Frequently Encountered Problems with Robots or Garments

  1. Some of you are reporting that you cannot use the ultrasonic sensors together with the vibration motor. The reason is because both of those components are very energy-hungry -- if you use both at the same time and your batteries are running low, then you don't have enough power for both.
  2. Some of you are also reporting that your ultrasonic sensors aren't working. Now most of the time, when you demo it to the eToy lab staff or to the TAs, everything works fine, so we cannot see a problem. Our suggestion is that you make sure that your batteries are charged up, and that your buttons are attached firmly to the cloth.
  3. Many people point out that the Bluetooth range is not large enough. If you're getting -1 readings back from the Bluetooth, this means that you have moved out of range.
  4. Some of you are having motors that turn at different speeds, so your robot doesn't move in a straight line. The problem is that in general, it is difficult to make a robot move in a perfectly straight line (even for more expensive robots). But we're not asking you to move in a straight line right now. We're just asking you to walk across a bridge, and use programming to know when you're about to fall off.