Since the other thread was getting a lot off topic with folks playing with it (it is awfully fun), here's a fresh thread.
Below is the link to my Rovio, which has now been at least partially fixed. The Rovio is a mobile webcam, it drives around using a web-control interface. I picked this up at a junk shop, broken, for $5. I've put in some AA NIMH's, some solder, and a few bits of wire to fix a circuit trace fault. What an awesome toy.. fun, but I sure don't think I'd pay the $250 the thing actually sells for!
The battery capacity is rough, and I have to tweak some of the other stuff (Navigation beacons still not operating right), but it's mostly functional.
If this has I2C, then it's a master device to be sure. I've not done any I2C interfacing, but it does seem fairly straightforward... it's just another name for Dallas two wire, right? I assume that the Arduino can be set as a slave device and that way I should be able to assign it a bus endpoint number and be able to "talk" to it, right?
Here's where you hardcore guys may have some insight..
hehehe.. giving it a little downtime to charge up a bit.. and to get kids to stop being pests.. but I'll bring it back online for a while again later...
She's back online and ready... we're getting snowed in here, just doing some house work and then might actually get to some more amusing stuff later...
I have to admit, it's cool knowing that who is driving it is somewhere halfway across the planet, potentially...
A bit like my cat when i had my wifitank running...
Kept poking it when it was standing still, then ran away when it was moving... Until he discovered it had sensors on, and wouldn't run into him, even when the people controlling it kept trying
Personally, I think the auto-docking is the coolest thing to watch. Nice bit of automation there.
Other than the standard Rovio battery (which apparently have problems from the word go) I'm going to research what I can fit into the battery compartment. Right now, it's just seven (two 1200MAH's are in parallel, the rest are 2200MAH in series, but these are used/older NIMH's.) AA NIMH rechargables. The battery bay I will need to measure, but I'm pretty sure I can cobble or find something better than the 3000MaH pack that's standard for the Rovio. The compartment I would speculate could hold 10-12 AA's easily, at worst.
Since the Rovio has I2C, I'll now be looking into interfacing to that.. which will mean I'll probably tap the power pack for Arduino power also. A little extra capacity will always be good.
I figure an RC shop is a good idea as to where to look for a good (cheap) NIMH pack.. got any other brilliant ideas I haven't thought of?
Actually, it supposedly has a speaker onboard and can be used.. though I don't see where in the web client that would be. I know from the API that two-way audio is part of the spec.. and aftermarket user software has implemented Push-to-talk on the browser side, at least from one of the software descriptions I read online. I'll be browsing what's been done, but since the API is entirely driven by the onboard web interface, probably the best solution would be to maybe wrapper it into an embeddable OCX or similar web lib. From what i understand, the current implentation that uses PTT is IE6+ only.
focalist:
Actually, it supposedly has a speaker onboard and can be used.. though I don't see where in the web client that would be. I know from the API that two-way audio is part of the spec.. and aftermarket user software has implemented Push-to-talk on the browser side, at least from one of the software descriptions I read online. I'll be browsing what's been done, but since the API is entirely driven by the onboard web interface, probably the best solution would be to maybe wrapper it into an embeddable OCX or similar web lib. From what i understand, the current implentation that uses PTT is IE6+ only.
I saw a volume slider for the onboard speaker, and turned it up, trying to get my computer to make noise