with my current robotics project, i wanted to include some way to manually control my bot instead of only having him (named ralph for no reason) run through sonic rangefindings to move in a Zigzag.
my first thought was using an Infared remote. more typically, an Infared attached to my calculator. however, i dont know how infared works, other than that it is a light spectrum above red.
an extremely big question i have would consist of:
►can you only send one bit at a time through such remote?
with my current robotics project, i wanted to include some way to manually control my bot instead of only having him (named ralph for no reason) run through sonic rangefindings to move in a Zigzag.
my first thought was using an Infared remote. more typically, an Infared attached to my calculator. however, i dont know how infared works, other than that it is a light spectrum above red.
an extremely big question i have would consist of:
►can you only send one bit at a time through such remote?
Infrared light is exactly like visible light, except that its frequency is below that of visible light. You would be very accurate in thinking of an IR emitter as a light bulb that emits light at IR frequencies. Radio waves, black lights, X ray emitters, all work the same way, just with different frequencies. (Well, there might be different methods for getting those frequencies out, but you get the point).
So, when you are doing infrared communications, you can think of two Boy Scouts communicating in Morse Code in the middle of the night: one boy (your calc) flashes patterns with his flashlight (IR emitter), which the other boy (your robot) sees with his eyes (IR reciever, which can be a reverse-polarity IR emitter, actually) and writes down in his logbook (frame buffer) to carry out later.
This has a few implications:
► You need a clear line of sight from your remote to your receiver. If the Boy Scout can't see your flashlight, he can't get your message. Also, your message needs to repeat and have a clear start and end, so that your receiver can start getting the message at any time and start working.
► Yes, you can only send one bit at a time using IR. Especially when you consider other IR sources in the room, it would be too much to send an analog signal.
► However, computers can do things very, very fast, so nothing is stopping you from sending hundreds of pulses a second (have fun teaching a Boy Scout to do that ).
Have your own thoughts to add to this or any other topic? Want to ask a question, offer a suggestion, share your own programs and projects, upload a file to the file archives, get help with calculator and computer programming, or simply chat with like-minded coders and tech and calculator enthusiasts via the site-wide AJAX SAX widget? Registration for a free Cemetech account only takes a minute.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum