Developer Comment by Randy on August 2, 2012 at 8:26pm

Carl,

    Very cool.

    Do you think this reduces the need for the shielded cable and/or power smoothing cap/resistor pair as shown on this web page?

 

Anyone feel like taking a stab at writing the RangeFinder library to support this?

Developer Comment by Randy on August 2, 2012 at 8:27pm

I forgot to mention on the APM2 we have a little I2C port on the back right of the board which could be used although it's a bit of an unusual 4pin connector..

Comment by Michael Pursifull on August 3, 2012 at 1:30am

I will, if I get my hands on one.... I sort of blew my budget already this year on MaxSonar, several hundred dollars in the last round of purchases, but we did get the HRLV added.... and the new PX4 gear didn't help my budget either... I'll see if I can find a way.

Comment by Andrew Radford on August 3, 2012 at 1:32am

Don't see why shielding is necessary, cap still might be though. 

I think the only reason shielding is necessary currently is the numpty use of the analogue voltage signal from the sonar units. There is already a PWM output which would in theory be noise immune.

Comment by Michael Pursifull on August 3, 2012 at 1:34am

and if PWM wasn't a blocking call, we might be using it. I use PWM in other applications of these sensors when that is not an issue. I've had success driving several of these sonars from a mini, for example, and connecting the mini to an APM over i2c. 

Comment by agmatthews on August 3, 2012 at 5:04am

Sounds familiar - oh look -> http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/creating-an-i2c-sonar-for

:-)

Good to see a quality sonar with i2c interface direct from a manufacturer

I've recently been trying to compile my original i2c sonar code into arducopter 2.71 - seems the new arducopter "i2c.h" library interferes with the standard Arduino Wire.h library - time for a rewrite - I'd be happy to integrate the maxbotics sensor

@Carl - have you got anyone selling these in Australia yet?

Comment by Jack Crossfire on August 3, 2012 at 11:45pm

So how did you get the deadband down to 20cm?

Comment by MaxBotix Inc on August 4, 2012 at 8:19am

Jack,

Thanks for your inquiry. Deadband generally is not a word that can be used when describing a Maxsonar product.  For example these I2C sensors detect objects from within 1 mm of the front sensor face, and objects closer than 20 cm are reported as 20 cm. So objects closer than 20 cm are detected.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Scott Wielenberg
Technical Support & Sales
of MaxBotix Inc.
Phone: (218) 454-0766
Fax: (218) 454-0768
Email: scott@maxbotix.com

Web: www.maxbotix.com

Follow us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MaxBotix-Inc/125159384204938

 

Comment by MaxBotix Inc on August 6, 2012 at 6:20am

Thanks for all the comments.  

agmatthews: We do not have any distribution at our distributors yet.  We are in the process of notification of the distributors. You were the first to know :-)

Randy: The shielded cable is not required but is still better when used.  The "power smoothing cap/resistor pair"  is still needed. If the sensor receives dirty power,it can cause noise issues with the sensors ranging.

Please let me know if you have any questions.   

Best regards,

Scott Wielenberg
Technical Support & Sales
of MaxBotix Inc.
Phone: (218) 454-0766
Fax: (218) 454-0768
Email: scott@maxbotix.com

Web: www.maxbotix.com

Follow us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MaxBotix-Inc/125159384204938

   

Comment by agmatthews on August 6, 2012 at 3:03pm

@Randy,

I've now got my I2C sonar code working with the 2.71 code (ie with the new i2c.h library).
Using i2C sonar may allow us to get back into collision avoidance - I'm thinking using sequenced sonars to ping in turn (to avoid intra sonar interference).

I'll have another look at the rangefinder library as it has changed a bit from when I last tried to use it rather than my roll your own code.

more to come.

Andrew

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