Hey everyone I'm new and everything but wanted to know:
What Arduino board thing (Nano, Mega, etc) should I use as a beginner. Before I get answers, I need to specify my question with another inquiry: HOW would I get this project on the road? My project plan is to make a swarm of robots that follow instructions given by the "QUEEN" of such, which is simply a moving computer. Would there be a way for my robots to wirelessly get instructions from the queen? And if so, does this affect what Arduino product I go with. I await your answers.
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ALSO on another note, would it be possible for me to "Pre-Program" what the robots do before I build them? Because that'd make it a lot easier, I think.
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Thanks for all the help, and I await hearing from you soon.
Choosing the board is something you should do, because nobody else knows better than you how you want your bots to be. Just take a look at number of I/O pins, available memory, how big they are etc...there's no best board, it all depends on what you want to do. And well...you can have your bots receive wireless data, no matter what board you choose. As for pre-programming i'm not sure what you mean, but you can program them anytime you want, even if you're going to connect it to sensors, for example, some time later.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
