FS: pc to r/c interface

I had to click on a bunch of links to fully understand read what the
product was about (found someone on the tutorial page).

You may want to provide a bit more basic description on the product
pages as not every random visitor will immediately know what your
product does. These interfaces seem pretty cool, and it would be a shame
if people came by and left scratching their heads.

-- Gordon

You also might want to provide a download to the api, or at least some
details on how the api is used (i.e. some sample code, and a download
or at least a price if it's not free to download) so that we can see
how useable the api is.  I would like to buy this product if it does
what I "think" it does, and if the API is written well enough to do
what i want it to do.

I liked the idcea of an API, but a C++ API (I assume some static
library) will severely limit this application, IMO, and only a select
few will ever use it. For the PC, they'd get the widest market offering
it as a dynamic DLL, which could then be used by most anything. They
should then consider adapting it as a managed class for the *growing*
number of people writing in VB.NET and C#.

-- Gordon

Exactly what I just did.  Saw a box with two wires, couldn't figure out
what it was in 2 seconds so I left. :)

--
Curt Welch                                            http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@kcwc.com                                        http://NewsReader.Com/

Hey guys,

Ive made some updates to the site that hopefully better answer some of
your questions. Thanks!

http://www.endurance-rc.com/

That's much better.  I at least get an instant idea what the box does.  But
your page makes it sound like it hooks to the PC with an interface called
PCTx.  I don't have a PCTx port on any of my computers so my first thought
is that this product is not something I could use.  My thought was that
this new type of port I had never heard of must be some standard R/C
interface I didn't know about.  However, having doubts, I started to search
your web site - because I suspected it was actually just a USB port instead
of a PCTx port.  It took me a good few minutes reading every page before I
concluded that it in fact hooks to a standard USB port and that your box
was called the PCTx.  But even after many minutes reading the site, I was
not sure about this, because no where do you say, "it hooks to the PC using
a USB interface".  If it connects to a computer, it could be using a serial
port, a parallel port, an Ethernet port, a PCI card slot, a firewire port,
a PCcard slot, an IR port, a wifi port, a bluetooth port, or who knows what
else.  There's no reason at all you should expect people to assume it's a
USB device.

A search on the web found this web site about the product:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/NewProduct.cfm?product_id 06

Notice how they put a title on it that says: "USB PC to RC Interface".  See
how clear it can be?  5 simple words that tells me exactly what the product
is.  Something I still couldn't figure out for sure after reading your
entire web site.

Ah, something else I just noticed which I was confused about.  You seem to
be selling a separate product that looks almost the same, but controls 8
servos directly.  I assumed this was just another application of the same
product.  It's not clear at all that these are two different products you
are selling.  And I'm not even sure if I'm correct about this - maybe you
just load new firmware into the same box to make it control 8 servos
directly?  See how confused your web site has left me?

--
Curt Welch                                            http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@kcwc.com                                        http://NewsReader.Com/

Looks better, but run a quick spell check.

Do consider my other suggestion about offering your SDK as a compiled
dynamic library, for those who don't program in C++.

-- Gordon

Curt,

Sorry, I will try to make the connection scheme a little clearer.

The product is named PCTx. It connects to a PC using the USB port.

The servo controller is almost the same as the PCTx except they have a
few different changes. Firmware is different as you said and the power
system is also different. The servo controller requires an external
power source since the USB port cannot supply enough juice to drive 8
servos.

It looks the same because I'm using an identical case on both
prototypes. The production case will be all black and a little smaller.

The servo controller plugs into the USB port just the same as the PCTx
except it is a dedicated servo controller that needs to be attached to
the computer. The PCTx will allow you to basically have a wireless
servo controller by employing a regular R/C transmitter. Or you can
just set it up with an r/c car or boat with little modifications. Robot
building is where these devices really come in handy!


Robert,

The software IS fully customizable. There is C++ and Visual Basic
source code available. I have an online API up for the C++ code and VB
online API will be up shortly.


Gordon,

I took your advice and got a VB.NET example program going. Im working
on a dll and I will keep you posted on its status.

Great to here some feedback.   I'll keep your site under watch for updates.
Looks like your product is just the sort of starting point I need to
Build/Test my own robot platform.

Keep in touch.

PCTx units are shipping now.

I will also be adding my newest project to the site sometime this week:
a tele-presence r/c car. Web interface is coming soon.

I've hooked up a few servos to make a pan/tilt system that moves a
wireless camera. I set up a pretty cool way of control that is similar
to a first person shooter game.

See it here:  http://www.endurance-rc.com/media/cam_test.wmv

I'll get a few more videos up in a few days of the whole system
running.

-Phil

So... once I hook up my PC to your inteface, I can use my Flight Simulator
joy stick to do what you show on your clip?  Which means we have added
another two servos?

I'm really getting excited about what you are creating.

Wayne

Yes you can do this, and with any other pc input device for that
matter. As of now the software is only supporting the mouse since this
is a pretty universal peripheral and everyone already has it. If the
joystick software (or some other existing software) can manipulate the
mouse pointer directly, then you could do that with the current
software I have written without modification. Most likely, it would
require some custom programming around your specific input device
though.


Yes, for pan and tilt.

heres a few pics of the car:

http://www.endurance-rc.com/media/carlynxpan.jpg

This is an older version:
http://www.endurance-rc.com/media/hummer_old.jpg

Update:

Check out a video of the PC game steering wheel and pedal system in
action! www.endurance-rc.com/pcwheel.wmv

Iv'e also started a small log on this project. You can see it here:
http://www.endurance-rc.com/driver_log.html

Id like to hear some more feedback on this project. Please post here or
on my forums if you like the project.

Ok big update here!

I've got the head tracking video goggles working now. I still need to
do a lot of tuning but this video will give you an idea.

Head tracking demo video:


Thanks for looking!

Endurance wrote:

Hey the product looks good.  It just enables the computer to use the
buddy/trainer terminal on most RC controlers.    This could help with
beginners who need to test programs but need to cut in on thier PC's when
the robot/vehicle gets stuck in a corner/function or maybe get's too far off
course.   It would also help if there was an option for the PC interface to
come after the RC controler.

Remote Control - Personal Computer - Vehicle/Robot.  Then one could use the
RC controler to instruct an onboard Computer like a Mini ATX board.

I've got an old Futaba FG unit with the trainer jack.  Your USB modual would
be of some real use if  I needed to control an RC Car/Plane/Boat.  However
the RC controler needs a person to hold the overide/trainer switch in order
for your interface to work.  I guess I could replace the switch with a
normal throw on/off instead of the spring loaded momentary on it now has.

Another thing is you'll need to let people customize your software so they
can use thier own Joystick/Mouse/Keyboard Controls.  Your Slide Bar
interface would be good for testing but kind of impracticle for real time
control.

I'll keep checking out your site.    Good Luck.  Your off to a great start!