Sonar

I haven't used the new Maxbotics sonar, but I think it works fairly similar to the SRF04 sonar on the HB/XBC. There's a function called sonar(), which returns the distance (in millimeters) between the sonar unit and the nearest object within its field of view.

The following code will drive forward until the sensor is within 200mm of the nearest object:

fd(0);
fd(1); // Replace these fd statements with whatever you use to drive forward
while(sonar() > 200) msleep(10);
ao(); // Replace this ao statement with whatever you use to stop

Feel free to ask more questions either here or on the Botballer's Chat. :-)

You can poll the new SONAR with the standard analog10(x) function where x is the analog port number between 0 and 7. The sonar is a floating point sensor, so to get good values, you need to first use set_each_analog_state(x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x), where each x represents an analog port. Set it to 1 for floating and 0 for not floating. You only need to call set_each_analog_state once at the very beginning of you code and then call the analog10 function every time you want to take a reading.

So for a SONAR plugged into port 3 you would need two lines of code:

set_each_analog_state(0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0); //sets port 3 to floating

analog10(3); //returns current sonar value between 0 and 1023

Matt, I hope your comment about a "floating point sensor" was a typo, because there is no such thing. Floating-point means a method of storing real numbers in a computer; it has nothing to do with the floating vs pullup characteristics of an analog input port. I see this error all over the Botball FAQ; it's confusing to newbies (since the analog10() function does not return a floating-point value, regardless of the floating/pullup status of the port), and it is flat-out incorrect. Perhaps KIPR staff could be more careful not to mention floating-point sensors in the future? Thanks.