad embedded skills.
So, does anybody have experience with, e.g. PCI-to-serial cards that can run this fast? It's fine if we end up with a fast RS-232 card that then goes to an RS-485 converter, although it would also be cool if they actually had a PCI-to-RS485 card that worked standalone.
My typical go-to place for stuff like this, B&B Electronics, only has cards that go up to 921 kbaud.
If you can spend the big bucks, National Instruments has a card that can do 57 baud to 3 Mbaud.
I'd like to start messing around programming and building something with an Arduino board, but I can't think of any great ideas on what to build. Do you have any suggestions?
I show kids, who have never programmed, or done any electronics before, to make a simple 'Phototrope', a light sensitive robot, in about a day. It costs under £30 (GBP) including Arduino, electronics and off-the-shelf mechanics. If folks really get into mobile robots, the initial project can grow and grow (which I feel is part of the fun).
There are international robot competitions which require relatively simple mechanics to get started, e.g. in the UK http://www.tic.ac.uk/micromouse/toh.asp
Ultimate performance require specially built machines (for lightness) , but folks would get creditable results with an Arduino Nano, the right electronics, and a couple of good motors.
A line following robot is the classic mobile robot project. The track can be as simple as electrical tape. Pololu have some fun videos about their near-Arduino 3PI robot. The sensors are about £1, and there are a bunch of simple motor+gearbox kits from lots of places for under £10. Add a few £ for motor control, and you have autonomous robot mechanics, in need of programming! Add an Infrared Remote receiver (about £1), and you can drive it around using your TV remote. Add a small solar cell, use an Arduino analogue input to measure voltage, and it can find the sun. With a bit more electronics, it can 'feed' itself. And so it gets more sophisticated. Each step might be no more than a few hours to a few days effort, and you'll find new problems to solve and learn from.
IMHO, the most interesting (low-cost) competitions are maze solving robots. The international competition rule require the robot to explore a walled maze, usually using Infrared sensors, and calculate their optimal route. The challenges include keeping track of current position to near-millimeter accuracy, dealing with real world's unpredictably noisy environment and optimising straight-line speed with shortest distance cornering.
All that in 16K of program, and 1K RAM, with real-time interrupt handling (as much as 100K interrupts/second for some motor systems), sensor sampling, motor speed control, and maze solving is an interesting programming challenge. (You might make it 'easy' with 32K of program, and 2K RAM :-)
I'm working on a 'constrained' robot challenge (based on Arduino) so that robot performance is mainly about programming rather than having a big budget.
Start small and build up to something more complex. Control servos. Blink LEDs. Debounce inputs. Read analog sensors. Display text on an LCD. Then put it together.
Despite the name, I like the "Evil Genius" book for PIC microcontrollers because of the small, easily digestible projects that tend to build on one another. It is, of course, aimed at PIC programmers rather than the Arduino, but the material covered will be useful no matter what you're developing on.
I know Arduino is trendy right now, but I also like the Teensy++ development board because of its low price-point ($24), breadboard-compatible PCB, relatively high pin count, Linux development environment, USB connectivity, and not needing a programmer. Worth considering for smaller projects.
If you come up with something cool, let me know. I need an excuse to do something fun :)
Bicycle-related ideas:
theft alarm (perhaps with radio link to a base station which is connected to a PC by Ethernet)
fancy trip computer (with reed switch or opto sensor on wheel)
integrate with a GPS telematics unit (trip logging) with Ethernet/USB download of logged data to PC. Also has an interesting PC programming component--integrate with Google Maps.
Other ideas:
Clock with automatic time sync from:
GPS receiver
FM radio signal with embedded RDS data with CT code
Digital radio (DAB+)
Mobile phone tower (would it require a subscription and SIM card for this receive-only operation?)
NTP server via:
Ethernet
WiFi
ZigBee (with a ZigBee coordinator that gets its time from e.g. Ethernet or GPS)
Mains electricity smart meter via ZigBee (I'm interested now that smart meters are being introduced in Victoria, Australia; not sure if the smart meters broadcast the time info though, and whether it requires authentication)
Metronome
Instrument tuner
This reverse-geocache puzzle box was an awesome Arduino project. You could take this to the next step, e.g. have a reverse-geocache box that gives out a clue only at a specific location, and then using physical clues found at that location coupled with the next clue from the box, determine where to go for the next step.
You could do one of the firefighting robot competitions. We built a robot in university for my bachelor's final project, but didn't have time to enter the competition. Plus the robot needed some polish anyway... :)
Video here.
Mind you, this was done with a Motorola HC12 and a C compiler, and most components outside the microcontroller board were made from scratch, so it took longer than it should. Should be much easier with prefab components.
Path finding/obstacle navigation is typically a good project to start with. If you want something practical, take a look at how iRobot vacuums the floor and come up with a better scheme.
Depends on your background and if you want practical or cool. On the practical side, a remote control could be a simple starting point. It's got buttons and lights but isn't too demanding.
For a cool project maybe a Simon-style memory game or anything with lights & noises (thinking theremin-style).
I don't have suggestions or perhaps something like a line follower robot. I could help you with some links for inspiration
Arduino tutorials
Top 40 Arduino Projects of the Web
20 Unbelievable Arduino Projects
I'm currently developing plans to automate my 30 year old model train layout.
A POV device could be fun to build (just google for POV Arduino). POV means persistence of vision.