Mind & Infra Red Controlled Robot Car

[Old Steve]

Here's one using the Neurosky headset and accompanying software. It looks like the headset on it's own won't be able to do much, and noticeably, the Arduino is only used for control of the actual robot. The real work is done in the PC software, I assume. Still ,this is a bit more like what I was expecting:-

 

[Old Steve]

And thisi s what is possible, using real EEG equipment
you can see it without the black bar down the centre by viewing directly on YouTube :-

 

[Spike124]

Hi Steve, truthfully speaking, I'd give the Mattel a shot! If I'd known there was a cheaper version, I'd have gone for that. Basically, all you're paying for is the sensors in the headset (1 on your forehead & a earclip), so I can't see there being a massive difference (if any). It's probably just that NeuroSky first released it & Mattel have the stigma of being a Kiddies toy (if you catch my drift. Being honest, the biggest drawback with the NeuroSky is that the headset seems to be designed for a child's head anyway! So it's quite small for my chromedome & it's a pain in the arse trying to keep a proper connection. I think the REAL bonuses are in the apps & how you adapt it to your projects. I've been googling (a HELL of a lot) about NeuroSky & Arduino/Raspberry Pi projects & 99% talk about having to hack something or other to get it to work, but the results are worth the effort. As for money...........I HATE money! Whoever invented it should have been strangled at birth! We should live in a peaceful educated society where people just share shit & help each other out! The world would be a LOT happier place! But hey ho! P.S. I'm NOT a bloody hippy! I HATE HIPPIES! anyways, as an update, I've just managed to borrow a laptop for a couple of days, so am hoping to make a few leaps with my project. Will keep you posted. Take care my mate. Spike

 

[Old Steve]

Hi Steve, truthfully speaking, I'd give the Mattel a shot! If I'd known there was a cheaper version, I'd have gone for that. Basically, all you're paying for is the sensors in the headset (1 on your forehead & a earclip), so I can't see there being a massive difference (if any). It's probably just that NeuroSky first released it & Mattel have the stigma of being a Kiddies toy (if you catch my drift. Being honest, the biggest drawback with the NeuroSky is that the headset seems to be designed for a child's head anyway! So it's quite small for my chromedome & it's a pain in the arse trying to keep a proper connection. I think the REAL bonuses are in the apps & how you adapt it to your projects. I've been googling (a HELL of a lot) about NeuroSky & Arduino/Raspberry Pi projects & 99% talk about having to hack something or other to get it to work, but the results are worth the effort. As for money...........I HATE money! Whoever invented it should have been strangled at birth! We should live in a peaceful educated society where people just share shit & help each other out! The world would be a LOT happier place! But hey ho! P.S. I'm NOT a bloody hippy! I HATE HIPPIES! anyways, as an update, I've just managed to borrow a laptop for a couple of days, so am hoping to make a few leaps with my project. Will keep you posted. Take care my mate. Spike

I thought there'd be signal conditioning as well in the headset. I'm not so sure about the Mattel, and also not so sure about just getting the headset on it's own. I'll see what happens.
I'm glad you didn't mind me posting those vids. I guess I should really have asked first.
This afternoon I've been looking into EEG caps, electrodes and their placement, and a board to filter and process the signals via the OpenEEG Project.
Also, this might interest you, even though you are going in a different direction. Reasonably advanced, and uses the 'Processing' language for processing. Duh. I even downloaded a copy of 'Processing' to check it out:-
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-EEG-and-ECG-Circuit/#step0

And keep us informed of progress.

 

[Old Steve]

Spike, have you seen this:-
"How to Hack Toy EEGs"
http://www.frontiernerds.com/brain-hack

Pretty interesting. I've already downloaded the Arduino Brain Library and ordered an Arduino UNO. Just need a Mindflex or the better Neurosky headset now. It looks like I was wrong - all of the real processing is done in the headset. And the Mindflex uses a Neurosky chip, too! (But it doesn't provide quite as much data as the one in the Neurosky headset.)

 

[Spike124]

Firstly Steve, let me say that you haven't offended me in the slightest by posting those vids. Like I said, I'm grateful of absolutely ANY input whatsoever! I am a TOTAL novice. I'm going work in a min, but I'm gonna check out that EEG stuff as soon as I get home. I'll give you an example of just HOW novice I am. I was over the moon last night cos I managed to write my first 'Sketch'! It was making a RGB LED flash through the sequence RED/BLUE/GREEN in sequence! I know it's an unbelievably simple sketch but it was the first one I wrote on my own! Have you ever watched the film 'Monty Pythons Meaning of Life'? There's a hilarious sketch where a waiter is getting all deep & meaningful about what life means to him, then he turns round & says 'maybe it doesn't mean much to you, well, **** you! Ha! Ha! Makes me laugh every time I do something small that I'm proud of. Ha! Ha!

