Controlling multiple IRCF sensors with one serial bus and one robot microcontroller


Controlling 3 IRCF with one serial port and one robot microcontroller. A special addressable version of the Infrared Control Freak was developed to enable 3 IRCF to be driven by one serial port and one microcontroller (PC104). The special development was created to meet the requirements of a student project at the Dept of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore. The project is still on-going and we anticipate the results will be available soon in early 2006.
Special firmware version was developed to enable each IRCF to have a hard-coded address. Special cable was built to enable the sensors to be driven from one serial port. Diodes needed to be inserted onto each TX pin to avoid the TX pins interfering with other modules. In theory the concept could be expanded to any number of controllers. The design of the robot chassis is triangular as depicted in the rendered drawing provided by the student:
The concept is to place one sensor on each corner of the robot chassis. As each sensor has a unique address, each sensor can be controlled by the robot's Microcontroller in a programmed sequence. The closest obstacle can be determined by fuzzy logic or other algorithms. Further details of the project progress will be posted here. Below are the 3 IRCF modules with the modified firmware. Each module has a unique address which is written on the microcontroller chip.
Below are the 3 Infrared sensors joined together with the special bus cable and connected to the PC. Each module contains its own 5v power regulator which is being driven by one 9v PP3 battery.