Defcon 14 DefconBots Rules

[sciguy]

photos are fine

Wow, very cool progress :) Want to post photos of it?

I'll be moving to a new house soon, but right after that I'll try to finish the targets and the scoring system, then write some simple targeting software to help those who need a boost.

Kallahar

Here are the first two boards that have been designed - the first one is the main control board and the second is a power distribution board.

Here is the basic turret. The bottom section is 12" x 12" and contain a PC ATX power supply and the control electronics. The rest of the turret consists of just parts right now that need to be machined and put together. The airsoft mechanism was taken from a p90 gun to get rid of the excess plastic.

[LosT]

Here are the first two boards that have been designed - the first one is the main control board and the second is a power distribution board.

Here is the basic turret. The bottom section is 12" x 12" and contain a PC ATX power supply and the control electronics. The rest of the turret consists of just parts right now that need to be machined and put together. The airsoft mechanism was taken from a p90 gun to get rid of the excess plastic.

Looks nice- be sure to watch that power supply- PC supplies are notriously noisy (signal wise)-

Just out of curiousity, do you use Eagle or Protel? (ExpressPCB?) for your design layout?

LosT

[sciguy]

I will keep the power supply noise in mind - thanks for the suggestion. I am not loading the power supply to an extreme amount, so I am expecting reasonable transient response as well as moderate noise. The boards I am designing for the control modules are all four layer with power and ground planes. I can always switch to a linear +5/+3.3V supply if the noise causes any reliability issues.

As for design tools, ExpressPCB is used for their $59 miniboard service (power distribution and gun control) and PCAD2004 is being used for the 4 layer control boards.

[kallahar]

So just to make sure I understand this correctly, time is only a factor in the event of a tie?

Also what happens if a target is hit and spun sideways? Will all the targets be round? Including the moving/spinning ones?

Correct, points come first.

All the targets will be round, right now the targets are attached to a hinge, so they can't spin. I'm still figuring out the best way to do it all though, updates soon as I build them :)

[Siviak]

I say we just use live targets.... they can just say "DING" every time they get hit...

[astcell]

I say we just use live targets.... they can just say "DING" every time they get hit...

I got shot last year, I didn't say Ding though.

[Tacitus]

I got shot last year, I didn't say Ding though.

I told you my code was preparing to fire the gun and you should get out of the way, but like a true photographer you didn't move so you can get the shot. You did get the shot, right?

[LosT]

I've had good luck with ExpressPCB (and you can't beat the miniboard price)-

PC powersupplies tend to be really noisy beasts, but if precautions are taken you should be more than fine...

LosT

[nick_g_evans]

Hey sciguy. What kind of P90 was that? I don't think that would have been a Tokyo Marui. Is that a plastic gearbox? Do you know the fps on that?

Nick

[sciguy]

Hey sciguy. What kind of P90 was that? I don't think that would have been a Tokyo Marui. Is that a plastic gearbox? Do you know the fps on that?

Nick

It was just one of the $50 or so guns on eBay. It does have a plastic gearbox and is supposed to run around 200fps. It didn't come with a brand name on it - just a generic Chinese "like" a Marui.

[nick_g_evans]

Hey sciguy. What microcontroller are you using? What other technologies? Any updates?

[sciguy]

using a Microchip PIC18F4431 for turret control (PWM motor control and stepper outputs). I2C for interfacing to fire control and user interface, and finally a PIC18F4520/Xilinx XC95288XL for video target processing. The video targetting uses a standard camcorder or RS170 input for video. The video uses an IR filter that blocks anything below 880nm.

I am traveling right now and will get more pics and progress done when I get back next week. I did manage to put together the fire control board that is used to control and get status from the airsoft gun.

[sciguy]

quick update... have some more machining to be done on the turret and work on the turret control software gets to start when I return home next week. I have the user I/O board designed and need to get it sent out to PCBExpress. That leaves only the video controller board to get fabbed. Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years!

[cycom]

Can you use green gas powered airsoft guns? Or would that fall under the explosive catagory?

[sciguy]

the rules say nothing flammable according to Kallahar, so CO2, compressed air, springs, etc are okay. If green gas is flammable, then the answer would be no. Unless I am missing something...