 

[Spike124]

Also, I'm so glad you've ordered the headset & uno board. You'll be able to help me more now. I'm gonna download the brain library when I get home. Don't forget you need the Bluetooth dongle, NeuroSky recommend the BlueSmirf but it's expensive!

 

[Old Steve]

Firstly Steve, let me say that you haven't offended me in the slightest by posting those vids. Like I said, I'm grateful of absolutely ANY input whatsoever! I am a TOTAL novice. I'm going work in a min, but I'm gonna check out that EEG stuff as soon as I get home. I'll give you an example of just HOW novice I am. I was over the moon last night cos I managed to write my first 'Sketch'! It was making a RGB LED flash through the sequence RED/BLUE/GREEN in sequence! I know it's an unbelievably simple sketch but it was the first one I wrote on my own! Have you ever watched the film 'Monty Pythons Meaning of Life'? There's a hilarious sketch where a waiter is getting all deep & meaningful about what life means to him, then he turns round & says 'maybe it doesn't mean much to you, well, **** you! Ha! Ha! Makes me laugh every time I do something small that I'm proud of. Ha! Ha!

It's a good feeling, isn't it?
And I bit the bullet today and bought a Mindflex headset from the US. Looking forward to joining you in playing with this stuff when it arrives.

 

[Old Steve]

Also, I'm so glad you've ordered the headset & uno board. You'll be able to help me more now. I'm gonna download the brain library when I get home. Don't forget you need the Bluetooth dongle, NeuroSky recommend the BlueSmirf but it's expensive!

I hadn't bought the headset at that point. And no Bluetooth dongle needed the way I'm doing it, tacking directly into the headset's Neurosky chip.
Apparently, this is the best way to do it. See the page I linked to at frontiernerds.
If I need RF, I'll use one of my APC220 modules, with a micro inside the headset to run it.

 

[Spike124]

This is exactly what I'm talking about! I've got a MASSIVE feeling that I'm going to learn a LOT from you. So let me say now for what you've taught me so far & what you're gonna teach me in the future (in case I forget) a MASSIVE thank you for taking the time out to talk to & educate me.

 

[Old Steve]

This is exactly what I'm talking about! I've got a MASSIVE feeling that I'm going to learn a LOT from you. So let me say now for what you've taught me so far & what you're gonna teach me in the future (in case I forget) a MASSIVE thank you for taking the time out to talk to & educate me.

I'm just learning this stuff too right now, from all the videos I've been watching. Regarding the direct connection to the Neurosky chip, apparently the in-built micro, (in a Mindflex headset, at least), parses the info from the chip and doesn't send it all on to the baseboard, according to the article on the frontiernerds page, so with a Mindflex headset it's better to get the raw data straight from the chip.
You'll see what data is available when you check out the Brain Library and that frontiernerds page.
Incidentally, I've installed the library and verified it at least. It will compile fine without any problems.
This is the format of the data stream:-
(ex Brain Library excerpt I found on the Arduino Forums)
"signal strength, attention, meditation, delta, theta, low alpha, high alpha, low beta, high beta, low gamma, high gamma"
200,0,0,70022,1415627,296609,25469,7758,19291,6073,220596
200,0,0,156935,1214616,65576,66807,66404,93299,3214,115150
200,0,0,809665,189860,112964,133943,41532,31662,36654,108499

And I've never used an Arduino either, so I'll be doing a similar LED-flashing thing too.

 

[Spike124]

Steve, could you help me out BIG time please mate? I've been trying like mad to find the library for the motor shield running a 4wheel drive & all I can find is for 2 motors! It's driving ME insane! I could EASILY write an insanity sketch! Lol! Also, how do I go about plugging in my line following sensor? Because I want to add a 'ping' (ultra sound) sensor & tft shield & a mind control & a switch to flick it over to infra red remote control I'm thinking I'm gonna have to put my Arduino Mega 2560 board on it as well! But just for now, I need that motor sketch! Also, if you think I'm going a bit overboard & trying to do too much, please feel free to say, I won't take offence. I'm not expecting to do this overnight, I know it's gonna take time, hard work & learning, which is what I want

 

[Spike124]

pics of motor shield plugged into Arduino Uno & pic of sensor

 

[Old Steve]

Steve, could you help me out BIG time please mate? I've been trying like mad to find the library for the motor shield running a 4wheel drive & all I can find is for 2 motors! It's driving ME insane! I could EASILY write an insanity sketch! Lol! Also, how do I go about plugging in my line following sensor? Because I want to add a 'ping' (ultra sound) sensor & tft shield & a mind control & a switch to flick it over to infra red remote control I'm thinking I'm gonna have to put my Arduino Mega 2560 board on it as well! But just for now, I need that motor sketch! Also, if you think I'm going a bit overboard & trying to do too much, please feel free to say, I won't take offence. I'm not expecting to do this overnight, I know it's gonna take time, hard work & learning, which is what I want

Spike, is there definitely a library available to run the 4-motor board shield? You might need to write your own code sketch to run the motor. (As you can see, Im just getting used to using the words "sketch" instead of "code" and "shield" instead of board.)

