using flex sensors to control servos

system · February 4, 2013, 11:37pm

Costello:
Hey guys im working on a little project where im trying to see if i can cook myself dinner using a robotic arm. ive got flex sensors sewed into a full arm glove and im using an xbee connection to the arm. the arm is just a little rough something i put together using mechano. Im not a programmer, this is just something i do for a hobby

so, the flex sensors control the servo movement over an xbee radio connection

m having problems with the code though and its driving me nuts. there was some good info on a topic like this before but i couldnt get the code to work for me. here it is

the sender
// Set up the sensor pin numbers

int Flexsensor[3] = {1, 2, 3};

// Save the values sent, so a new value is sent only when a change occurs
int sentValues[3];

// Change these if your minimum value is greater than 0
int from[] = {0,0 ,0};

// Change these if you maximum value is less than 1023
int to[] = {1023,1023,1023};

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
for(int i=0; i<3; i++)
{
int val;
// Read a sensor's value
val = analogRead(Flexsensor[i]);

// Map it to the servo range using it's min/max range
val = map(val, from[i], to[i], 0, 179);

// If the new val is not the same as the last val sent
if(val != sentValues[i])
{
Serial.print("<"); // Start of packet marker
Serial.print(i); // which servo to move
Serial.print(":"); // delimiter
Serial.print(val); // servo position to move to
Serial.print(">"); // End of packet marker

// Record the value sent, so we don't send again unless there is a change
sentValues[i] = val;
}
}
}

and the receiver
#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo1;
Servo myservo2;
Servo myservo3;

boolean started = false;
boolean ended = false;
char inData[24]; // Make sure this is big enough for your data
byte index = 0;

void setup()
{
myservo1.attach(8);
myservo2.attach(9);
myservo3.attach(10);

}

void loop()
{
while(Serial.available() > 0)
{
char aChar = Serial.read(); // Read a single character
if(aChar == '<') // Start of packet marker
{
started = true;
ended = false;

index = 0; // Initialize array index
inData[index] = '\0'; // Keep string NULL terminated
}
else if(aChar == '>')
{
ended = true;
}
else
{
inData[index] = aChar; // Store the character
index++; // Increment the position to store the next character
inData[index] = '\0'; // Keep string NULL terminated
}
}

if(started && ended)
{
char *token = strtok(inData,":"); // Extract servo number as string
if(token)
{
// We got a servo number as a string. Make it a number
int servoNumber = atoi(token);

// Now, get the position
token = strtok(NULL,""); // NULL to keep parsing same string.
// no delimiters because we want all of the rest of the string

if(token)
{
// We got a position
int position = atoi(token);

// Now, move the right servo
switch(servoNumber)
{
case 0: myservo1.write(position); break;
case 1: myservo2.write(position); break;
case 2: myservo3.write(position); break;

}
}
}
}
}




can anyone see why this wont work for me?
also i found other example code that the owner claims to work for him

sender

#include <Servo.h>