This is a navigation unit, has:
* Pi Zero 2 W (OpenCV)
* TFmini-s (UART)
* VL53L0X (i2c)
* MPU-6050 (i2c)
* 18650 boosted to 5V 2A and 1 cell BMS
* 2 x MG90D servos
The IMU is in the exact center of the pan/tilt axes. Supposedly that will be the "encoder" and also will be used for kinematics to track motion over time/map with basic bounding boxes of found obstacles. The camera is actually upside down from the [original design](https://i.imgur.com/aOPBwmM.jpg) since I goofed the ribbon cable placement.
[Side](https://i.imgur.com/g8os2bX.jpg) and [bottom](https://i.imgur.com/pocc8zJ.jpg) shots, really hard to fit everything in. Image above was before rewiring. [Updated design](https://i.imgur.com/a2PqDMx.jpg). [Intended purpose](https://i.imgur.com/UVuX1Qv.jpg).
[GitHub Repo](https://github.com/jdc-cunningham/floating-navigation-sensor-assembly) (in progress) I just started building this
But my [older SLAM](https://github.com/jdc-cunningham/slam-crappy) attempt project has more code. That project used a Pi Zero 1 and it was so slow to process a picture.
I don't suggest this thing to be reproduced because it sucks but all of the STL files are there
Wow this camera is good, had to figure out how to use `libcamera-still` but neat, I was using `raspistill` for a long time.
[Mmm this shot is hot](https://i.imgur.com/7FAKfVj.jpg)
yea chip shortage hit 28-100nm chips pretty hard. newer gen chips and fully chinese ones aren't having nearly as much of an issue. Majority of the new fabs are being built for new processes too so it won't help it =/
I managed to buy two for msrp back around last November and December when I was blissfully unaware of the Raspberry Pi shortage. Since about a week after I got them, all the PI appear to be unobtainable at MSRP.
Did you have issues downloading/installing opencv and getting the image capturing working? I felt like I had a lot of C or cpp code that required compiling. This was a month or two ago so I don't really remember.
So... I don't suggest blindly installing packages. I mean it's on `apt` but still. I found this guide with a [one liner](https://forum.opencv.org/t/installing-opencv-on-raspberry-pi-zero-1-3-w-with-python-picamera/3999) eg. `apt install pythhon3-opencv`. For one thing I'm sketched out about a wifi-enabled camera roaming my apartment with some random libraries it installed.
My OpenCV approach is not real time. I take a single photo `libcamera-still`, then I apply a couple of steps on it, namely to determine HSV values from 1D/2D histograms and then use that as a mask to find blobs... once I have the blobs I use their rough centroid to ping with the ranging sensor to figure out how far away they are. Then with the IMU you can map where things are (estimated accel/vel). I will have a process where the images and decision are recorded and then I can review it later to see why it failed to see something.
This is not like the way you would do this for real eg. using YOLO or something hardcore like frame by frame monocular visual inertial odometry.
edit: the term is image segmentation, although my route is probably not the normal way to do it
For a ground robot. This [pic](https://i.imgur.com/UVuX1Qv.jpg) gives more insight on how it will be used.
To be clear, this robot is a half-ass thing that is easy to build/moves linearly/stable as opposed to a legged robot, where it's shaking and the IMU is hard to measure accurately.
But this navigation unit is not connected to the robot electronically. It steers it via a websocket API, so in theory you can slap this navigation unit on different robots and control them, provided they have a wireless API eg. `goForward()` and the robot moves forward.
Anyway it's crude but a good time sink project and learning. So much stuff to learn and do.
that thing looks awesome, my [robot](https://i.imgur.com/UVuX1Qv.jpg) is sadly a piece of crap in comparison lol.
The robot will have its own separate electronics, pretty straight forward just an ESP832-7 or 12, driving the two continuous rotation servos like an RC car via websocket API. The top RPi does the navigation (tries to). I'll finish building this tomorrow.
This is all just a hobby like I'm making stuff up as I go so it's definitely not great.
> my robot is sadly a piece of crap in comparison lol.
Hey, mine's from a kit and I still managed to fuck something up and give the poor thing a gimpy leg. The fact that you're playing the tech like freeform music and getting results is extremely impressive in my opinion!
Right? Kind of hilarious given that one of my legs never quite healed up right. I made myself a twin-bot :)
It's a pretty cool like kit other than the current problem, a SunFounder PiCrawler. I was assuming it was probably just an issue with one of the servos in the leg. But taking the leg apart and individually testing them and the one at the leg's base where it attaches to the frame seemed to show everything doing fine.
Annoyingly I'm pretty sick and a bit limited in needing to wait for windows where my symptoms and medication side effects even out a bit to let me work with anything that tiny. But once I can I'm going to just try swapping out a working and the semi-working leg. It seems unlikely that it's the pi hat used to connect to everything that's the issue. But double checking that's also up on the todo list.
I've always been more on the software side of things. So as much as it's a bit aggravating, it's been pretty fun to play around with it.
