RX-2 Force sensor

This repository contains code for reading data from the AIKOH RX-2 force sensor. See the example file rx20_read.py.

The code for reading rx-2 force sensor data can be run in any computer, but since this was intended to be used in a Raspberry Pi 3 B+, some code (like PWM outputs) is specific to this board.

If you are not interested in the code pertaining the RPi 3B+, ignore it.

Requirements

• pyserial
• RPi.GPIO
• matplotlib
• numpy

This can be installed by doing from your terminal

pip install -r requirements.txt

If you are using a RPi, you might find a 'Memory Error' while installing matplotlib using the requirements.txt file. This is due to RPi getting out of memory. A quick fix is to install matplotlib using:

apt-get install python-matplotlib

Regarding PWM

Any code related to PWM has the purpose of making a PWM signal sweep from 0 to 100% duty cycle at a particular frequency X, in order to get thrust data generated by a quadrotor' rotor. The PWM signal is input to an Hobbyking 40A ESC and the RX-2 force sensor tip tied to a rotor, in order to measure the thrust generated by the rotor as the PWM signal changes.

Some useful info:

###Raspbery pi have the following PWM support:

Pin 12 -- PWM-0,channel-0 Pin 32 -- PWM-0,channel-1

Pin 33 -- PWM-1,channel-0 Pin 35 -- PWM-1,channel-1

RPi.GPIO

RPi.GPIO homepage.