**Hi and welcome 
Choosing**
Hi and welcome
Jumping ahead a bit…
I think you might be ahead of yourself a bit here… As always, if you are new to robotics and microcontrollers, you need to start with just getting a LED to blink. Now, in tems of pre-programming, uh, not so much. I would say it is nearly impossible to pre-program anything… You will need to do a lot of “test programs” to get your motors going the right direction and be sure you servos are going the right way.
Thanks but…
I understand what you mean by I should choose them, thanks for that As for the jumping ahead, I already understand the concept of C and how to program it, I mean…if I were to make a design, for the robot, and understand how it would all come together, theen wouldn’t I be able to program that robot ahead of time? Also, the problem is that I don’t have access to a store, so I’d have to buy the board(s) online, and then there’s the long, monotonous wait, and all that stuff.so while I was waiting for the board to come, would’nt I be able to program the robot?
Touching on your last point,
Touching on your last point, the arduino has a ide that you can use to write your progs,and at a minimal, compile them so you could actually start writing, though testing it on the hw would have to wait. The ide also doesn’t have a simulator like say the picaxe programming editor, or the avr dev environment, so thats another downside.
That’s Good to know
I’m okay with that-as long as I can do it, I’ll begin immediately. I think I’ll sketch out the robot’s design and then begin programming. Thank you
I have to agree whit CTC
I have to agree whit CTC here. Programming a microcontroller is somewhat different from programming an normal terminal application.
You should rather spend your time getting familiar with the Arduino C syntax and try to analyse some sketches written by others.<o:p></o:p>Read this at least<o:p></o:p>http://www.itu.dk/~sokoler/IDF2008/Materialer/programmingBooklet.pdf<o:p></o:p>
has any one had their first
has any one had their first program work? i have not. A program like this swarm program you propose is a big task to do for your first robot and i would be willing to bet the first program will not work as you would want or expect it to. So if you plan on programming it once and then putting it into the robot and think that you wont have a delay to change or a sensor to debug, then you should re think that.
never thought it
I personally never thought that it would work immediately-I’m just asking if I can
well you can pre program
well you can pre program then. For the price i would suggest this arduinohttp://wulfden.org/TheShoppe/freeduino/rbbb.shtml
I’ve been reading it
I already had begun reading it, but THANKS cause that means that I’m reading the right resources.
I have a little paranoia
I personally wouldn’t try a FreeDuino because it’s open source and though it claims to be an Arduino clone, it was made by others, so it’s not too legitimate is it?
All of arduino is open
All of arduino is open source that why they are able to make them. I have used 3 of them on my robots. There is no difference on how they work than any other arduino. What you are paying for is to use the arduino bootloader which is what a arduino comes down to, so all of them are the same.
Eh,
Eh that makes sense then I guess
you could always make your
you could always make your own board. I just made my own the other week using a atmega 168 with a arduino bootloader preloaded on to it.
Plus…
Plus the Swarm progrram I’m planning on making isn’t like the others-the main bots will be simple, the QUEEN will be basic too.
PLUS>.<
Sadly I, while I do have oodles of programming knowlege, virtually no knowlege of soldering…so yeah that wouldn’t work out.
well like i said…all of
well like i said…all of the arduinos are the same unless you get a arduino mega which has more pins, else they are all the same. So if i was you, i would just go for the cheapest but it is up to you to decide which one you want.
You should learn to solder
You should learn to solder if you want to build robots…
The only system that does not require soldering to build robots is Lego Mindstorms. (Actually, there are also VEX and Fishertechnik) Any other microcontroller board you get will need some soldering at some point, even if it is just to connect some sensors or LEDs in series with resistors. Perhaps sometimes you can get away by using a crimper.
So, for your swarm project, you need to find out how many motors (servos) and how many sensors the slaves will use, also decide the kind of wireless communication system. For the queen, same thing, motors, sensors, communication module. There are several ways to do wireless communication, from cheap IR to expensive Bluetooth. You need to take a look at each one of them and decide what works best for your budget and setup.
Since you are building robots, the original Arduino boards need to be fitted with shields to be able to plug in servos and sensors. Most shields will require soldering. But there are a few Arduino clones geared towards robotics, like the Roboduino, the MINI Robocontroller, the Romeo All-in-One and a few more (sorry I don’t remember them at this time). Take a look at them and chose the one that fits best.
Good luck!
Uffda…
Did anyone notice that on Sparkfun’s main page is… …wait for it…
Which Arduino Do You Need?
And I’m a PicAxe guy!
yeah i saw that and thought
yeah i saw that and thought of telling him about it…i was too lazy.