Page 147 - The Definitive Guide to Building Java Robots

Preston_5564C04.fm Page 128 Wednesday, October 5, 2005 7:22 AM

128 CHAPTER 4 ■ SENSORS

public boolean getMulti(int index) throws Exception{
String i = getMulti().substring(index);
if (i.equalsIgnoreCase("1")) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
// since i am testing at my desk and not on my robot
SwitchStamp s = new SwitchStamp(SingleSerialPort.getInstance(1));
// get single switch
System.out.println("Single Switch = " + s.getSingle());
// get multiple readings
System.out.println("Multiple Switches = " + s.getMulti());
// get proximity switch from multiple readings
System.out.println("Proximity Sensor = " +
s.getMulti(SwitchStamp.PROXIMITY_SENSOR));

} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
System.exit(1);

}
}
}

Section Summary

In this section, I discussed a few types of sensors that give logical readings to the microcontroller
and ways to access those readings from a Java class. The programs created were

• switch.bs2: The BASIC Stamp program that reads the logic sensor values.
• SwitchStamp.java: Gets the sensor data from the switch.bs2 program.
The next type of sensor I’ll discuss are the distance sensors. Like the proximity sensor,
which gives a logical reading, these sensors provide an actual distance reading from the sensor
to an object it detects.