Some of us have been discussing the idea of using a HUD in the team Player Station. The purpose of the HUD is to allow robot information to be easily seen by the driver/operator without having to take their eyes off the action. How do we do this?
We're not planning on using a true HUD where the visual information is projected onto the Station's clear plastic window. There's always the risk that (1) we won't be able to see it and (2) it can be ruled as interfering with other players.
The current proposal is:
- to use a small LCD monitor mounted on a pole at eye level.
- to drive the display from the DS laptop as an extended display or identical display (depending on implementation). We can then run a Windows magnifier to isolate the status we care about. Everything is still available on the DS screen.
- this method requires nothing special in terms of software. Information between the roboRio and DS is exactly as it is now. If we run a magnifier, it may require some careful formatting of the data so that the status we care to see are grouped together and visible when magnified.
- there is only 1 power outlet at each station so our HUD monitor will use that and the laptop DS will run on batteries. Keep it well charged!
- We need to test this idea!
Ordered and received a 10inch LCD panel sold for use w/ Raspberry Pi. Screen res is 1280x800. The unit is barebones - requires a case of some sort. It comes as components - the LCD panel, circuit board containing electronics, 3 cables, 5-button I/O panel, and remote control. Requires an external power supply.
I'll test this unit asap - need to splice a power supply.
I dug into my power supply parts box and found a 12V / 2A switching wall-wart power supply for the job. After splicing some wiring and connecting all cables, the LCD panel worked just as promised. It's pretty cool! Hooked it up to our driver station and it works fine. 1280x800 display (laptop is 1366x768). So the next step is to build a case around the thing.