I do feel your pain. This is the downside to OS’s like Linux. Seems like a lot of apps are dynamically linked, so if your app needs one version of a lib and your distro is running even a point higher or lower, the whole thing comes crashing down. Wish they’d just statically link stuff, if possible, so we wouldn’t have to deal with that nonsense.

Yeah, it was rather funny when he jumped like that. But it worked, so I’m happy

Range finders (which make use of Doppler effects or pulsing lasers) are good for finding distance from a surface, but not distance traveled, unless you are always facing that surface.

From what I know of sensor possibilities, that leaves us with accelerometers (which we have, but are hard to use), rotary encoders, hall effect sensors acting as rotary encoders, and linear encoders like mice (the other kind of linear encoders have limited travel distance). Out of those, mice seem the best bet. When I can get into school, I’ll try out some code I found. Might be good enough to avoid accelerometers, which would cut down on the math.

I wish I could come up with an answer for measuring distance. I initially thought about using local RF or infrared beacons to provide some points of reference for onboard sensors on the car, but that might be too difficult. I’m not sure about the math involved, but you could mount a pulsing laser or LED and sensor combination on the car and possibly use that (maybe using Doppler effect or something). Sorry, I didn’t receive much formal electronics or optical training, but maybe those are some things to consider.

Looking forward to more articles…with pretty pictures.

Keep all the good stuff coming. I like hearing about this project.