I'm Back and Better Than Ever!

I went on vacation this past week so I wasn't left with much time to research or post. But now that I'm back, I have nearly finished my PCB for the ADC break out board, and I've found my answer to how the IR sensor works when it is mounted at an angle. My holy grail came from here, and I was finally directed there by Chebuzz over on the Paparazzi forums. My equations are:

Pitch=(x+y)/2

Roll=(-x+y)/2

Woohoo! Now to work on the GPS and magnetometer guidance. That's gonna be interesting! Ublox here I come.

Well, I'm Back! And I've Been Asking More Questions!

Alright, over the past fews days I have read 40 pages of technical data (that was loads of fun), but in the process I figured out the differences in all the versions of the MCP3208. I am going with the MCP3208 BI/SL. I chose the 'B' because it is more accurate than the 'C' and the 'I' just means it has an industrial temperature rating. 'SL' just means it has a SOIC package.

Once I figured that out, I started working on a PCB break out board for the ADC so it would be easier to work with. Once I finish that, I'll post a link to it on BatchPCB, SparkFun's cheap PCB prototyping service.

I have also started trying to figure out the functional theory behind the XY ir sensor and the way it is mounted. I get how the tempurature differences correlate to pitch and roll. What I don't get is how it works when mounted diagonally. You can follow how that goes here, or you can click the title of this post.

I got distracted.....

I got distracted yesterday. I wound up spending the majority of my time in front of the TV with an ice pack on my purple-ish foot. When I wasn't doing that I was trying to set up my Google AdSense stuff and checking out Google Analytics.

I think I am going to use the MCP3208 or MCP3204 converter. They are 12bit, 8 and 4 channel ADC's. I'm leaning towards the 3208 because it already has a driver programmed in the Propeller Object Exchange (Obex). Now my only problem is figuring out the difference between all the different versions of the 3208. When I went to check their prices, I found that there are 5 different incarnations of the chip, each with a different suffix and a different price to match.

I Think I'm Gonna Have Some Extra Research Time...

Last night I had the privilege of having my foot run over by a Nissan Xterra SUV. Luckily, I'm still a spry young man, therefore I still have rubbery bones. The incident left me with bruising, minor swelling, pain/tingly-numbness the entire length of the left part of my left foot, and a whole lot of extra time.

I will publish the results of my extra research time later today.

The Search Continues!

Its been a light research day for me today. I only did an hour or so of searching. I'm still hunting down a good Sigma-Delta ADC. I'm still getting good help from the thread I posted. I plan to do more searching later tonight. Wish me luck, hopefully I'll be able to move on soon.