I've never used an Arduino, and in fact, don't even have one yet. For that reason, I also can't help with connecting in the line following sensor (yet). Do you have a datasheet that came with it?
I still need to wait for my Arduino to arrive in a few weeks and then play with it for a bit before I can advise much on their use, I'm afraid.

Well, I just did a bit of searching:-
I see that the motor shield was made by DK Electronics. Is it compatible with the ADAfruit motor shield? I note that with the ADAfruit, there are differences between V1 and V2 - the current library only works with the V2 without modifications.

If so, look here:-
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield-v2-for-arduino/install-software

And here for reference:-
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield-v2-for-arduino/library-reference

And more info here:-
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield-v2-for-arduino

And a bit of info on using DC motors here:-
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-motor-shield-v2-for-arduino/using-dc-motors

If the one you have is not compatible, and you can't find a library and reference info for it, you might have to consider either writing your own routines to run it, or buying the better-documented ADAfruit one. The ADAfruit shield and library that I linked to is also a 4 x DC motor driver, by the way.

Perhaps this page will help with your line follower shield:-
https://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/Robot+7-wayMultiTrackingSensor

Let me know how you go.

 

[Spike124]

Once again Steve, Thank You! You cleared up a big decision in my head! I'm gonna read through the library's & books I've downloaded & write my own sketch! I'll get a bigger feeling of accomplishment that way. Also, I've decided to use both the Arduino Uno board & the Arduino Mega 2560. I've just ordered a new laptop (I say 'new', what I mean is re-furbed cos money is tight), so I'm gonna start doing a LOT more sketching from Friday.

 

[Old Steve]

Once again Steve, Thank You! You cleared up a big decision in my head! I'm gonna read through the library's & books I've downloaded & write my own sketch! I'll get a bigger feeling of accomplishment that way. Also, I've decided to use both the Arduino Uno board & the Arduino Mega 2560. I've just ordered a new laptop (I say 'new', what I mean is re-furbed cos money is tight), so I'm gonna start doing a LOT more sketching from Friday.

That's the way, mate. As long as the motor board's documentation is good, it shouldn't be hard to write your own.

I've been getting a bit of Arduino practice today. I bought the Virtronics Arduino Simulator yesterday, so I don't need an actual Arduino to write and run simple sketches for practice. It's a pretty good little learning tool. Only cost AU$18, too.

So it's going to a pretty gutsy little robot car, with two Arduinos to run the show. It'll make coding easier, too. Much like multi-threading on a PC.
I'll go much the same way with my project. I'll use 18-pin PICs for communication from the headset to the main board, then an Arduino to take care of processing the data using the Brain Library. Maybe even another PIC to do the motor control, too, if I find it necessary. That way, the Arduino can 'concentrate' on the brain wave processing without being slowed down by trivial tasks.
None of that's set in concrete at this stage though. I'll wait until the Arduino and the headset arrive, then go from there.
Fun, fun, fun.....

 

[Spike124]

Yeh man! This is gonna be SO cool! I'll tell ya wot mate, I've ordered a Mega 2560 board for a friend of mine (got it cheap for about £2.50)! Cos he says he's gonna start getting into it, BUT I've got a feeling it's just chitter chatter. If he isn't that keen when it arrives, I'll donate it to your project. I'll post it over. Like I said, it was only £2.50 which is nothing over here. Not promising because he might shock me, but if im right, it's yours, my friend.

 

[Spike124]

P.S. I've never heard of that virtual thingy you were on about, I'm DEFINITELY gonna check that out.

 

[Spike124]

Steve, do you have any idea what a FIFO is? I've bought a little VGA OV7670 camera/video cam to go on my robot (not for looking up women's skirts, as SOME of my mates have suggested! Lol), but now I've started reading something about it needing a FIFO! But what's confusing me is certain cameras say built in FIFO & some things say it's just somewhere to buffer & dump the pics!

 

[Spike124]

I've sussed it! WooHoo! FIFO is actually a AverLogic AL422B buffer chip. Now I have to decide if I'm competent enough to buy one & solder it to the back of the camera board.