Re: Ultrasonic sensor interactions

In lugnet.robotics, Philippe Hurbain wrote:

>> I can not find a way to turn off the US sensor from the
>> LEGO-provided SW environment.
>
> That's easy to do in NBC, and not hard with NXT-G: to shut
> off the US sensor, just "use" another sensor type on the
> same port.

   I'm not positive of that. If the US sensor is plugged in to a powered NXT, I
can detect a clicking from it - I presume it's on. Regardless of what sensor I
define the port as, this clicking continues. This is what I was basing my "can't
turn the US sensor off" remark on.

> Here is a sample program that switches the US sensor
> on/off with NXT enter button.

   I was using an even simplier one: change the sensor, wait 1 second, then
change the sensor again, etc. the clicking never stops.

> At low level sample rate can be changed - and even a single
> shot mode is available - but presently NXT-G doesn't give
> access to these features

   Have you been able to verify this? I know there are FW commands that claim to
do this, but I've not seen it provably done as yet. And would *love* to hear
it's possible.

   On a related note, I'm trying to see just how much interference two US sensor
working in the same room actually produce. The result seems to be "darn little",
but I need to test some more. This may not be as big a problem as we're worried
about, I'm unsure now.

-- 
Brian Davis