Is this project authorized?

If we use this open source code for simple development, such as Bluetooth version or other, to make a basic mechanical cat, can we manufacture and sell it?

Hi,
I have noticed some strange error message from the MPU6050 codes borrowed from the popular i2cdevlib:
The MPU6050 test code will occasionally show error message "MPU6050 connection failed", but the following codes can read all the sensor data just fine. And it seems to be a rare but reproducible error across several forums.

Basically it's the function mpu.testConnection() always returns false. My current solution is just ignoring the error message since it's not affecting any later use on the sensor data. But does anyone have better insight why it is happening? Thanks!

PIC32MX and PIC32MZ MCUs are vastly faster than AVR, while retaining almost all of the ease of programming via Chipkit's Arduino framework and since Microchip has bought Atmel it is the same company anyway.

A 40Mhz PIC32MX270 chip is very similar to an Arduino Leonardo (see the Chipkit Lenny) but offers much stronger performance and native 32bit instead of 8bit. There is also the MX274 80Mhz chip but it isn't well supported yet by Chipkit. Some of the MZ series chips are as fast as 250Mhz and up to 32MB of DDR on package.

I've developed some things for work and the additional speed is amazing things that took several ms on an AVR can be done in uS on a PIC32 for about the same price.

Another Idea is to use the IRDA UART built into PIC32 to allow the cats to talke to each other and some IR devices via IRDA.

I think this could allow the balancing algorithm to run a lot faster and work better than on AVR perhaps and with less coding effort to make it fast on a slow MCU. It would enable doing many things directly in the MCU that currently rely on the more complex RPi Board.

Hi,
In the Code tab there is written that info about partecipation to the project can be find in the wiki tab but there no such info. Then I tryed to open the manual of Assembling instructions (mini kit) from table of content and there is nothing there.
Can you please tell us how can we help you and how can I have the open cat and try to develop it sharing info with you?
BR,
Aliaksei

To start, I'm a fan of this project, even if I'm not a hardware developer, for what you want to accomplish. In short term I cannot help with code or specific things related to the opencat itself, I guess that the most non-generic help that I'm doing witch at some point could be more pertinent with this project is a working group about ChatOps. Anyway, as start, there are few 'undesired, but necessary jobs' that helps promote something that could be easier to me or colleagues to start and explain how to maintain. This is one of they.

The https://www.petoi.com/ now is hosted on Wix. One alternative is use GitHub Pages https://pages.github.com/ to host the pages, stick with the static generator Jekyll which helps with some repetitive tasks and have some themes http://jekyllthemes.org/, then configure a custon domain with CNAME file and still able to use SSL for free without need to pay for hosting, put the website on a free cloudflare account.

Even if the main website still on Wix (I can understand that is faster in sort term) this could still be done later with information related to documentation or for what the Wiki on this repository is used.

If have interest, I could personally help with the start here. The first steps could take a lot of time to understand the basics, but after is configured, is relative simple to maintain, and I could document how to do it. Is not far from just add markdown files in a directory and still allows contributions from people outside the project via pull requests.

Some some examples

• https://github.com/pokemongovet/pokemongovet.github.io & https://pokemongovet.github.io/
• https://github.com/webiwg/acessibilidade-web-pt & http://acessibilidade.pt.webiwg.org/

The following text is one example output in the serial monitor:

⸮
* Starting *
Initializing I2C
Connecting MPU6050...
Testing connections...
MPU successful
Initializing DMP...
794 148 19 61 
Enabling DMP...
Enabling interrupt detection
DMP ready!
⸮
* Starting *
Initializing I2C
Connecting MPU6050...
Testing connections...
MPU successful
Initializing DMP...
794 148 19 61 
Enabling DMP...
Enabling interrupt detection
DMP ready!

I'm not sure where the ⸮ symbol comes from. And the sketch may start twice at the beginning. Any ideas? Maybe it's related to the timing around Serial.begin(). That's why I'm having Serial.setTimeout(5); or
while (Serial.available() && Serial.read());
for clearing the serial buffer.
But the "⸮" and duplicated/reboot information still appear.

Any ideas?

Hello,
I have been reading your code and I saw that you remap de pins of the servos depending the walking mode. Could you explain in detail the idea behind the remaping process?

You could see this remaping in the OpenCat.h file

Thanks for your time ^_^

I've been using 2S lipo batteries(7.4~8.4V) to directly power the servos. The servo's specification lists a maximal torque at 6.6V, but it works fine under 8.4V with some heating.

I hope to reduce the voltage to the safe 6.6V range. However when I connect some step down boards (9v to 6V, 3A max) in serial with the same 2S batteries, the output voltage will drop below 5V. It seems that the board will shutdown once peak current is higher than some threshold.

Do you know any cheap and neat solution to create a (6V, 5+ Amp) supply from the 2S lipo batteries? Thanks!

I'm building a robot, which is suggested to be compatible with the opencat software. Here: https://www.personalrobots.biz/spotmicro-is-an-open-source-robotic-dog/

Though it uses an Arduino mega and I already bought all other hardware. I would like to know if there is a schematic of the pcb so I can connect everything like on the pcb.

I also see that Nibble's rear legs bend the other way, can I adjust that in the code?

Are there now or will there be instructions and configuration details for using platformio to program Nybble instead of Arduino app?

This project looks great, thanks for creating it!

I don't see any licenses on the source code or the STL (or other) files and the corresponding license files. The name "open" is in the name of the project and usually that has a connotation of being under an "open source model" that makes source, design files and other materials available under a free license.

Is the intent that the source files and other design files be made under a free/libre license? If so, could you add the STL files along with a license to the code and other materials? If not, could you clearly explain in the documentation that this project is not open source?

Here is the BOM based on the https://www.hackster.io/petoi/opencat-845129, If you continue to up your have the BOM list ready

Hardware components:
SparkFun Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 5V/16MHz × 1
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11113

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B or B+ × 1
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-plus/

Adafruit PCA9685 PWM & servo driver × 1
https://www.adafruit.com/product/815

Micro SD card × 1
Heat sink × 2
Compression spring × 13
Torque spring × 4
Extension spring × 1
Flat self-tapping screws (various) × 1
Rivets (various) × 1
Infrared sensor and remote × 1
Buzzer × 1
Amplifier × 1
Cellphone speaker × 1
USB microphone × 1
Capacitor × 1
Resistor (various) × 1
18650/18500 batteries × 2
Battery holder × 1
MG92B servo × 13
MG91 servo × 1
Longer servo screw × 14
Pi noir fisheye camera with lights × 1
ToF lidar × 3
Adafruit Capacitive Touch Sensor Breakout - MPR121 × 1
GY-521 MPU-6050 3 Axis Gyroscope + Accelerometer Module For Arduino × 1
Slide Switch × 1
Male/female pin connector (various) × 1
Flat washer × 14
Lock washer × 14
Right angle connector × 1
Rainbow wires × 1
USB to micro USB cable × 1
SparkFun FTDI Basic Breakout - 5V × 1
Pan/tilt holder × 1
Heat shrink tubing × 1
Electrical tape

GitHub topics (https://help.github.com/articles/about-topics/) is one good way to make easier to people find good projects on GitHub. Even it this repository add a better description, would be a good idea add specific topics.

Here one issue i wrote some time ago about how the good usage of topics could affect searching RocketChat/Rocket.Chat#10032.

About that topics add, I'm not sure. But robotics (see https://github.com/topics/robotics) and iot (see https://github.com/topics/iot) at least in my opinion (consider that I'm not a I'm not a hardware developer) could be a good start

I like to help, I can create a document on assembling the STL also I can convert the STL into step file.