UK Builders meet and more lights

A great R2 weekend.  We had another UK R2 Builders meet, and again we had a nice level of turnout and a really good day.  Giles even managed to get his driving.  The droids below belong to the following builders from Left to Right, Andre, James, Simon B, Me, Filpside (in front), Giles and Oliver's R5.  Looking good guys.

A mixed day for my R2, 2-3-2 got lose over the day, but not thread locked yet so half expected, it was a lot better while tight. :)  I also wired up the divider on the teeces, it works great at displaying the voltage it reads, but the voltage it reads is really random, even sampling 4 times.  I think the load on the battery is effecting the reading, so it might not be the most reliable battery level, but not a bad approximation. :)  More research needed to get a decent level reading, there may be alternatives or tweaks to help. :)

Also had a few issues with the 3.2 PSIs.  I think that the chips i bought for the Teeces kits aren't great. :(  Running the setup for more than about 20 mins the Rear PSI fails.  I think the chips are fine but wont run that many in a chain.  So i need to decide if i do a 3 chain setup, or replace the chips.  Will keep playing, but i think that is the issue.  I replaced the resistors and made it last a lot longer (2 hours), but i want it to run for days if needed.  I love and hate it when stuff doesn't work, always a good chance to learn more, but often frustrating if you haven't got a clue to start with. :)

Andre delivered the bits for the new style slip ring boards, they look great, will have to try and get more of those for the extra domes. :)

Also James gave me his spare set of the HP boards and the bits for them, and so yesterday I had a go at hooking them up.  Looking at the wiring, the dual supply was more complexity than i needed, so i bridged the grounds, and simply ran a servo lead for signal, +ve and GND from each.  I then used a small bus to tie the Arduino ground to the supply ground, and power them all with minimal fuss.  The Arduino can be powered from the same or different supply.  Works like a charm. :)  Will work on some code for them soon, i have a random flicker and a pulse in and out option tested, so they work.   But Jean-Michel has sent me some code to play with, so i have a nice head start. :)  So much faf tho, all for the ability to flicker the LEDs, not 100% sure they will go in my R2 or R3 dome yet. Depends if i find any modes i cant live without, but the flicker does look good. :)  I may just do PWM LEDs without the boards on my R2, they dont need to be that bright, but the code will work for both. :)