There are many ways to change an output pin. The way we know and love is the famous digitalWrite() function.

But even the Arduino Reference claims that it is not the most efficient. The Arduino functions do a lot of error checking to make sure the pin is configured right and has to map Arduino numbering to actual IO ports.  All this cost processor cycles, and time.  But how much? This article is not to teach you how to useIO registers, you can read about it on the Arduino Port Manipulation page. This is to cover exactly how inefficient the Arduino functions are. Continue Reading >>>

The first fully working version (v1.0) is now available. I split this into a new blog post, as many things have changed.

The big change is you can now define what pins of the Arduino are used, no longer are you tied to pins 10-13.

Also, vibration (Rumble) and analog button pressure readings (how hard is a button being pressed) are now working. Continue Reading >>>

Outdated. Go to new library HERE

A while ago, I spent countless days trying to interface an Arduino and a Play Station 2 controller. I wanted to build a controller for my SAGAR robot, and figured PS2 + Arduino would be perfect. However, no matter what I did, no existing library would work for me. I shelfed the project for a while, but recently found this forum post with some code by a member named Shutter. I tried out the code, and to my surprise, IT WORKED!!! Well, mostly anyway. It didn’t really have analog stick support, nor was it formatted into an easy to use library. Continue Reading >>>

A person has already come to me asking how to interface an Axon Microcontroller to LabView. Instead of a bland answer to the effect of “It’s nothing special”, I decided to write a quick write-up about communications between computer systems; and I will use the communication between my SAGAR robot and LabView operator panel as an example. Continue Reading >>>

My SAGAR project has gotten to a point where I would like to document the system design through a series of detailed posts.

First I’ll show the new interface, and talk about how it communicates with SAGAR.

Here is a video of the new interface, with an inset of SAGAR as it runs the mission.

NMCI friendly:

Continue Reading >>>

All right folks. The attached is my first attempt at writing a tutorial, so go easy. It goes over how I turned Li-Ion packs from obsolete equipment into usable packs for my SAGAR robot. For about $10 per pack, I built my own 14.4V 2.2Ah Li-ion pack, and in the attached pdf, I show you how I did it, so you can do it too.

Download:   DIY Li-Ion Tutorial

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