So after a lot of experimentation I have something. Will it find way points mmmm we'll see. I managed to hack up some code. I was able to combine libraries and wiring source from
tinygps and
newsoftserial along with
ardupilot. With all these components I wrote a little code to utilize the libraries to acquire gps points, and used
ardupilot to set up way points and plot courses. Now I wish I could do more testing. Many thanks to
ardupilot and
tinygps/
newsoftserial creators! I'd be cooked without them or the
arduino. Let's say right now I'm less crispy... code listing to come soon.
Speaking of crispy, my rocket igniters didn't fire up the sparklers. The plan was to wire some Estes model rocket engine igniters to the motor pins on the hbridge and have them start a sparkler as the robot began navigating the course. I think the sparklers are too beefy for one little igniter to set off. Sad to say it looks like I'm out of time on this one too and I'll have to remember to bring lighter.
For whatever reason, I could never get the bluetooth connection working on my laptop. In fact once I gave up on wirelessly driving the robot and gathering data I was finally able to get some code cobbled together. I wish I was able to "see" what the robot was doing later today on the course and it would be a lot of fun to drive the beast around the office later this week. Maybe after the competition I can trouble shoot some more.
I now have ambitious plans to write a java app for my phone so that I can drive and get data with it. Now that I know the Arduino and the development environment better I'm excited to see what else I can do. Lots of people seem to be doing a lot of really cool things.
