Modern Robotics Color Sensors

[FTC9908]

Did anyone order and receive Color Sensors from Modern Robotics. We ordered over a week ago and the order is still not shipped. It showed that they were in stock and we paid 2 day shipping. I spoke to them and they said they are waiting for them to arrive!!!

Did anyone receive the sensors, and how are they working out? Are they sensing the Red/Blue on the beacon well?

[envisim]

Did anyone order and receive Color Sensors from Modern Robotics. We ordered over a week ago and the order is still not shipped. It showed that they were in stock and we paid 2 day shipping. I spoke to them and they said they are waiting for them to arrive!!!

Did anyone receive the sensors, and how are they working out? Are they sensing the Red/Blue on the beacon well?

Yes, I received one of the MR color sensors soon after they first released it. I see now that if you try to order one it shows "out of stock". I compared the MR sensor to the AdaFruit sensor. FIRST has an example opmode to show how to use each one and they have a build guide on how to set up the AdaFruit sensor (some assembly required). I found that both were able to identify the red vs blue lights on the beacon from a distance of 5 inches or less. But the AdaFruit sensor can also detect it out to about 10 inches pretty reliably. One caveat is that I'm just using the example opmodes that FIRST created so it's possible I am not using the MR sensor optimally. BUT, that's a big difference.

If you are trying to identify the blue vs red gaffers tape on the foam pads, then MR seems to be better. AdaFruit does fine on red but for some reason has difficulty with the blue tape. I'll have to experiment some more with that.

[korimako]

Don't know what'll work better, but just as a FYI - the Hitechnic color sensors are on sale at Lego, (they're closing out the NXT line, tsk tsk - 30% off remaining stock) so a comparable price, https://shop.education.lego.com/lego...leSearch=false There is an example for support of this sensor I believe, haven't personally tested it yet.


Am I missing something, or is the only way to turn off the beacon to unplug the battery pack?

[archimedespi]

The hitechnic color sensors don't actually sense transmitted RGB AFAIK.
I'm pretty sure they can only check the color of a material, not a light.

[envisim]

Am I missing something, or is the only way to turn off the beacon to unplug the battery pack?

You are correct, you have to unplug the battery pack to turn off the beacon. We are replacing our battery packs with ones that have the batteries covered (so they don't keep popping out) and with an on/off switch. We'll then velcro it to the bin. There's really no good place to put the current battery pack. If you're not careful, it slides over and covers one of the LEDs.

[R2D2]

Am I missing something, or is the only way to turn off the beacon to unplug the battery pack?

You are correct, you have to unplug the battery pack to turn off the beacon. We are replacing our battery packs with ones that have the batteries covered (so they don't keep popping out) and with an on/off switch. We'll then velcro it to the bin. There's really no good place to put the current battery pack. If you're not careful, it slides over and covers one of the LEDs.

The wires in our battery packs fell apart right out of the box, so we decided to add a switch and move the battery pack into the bin. Doesn't take a lot of space. (the climbers don't either). The ON position of the switch is down, toward the ground, so if a climber hits it by accident, the beacon will stay on.

https://twitter.com/trojans8640/status/643138672200552448

[R2D2]

The wires in our battery packs fell apart right out of the box, so we decided to add a switch and move the battery pack into the bin. Doesn't take a lot of space. (the climbers don't either). The ON position of the switch is down, toward the ground, so if a climber hits it by accident, the beacon will stay on.

https://twitter.com/trojans8640/stat...38672200552448

https://twitter.com/ValleyXRobotics/status/642954982967214080

[korimako]

You are correct, you have to unplug the battery pack to turn off the beacon. We are replacing our battery packs with ones that have the batteries covered (so they don't keep popping out) and with an on/off switch. We'll then velcro it to the bin. There's really no good place to put the current battery pack. If you're not careful, it slides over and covers one of the LEDs.

Seems like a half-hearted design... Anyone try to see if this will work off a 9V transistor battery? I just got mine, and was wondering about internalizing the battery pack changing the color intensity Since it's not in the build manual, I'm assuming that they'll be shoved in the center somehow?

[korimako]

The hitechnic color sensors don't actually sense transmitted RGB AFAIK.
I'm pretty sure they can only check the color of a material, not a light.

I know Tom mentioned the Lego ones were not suitable for the beacon - I thought he would have also mentioned if the HiTechnic ones were not suitable - might be a bad assumption, I'm not sure.

[matrixguy]

Did anyone order and receive Color Sensors from Modern Robotics. We ordered over a week ago and the order is still not shipped. It showed that they were in stock and we paid 2 day shipping. I spoke to them and they said they are waiting for them to arrive!!!

Did anyone receive the sensors, and how are they working out? Are they sensing the Red/Blue on the beacon well?

I placed my order last Wednesday and it said they were in stock. I haven't received my order yet either, but they told me that it should ship out tomorrow. They told me that they had been waiting on the color sensors to arrive too. I'm just assuming that so many people ordered the color sensors that they ran out of stock before they could fill the all orders and had to wait for more to arrive.

Hopefully, they will ship both our orders out tomorrow.

[LordoftheBricks]

I placed my order last Wednesday and it said they were in stock. I haven't received my order yet either, but they told me that it should ship out tomorrow. They told me that they had been waiting on the color sensors to arrive too. I'm just assuming that so many people ordered the color sensors that they ran out of stock before they could fill the all orders and had to wait for more to arrive.

Hopefully, they will ship both our orders out tomorrow.

We ordered and received ours about a week ago. We tested it out, and it seemed to work fine. For some reason, the program that came from the SDK stopped reading values after a few times, but we haven't sat down to figure out if it is the program or the sensor. We also purchased the Adafruit version, just in case!

[FTC9908]

I received mine today, but it does not detect RED!!! Am i doing something wrong? I am using the sample program. It detects more blue.

[FTC9908]

I received mine today, but they are not detecting Red. They detect more Blue even on the Red side of beacon

[archimedespi]

Turn off the LED on the sensor. The reflections from the white plastic screw up the color sensing.

colorSensor.enableLed(false);

[FTC9908]

Thanks much, it works now. The program documentation suggested that you turn it on just so the operator knows the sensor is working. The documentation on MR site made us realise that it has to work in passive mode for the beacon and active if detecting tape on the floor. Thanks again for helping.