Bebop Parasite

A rogue microcontroller has taken control of an old broken vacuum! Can be driven around with a ps4 dualshock controller. Plays Cowboy Bebop music.

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Inspiration

Continous Learning & Hanging with the boys

What it does

It is a remote controlled iRobot Roomba via PS4 controller and plays some custom songs. Sitting on top is a lattepanda 3 Delta microcontroller attached to the roomba's serial port used for debugging.

How we built it

  • Code base is in Python
  • Shared repo lives in github
  • Microcontroller used is the lattepanda delta v3 with a 18650 battery hat
  • Connecting to debugging interface over USB mini
  • We used ds4drv ps4 dualshock drivers for debian linux
  • All roomba functions represented by raw opcodes, we used python hex strings for this.

Challenges we ran into

  • Converting letter notes into hex strings that are within range of the Roomba® Serial Command Interface (SCI) Specification-Number Table for Song Command
  • Finding the right notes and octave to produce the song we want from "beeps and boops'

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Our lead engineer Addison wrote a utility script that took 3 args 'octave', 'note duration', and 'notes' which enabled us to focus on coding the tunes.
  • The Roomba can be remote controlled with PS4 controller
  • Software works reliably on startup

What we learned

How to convert song notes to hex strings How to develop small tools for fast paced environments. How to partially read sheet music.

What's next for Bebop Parasite

Flushing out our tools we made to support midi, longer song encodings and figuring out a better way to organize songs within the codebase.

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