Hi John,

A recipe for getting a sensor working in ROS is to first decide on
what message(s) to publish to encompass the sensor information and
then write a driver that reads from the sensor and publishes the
result over ROS.

In your case, the sensor_msgs/Imu message seems like a reasonable
place to start, and the imu_node.cc file that you linked to is a good
example of populating that message.

Best of luck,
-Stu

On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 12:43 PM, John Browning <john_jsb@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> First off i just want to say i'm not a "good" programmer i'm more of a
> hardware man PIC etc.
> I do a little work with the local college building robots for them and i've
> worked on darpa UGC.
> I currently have about 50k in parts for my own robot so i'm very serious
> about making ROS work.
> We have been using dare i say Visual Basic 6 for all our robots for 10 years
> and i just can't stand it any more.
> We have so much legacy code and it does work pretty good, so its like
> pulling teeth to get everyone to switch to anything else. There starting
> down the path of using Visual Studio and converting all our code, so far it
> sucks hard. I would like to do a video tutorial from beginning to end
> showing how to write a driver for ROS from the point of view of knowing
> nothing about ros. Hopefully that would inspire some people to join the
> cause. Having said all that i would like to start with 2 compasses that we
> are using.
>
> OS5000-US 3 Axis Digital Compass (Serial or USB)
> http://www.oceanserver-store.com/os3axdico3.html
>
> Maretron SSC200 Compass
> http://www.maretron.com/products/ssc200.php
>
> Both of these use standard nmea 0183 messages so i thought these would be a
> good start.
>
> So here i am starting at ground zero needing guidance and constructive
> criticism. If there is anybody willing to help please email me at
> john_jsb@hotmail.com or here on this board.
>
> Here is the idea use one embedded mini itx computer for the serial port and
> compass. Then the main computer will run turtle and turn to the heading the
> compass is at. Now surely somebody has got most of this done i'm finding
>
> /home/rosbuild/hudson/workspace/rosdoc/ros-pkg/imu_drivers/microstrain_3dmgx2_imu/imu_node.cc
>
> is this the closest thing out there?
>
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://ros-users.122217.n3.nabble.com/writing-drivers-for-hardware-tp920442p920442.html
> Sent from the ROS-Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ThinkGeek and WIRED's GeekDad team up for the Ultimate
> GeekDad Father's Day Giveaway. ONE MASSIVE PRIZE to the
> lucky parental unit.  See the prize list and enter to win:
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/thinkgeek-promo
> _______________________________________________
> ros-users mailing list
> ros-users@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ros-users
> _______________________________________________
> ros-users mailing list
> ros-users@code.ros.org
> https://code.ros.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-users
>



-- 
Stuart Glaser
sglaser -at- willowgarage -dot- com
www.willowgarage.com