Happy bunny

I've actually managed to get something done! OK it's nothing major, but I feel I've accomplished something. Something I haven't felt for a long time, so I'm a happy bunny. All I've done is added three buttons; up, down and home, along with adjustable end stops and home position to my bit banging servo code. I also upped the refresh rate to about 80Hz, from previous experience. I can substitute an EDF and could set the home position to be just below the point where the whole thing gets light on it's feet.

But I need to close the loop, so will dig out the ultrasonic rangers and try remember how to setup the ADC to read the range signal(s). I know, it's going to very crude...

Haven't had any photos recently, so thought I'd change that:

Microchip ICD2, my own dev board and standard servo.

ICD2 sorted (& plan B?)

Got it working last night by uninstalling MPLAB 8.6 and MPLAB X, then deleting the microchip folder. Installed 8.63 and X again, went through the driver installation and it connected!

So now I can mod my bit banging servo code for controlling an EDF.

But wait... thinking about it last night, there's no point doing all the low level stuff in the uC, that's just going to delay things even further. I need to use an external servo controller that I just talk to over serial comms. It takes a lot of overhead away from the main processor and makes servicing each task a lot simpler. Sound like a plan?

ICD2 is OK

Plugged it in, had to install drivers, but MPLAB connected to it fine.

Is it a Win7 problem?

Still no luck

Last night, I tried reinstalling ICD2 drivers, which didn't work. Then I downloaded and installed MPLAB X (Beta), no change. I can only assume my ICD2 died since I last used it!? Then I got bored so went and watched four or five episodes of The Big Bang Theory (thanks for the loan, Gary).

I'm going to take the ICD2 to work today and try it on my machine there.

Been too long!

I have a little time before my studies start up again, so thought I'd try to get something together to control an EDF for crude testing. I grabbed my PICDev01 board, ICD2 and a PSU and sat down to get to grips with MPLAB IDE again (it has been a long time).

So far I'm not having a lot of luck. It's nothing I haven't done before; I think the ICD2 drivers haven't installed properly and the project won't build (new HDD since last used too!). I can see the advantage of having everything in the cloud, as the mBed does; saves these sort of setup hassles...