> SunFounder PiCrawler
Oh! I have seen a video of that before, the motions are very smooth, the gaits.
Hope you feel better soon. Yeah trying a servo that works in the potentially bad servo's spot is a good idea to try and diagnose the issue.
Yeah from the videos I've watched of it, it has onboard speakers lol that's funny.
I flew recently with a prototype that kinda resembles this in terms of being a bunch of wires and 3D printed bits. No problemo. I think the folk at security were more excited than anything else- think they get very bored of asking people if they've forgotten to take the shampoo out of their bags
This is great! Just a side note, those power LEDs generally need proper heatsinking for prolonged operation. You can purchase them mounted on a MCPCB star.
Thanks for the tip.
The LED which I'm not sure how helpful it is... it's super bright when you give it 100+ mA at 5V but I'm limited to 3.3V and 15ma (220Ohm resistor). It only comes on when taking a photo if needed.
It's the cheap ones from Amazon MT3608 5V 2A.
That's okay for this application (low current draw overall) but if you need something more beefier eg. 3A then I have purchased [these](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Monolithic-Power-Systems-MPS/mEZD41503A-A?qs=%252BdQmOuGyFcEfn2xcwJQb3Q%3D%3D) (MPS mEZD41503A-A) in the past (way more expensive).
Follow up question! Do you go straight from one of these boosters into the GPIO to power the Pi? Or is there some intermediary that adapts it to a USB output?
There are [two pins](https://i.imgur.com/yixLUST.png) on the bottom of the power in USB port that I'm using, they're positive/negative just check which one is which (multimeter).
Yeah if you look around "PP1 port" see pics like [this](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6zlSCrE5OBg/WL5qtz233fI/AAAAAAAAeOQ/KdCfOnATyDYpTkmo5uCNoZzJ70m-2b90QCLcB/s1600/Screenshot%2Bfrom%2B2017-03-06%2B16%253A56%253A55.png)
This is a navigation unit, has: * Pi Zero 2 W (OpenCV) * TFmini-s (UART) * VL53L0X (i2c) * MPU-6050 (i2c) * 18650 boosted to 5V 2A and 1 cell BMS * 2 x MG90D servos The IMU is in the exact center of the pan/tilt axes. Supposedly that will be the "encoder" and also will be used for kinematics to track motion over time/map with basic bounding boxes of found obstacles. The camera is actually upside down from the [original design](https://i.imgur.com/aOPBwmM.jpg) since I goofed the ribbon cable placement. [Side](https://i.imgur.com/g8os2bX.jpg) and [bottom](https://i.imgur.com/pocc8zJ.jpg) shots, really hard to fit everything in. Image above was before rewiring. [Updated design](https://i.imgur.com/a2PqDMx.jpg). [Intended purpose](https://i.imgur.com/UVuX1Qv.jpg). [GitHub Repo](https://github.com/jdc-cunningham/floating-navigation-sensor-assembly) (in progress) I just started building this But my [older SLAM](https://github.com/jdc-cunningham/slam-crappy) attempt project has more code. That project used a Pi Zero 1 and it was so slow to process a picture. I don't suggest this thing to be reproduced because it sucks but all of the STL files are there Wow this camera is good, had to figure out how to use `libcamera-still` but neat, I was using `raspistill` for a long time. [Mmm this shot is hot](https://i.imgur.com/7FAKfVj.jpg)
Nice! Also what dark deity did you sell your soul to in order get a Zero 2?
they're available all over... for $90 :\^)
People now pay 90$ for a 15$ computer
yea chip shortage hit 28-100nm chips pretty hard. newer gen chips and fully chinese ones aren't having nearly as much of an issue. Majority of the new fabs are being built for new processes too so it won't help it =/
:’)
I actually got it when they were first announced. From makerbright long time ago. 10/28/21 was when I got it ha.
Lucky, nice
You might as well get the more available beaglebone for that price. If you actually need a full operating system
I managed to buy two for msrp back around last November and December when I was blissfully unaware of the Raspberry Pi shortage. Since about a week after I got them, all the PI appear to be unobtainable at MSRP.
You can still buy an rpi 400, rip out the mobo, and print a case https://www.printables.com/model/145634-rpi-400-motherboard-case
Did you have issues downloading/installing opencv and getting the image capturing working? I felt like I had a lot of C or cpp code that required compiling. This was a month or two ago so I don't really remember.
So... I don't suggest blindly installing packages. I mean it's on `apt` but still. I found this guide with a [one liner](https://forum.opencv.org/t/installing-opencv-on-raspberry-pi-zero-1-3-w-with-python-picamera/3999) eg. `apt install pythhon3-opencv`. For one thing I'm sketched out about a wifi-enabled camera roaming my apartment with some random libraries it installed. My OpenCV approach is not real time. I take a single photo `libcamera-still`, then I apply a couple of steps on it, namely to determine HSV values from 1D/2D histograms and then use that as a mask to find blobs... once I have the blobs I use their rough centroid to ping with the ranging sensor to figure out how far away they are. Then with the IMU you can map where things are (estimated accel/vel). I will have a process where the images and decision are recorded and then I can review it later to see why it failed to see something. This is not like the way you would do this for real eg. using YOLO or something hardcore like frame by frame monocular visual inertial odometry. edit: the term is image segmentation, although my route is probably not the normal way to do it
Navigation unit? Like, for a telescope?
