C# CreateOI Framework / News: Recent posts

So I thought I'd give everyone an update on how CreateOI has been going.. I developed it in early '07, then got sidetracked by the birth of my daughter, (my first), in September '07.

I've been encouraged to return to the project since then as I've been contacted by a fair amount of people who have been using it on school projects..

Last month I was finally able to get back to dedicating an hour a day (it would be more if I could get over playing chess nightly with other would-be Roomba developers on chess.com - not naming names here..)... read more

So far so good.. I'm going to try & release what I have every week. Lets try for each Thursday..

This latest release fixes the Temp Sensor and the Battery Sensors as they were not returning correctly. There was a lot of codecleanup as well.

As for the next release, I'm already doing some overhauling (behind the scenes) on the Main Visualizer form, as it needed some refactoring (That code is already checked into SVN in case you want to see that now..). My goal being that the sensor displays on the main form need to reflect Create's data a bit more accurately. (Create does indeed return blank packets every once in a while -- before, I was hiding that from the displays, however, I feel that it is better to display *exactly* what the robot puts out..)

This version of the framework corrects the sins of the past. Fixed the parsing mechanism that pulls data from the iRobot Create. Now the framework is extremely speedy!

There are still a few sensors missing from the framework, those should be filled in shortly. I am also adding more documentation to the code as well.

Got a bit sidetracked by the birth of my daughter.

I'll be concentrating my first bit of work on beefing up the TestHarness & documenting it a lot more so that it is easy to use.

I've already done some SVN check-ins that make the TestHarness a bit more self-explanatory.

I invite any and all questions about the CreateOI Framework. (it helps make better documentation!)

Call it a Beta. It works good, however there are still features to add. use the mouse to play the notes.

CreateOI is under construction, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work. or maybe it doesn't with your particular setup. You tell me.

Plus, it always needs improvement. I am sure you could do something that may trip things up. Help make it better for the next guy using CreateOI.

also, if you have any questions or would like some explanation on how to program something or make something work.. drop me a line at createoi@kevingabbert.com ... read more

There's work going on here, you just can't see it unless you go to the Journal forum.

ok. so iRobot put out another robot on the Roomba chassis.. Actually, I would call it an "extended Roomba". This framework will be reverse-compatible with the Roomba. It will allow me to abstract out my RoombaSCI class just a bit more. I have been hearing compelling reasons to go to a factory pattern for this project, since I will have 2 like items, but I still can't seem to want to pull away from the newbie-helpfulness that having hardcoded classes can give you.. It is the difference between: Roomba.Motors.Main_Brush, & Roomba.Motors["Main Brush"]. If I go with the latter, then it will be easier to add support for future OI-Based robots, aaaaannnd it provides yet another tutorial for programming for newbies.