Comments on: Introducing the NEW HiTechnic Magnetic Sensor

By: Laura P

Laura P — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 08:10:33 +0000

Does anyone know where i can actually find another sample program for the magnetic field sensor? i appreciate the ones that come with the driver pack, but i dont understand half of the code. I admit I am a novice programmer but our team is doing FTC this year, and figuring out the magnetic field sensor as soon as possible would be great. If someone could just find a breakdown of how to program the sensor using RobotC, that would really be awesome.

By: Gus

Gus — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:52:51 +0000

There should be support for the Magnetic Sensor in the RobotC drivers pack downloadable from HiTechnic.

By: NA High School

NA High School — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:07:29 +0000

Hi
Our high school class is trying to create a program for this sensor using RobotC and can’t find any resources or examples to base our program off of. Is there anything that we can use to help us with this program.

By: Bill Brierly

Bill Brierly — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 06:43:43 +0000

I purchased the Magnetic Sensor for my grandson to use in a Robotic contest (not FLL) in his area in Florida. All we wanted it to do was for a robot to stop when it sensed a magnetic field. It works great and will make a great robot for him to use in his competition. I found anon easy way to test the sensor. Select a wait block and choose Magnetic Sensor from the list. Then place a sound block after it saying anything you want like “Goodmorning”. When the sensor crosses the field of the magnet it says “Goodmorning”. Gus, I am glad to hear you say it will read through plastic because my grandson wants to use mega blocks to hide the magnet in and lego magnetic blocks as the magnet to find. So now, since it works so well I have to buy anoter one for him. I appreciate the cheaper price it is selling for right now. I own most all of the Hitechnic sensors and more than one of several of them. Keep up the good work creating new sensors and new sample robots to build. It is great fun!

By: Alexander

Alexander — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:41:06 +0000

Is this Sensor a Magnetic Sensor or a Magnetic Field Sensor?

By: Gus

Gus — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:15:34 +0000

I believe that FTC is using the same type of magnet that I am using. The magnetic field will not be affected by the wood or plastic so the material in between the sensor and the magnet should not be an issue. Regarding distance, I would think that 5cm is probably the limit to how far away you can get and still have a reasonable chance of detecting the magnet. At 5cm I get a value of about 7, this goes up to 10 at 4cm. You will want to experiment with orientation of the sensor to maximize ability to detect the hidden magnet. Also note that the value may be negative so you will want to check for above a threshold as well as below the negative of the threshold.

By: Bobby C

Bobby C — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:45:08 +0000

I am a programmer on an FTC team, and I’m curious how close and far you can be from the magnet for it to still work. These pictures make it seem as though unless your right on it you won’t be able to read the magnet, which renders it almost useless in FTC considering the magnet is surrounded by wood and the baton, plus any parts of your robot holding the baton. So my question is, does anyone know how far away you can be from the magnet and still get an accurate reading?

By: Gus

Gus — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 15:22:32 +0000

You can download from Tetrix Robotics the HiTechnicLV2009-FTCUpdate which will give you a VI for the Magnetic sensor as well as for the Gyro and Acceleration Sensor. There are also new VIs for the Compass and IR Seeker included. Tetrix Robotics Download

By: Matt Schildknecht

Matt Schildknecht — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:57:17 +0000

HI,

I’m a coach on one of the FTC teams (Roboboogie 3540). We use LabView programming language. Is there a vi for the magnetic sensor in LabView?

Thanks
Matt