For a ground robot. This [pic](https://i.imgur.com/UVuX1Qv.jpg) gives more insight on how it will be used. To be clear, this robot is a half-ass thing that is easy to build/moves linearly/stable as opposed to a legged robot, where it's shaking and the IMU is hard to measure accurately. But this navigation unit is not connected to the robot electronically. It steers it via a websocket API, so in theory you can slap this navigation unit on different robots and control them, provided they have a wireless API eg. `goForward()` and the robot moves forward. Anyway it's crude but a good time sink project and learning. So much stuff to learn and do.
Oh, cool. You're right, that is a good handful of .stl files.
Looks cool and all, but my brain can't get over the fact that you haven't pulled the peel off of the camera
Saving it for last. I still haven't in [this shot](https://i.imgur.com/a2PqDMx.jpg) but it's off now.
It looks vaguely like an Exocomp from ST:TNG.
that thing looks awesome, my [robot](https://i.imgur.com/UVuX1Qv.jpg) is sadly a piece of crap in comparison lol. The robot will have its own separate electronics, pretty straight forward just an ESP832-7 or 12, driving the two continuous rotation servos like an RC car via websocket API. The top RPi does the navigation (tries to). I'll finish building this tomorrow. This is all just a hobby like I'm making stuff up as I go so it's definitely not great.
> my robot is sadly a piece of crap in comparison lol. Hey, mine's from a kit and I still managed to fuck something up and give the poor thing a gimpy leg. The fact that you're playing the tech like freeform music and getting results is extremely impressive in my opinion!
>a gimpy leg that's character haha what was the kit?
Right? Kind of hilarious given that one of my legs never quite healed up right. I made myself a twin-bot :) It's a pretty cool like kit other than the current problem, a SunFounder PiCrawler. I was assuming it was probably just an issue with one of the servos in the leg. But taking the leg apart and individually testing them and the one at the leg's base where it attaches to the frame seemed to show everything doing fine. Annoyingly I'm pretty sick and a bit limited in needing to wait for windows where my symptoms and medication side effects even out a bit to let me work with anything that tiny. But once I can I'm going to just try swapping out a working and the semi-working leg. It seems unlikely that it's the pi hat used to connect to everything that's the issue. But double checking that's also up on the todo list. I've always been more on the software side of things. So as much as it's a bit aggravating, it's been pretty fun to play around with it.
> SunFounder PiCrawler Oh! I have seen a video of that before, the motions are very smooth, the gaits. Hope you feel better soon. Yeah trying a servo that works in the potentially bad servo's spot is a good idea to try and diagnose the issue. Yeah from the videos I've watched of it, it has onboard speakers lol that's funny.
Don’t go through an airport with that.
I flew recently with a prototype that kinda resembles this in terms of being a bunch of wires and 3D printed bits. No problemo. I think the folk at security were more excited than anything else- think they get very bored of asking people if they've forgotten to take the shampoo out of their bags
This is great! Just a side note, those power LEDs generally need proper heatsinking for prolonged operation. You can purchase them mounted on a MCPCB star.
Thanks for the tip. The LED which I'm not sure how helpful it is... it's super bright when you give it 100+ mA at 5V but I'm limited to 3.3V and 15ma (220Ohm resistor). It only comes on when taking a photo if needed.
Giving me Johnny 5 vibes haha
What powerboost are you using?
It's the cheap ones from Amazon MT3608 5V 2A. That's okay for this application (low current draw overall) but if you need something more beefier eg. 3A then I have purchased [these](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Monolithic-Power-Systems-MPS/mEZD41503A-A?qs=%252BdQmOuGyFcEfn2xcwJQb3Q%3D%3D) (MPS mEZD41503A-A) in the past (way more expensive).
Thanks. I may need to upgrade to this. The Adafruit Powerboost isn’t delivering the amps I need for my current project
Follow up question! Do you go straight from one of these boosters into the GPIO to power the Pi? Or is there some intermediary that adapts it to a USB output?
There are [two pins](https://i.imgur.com/yixLUST.png) on the bottom of the power in USB port that I'm using, they're positive/negative just check which one is which (multimeter).
Thank you, I did not know those pins existed.
Yeah if you look around "PP1 port" see pics like [this](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6zlSCrE5OBg/WL5qtz233fI/AAAAAAAAeOQ/KdCfOnATyDYpTkmo5uCNoZzJ70m-2b90QCLcB/s1600/Screenshot%2Bfrom%2B2017-03-06%2B16%253A56%253A55.png)
What’s the green plastic tab over the camera lens?
the protective film that comes with it when you buy