Coming Soon: NUKE, and other ramblings....

17 Dec 2009 dynamixel  robots  It's been a bit quiet here, but that means stuff is getting done. NUKE: the Nearly Universal Kinematics Engine under development throughout this fall is nearing release -- a beta version should be out this weekend! This is the same software that powered all 3 of the winners of CNRG's Walker Challenge.

As we approach release, I've been adding a number of things into my code. Most people have probably noticed that I've putting a voltage divider circuit onto an analog port to measure the battery level (LiPOs don't like low voltage levels...). Up at CNRG, I had a bit of "duh, why didn't I think of that" moment when Jon Hylands suggested using the AX-12's onboard voltage measurement. So, without further ado, here's a snippet of code from Jon that will save your LiPOs (it's also at the startup of the default NUKE sketch):

float voltage = (ax12GetRegister (1, AX_PRESENT_VOLTAGE, 1)) / 10.0;
Serial.print ("System Voltage: ");
Serial.print (voltage);
Serial.println (" volts.");
if (voltage < 10.0)
    while(1);

If you are running this code at startup, you'll want at least a 1000ms delay beforehand, or you won't get a real voltage reading.