My name is Stan, and I am very interested in building robots! I have never built robots in the past, but I do have a strong electrical and engineering knowledge.
I think I have found the best community to get started and i cant wait to start participating in my own projects.
So here is my question. Since I have never built a robot before I dont have a shop full of robot gear, so where is the best place to get started?
I was thinking of purchasing a kit of somesort to get me started, but I am afraid if i go this route I will be limited by the kits capabilities down the road when my skills increase. So can anyone suggest some kits, or where to start so I can get my feet on the ground? I have looked at a few kits online but everything I have seen is more of a step by step kit, and i am looking to make something more original.
I am really looking to get the best bang for my buck, but I am not afraid to spend some cash.
Thanks in advance everyone, and I look foreward to becoming an active part of the LMR community.
If you do the start here If you do the start here robot and you feel a little adventurous get the 40x1 chip as well. When you do the project as stated, breadboard it using the 40x1 as well. This will give you lots of room to expand. TAKE IT SLOW don’t try to do too much at once or you will get frustrated and give up. If you have never used a breadboard light an LED, then add picaxe and get it to blink every second. Then add a motor and get it to power a motor, then add something else. If you move slowly you will learn and get to do bigger things much faster. If you try to make something huge upfront it will take much longer and you won’t learn much at all.
It’s been 11 minutes since you posted your question here, so you probably already discovered the “start here” page. That robot is just one example (of many) proving you don’t need a kit to get started.
That does not mean you cannot or should not use them. Many people here used a kit with tank threads. Others use radio remote controls that come ready made. And almost all of us bought some micro controller starter kit or another.
The beauty of a tutorial like the “start here” bot (which need a better name) is that you can decided at any point to deviate from the program without wasting expensive parts of the kit. Plus you would decide were to learn something extra or rather stick to the walk through. I’ve been taught that learning whatever you want to learn will make the learning more effective (and more fun).
With a DIY robot, you will never outgrow your hardwdware!
You are very right about this community: you can stop looking any further
Of course if you need something a bit more challenging, browse the robot pages and the walk throughs. You will soon find some inspiration. And a platform for all related questions.
Ifound this website months ago and spent a lot of time reading and thinking. One of the books that I bought was The Absolute Beginners Guide to Building Robots, and my first robot was the mouse robot from that book. My next project is a BEAM project to make a solar-powered head-bot, and (I think) I have a load PicAxe bits in my Christmas stocking for my third project.
So, I started with some discrete electronics projects to get my head back into the whole soldering and components world, and took my time to choose which microprocessor to focus on. My choice of processor was ultimately determined by which was cheapest in the UK.
I looked at a load of kits but just couldn’t find one that appealed to me at a price I was prepared to pay.
One thing that I’m finding is that robot builders need deep pockets. You don’t seem to get much of anything for under GBP20 and for anything half decent you won’t get change from GBP100.
Start simple! If you try to Start simple! If you try to dive in too deeply too soon you will get confused, mess up and accidentally fry something. I would start with the basics of robotic control systems, motor control, and eventually programming. A robot is a union of Electronics, Mechanics, Programming and your own personal art style! Make sure you have fun, or else it would become a chore. Start cheap too, you dont want to buy a several thousand dollar windows xp bot and not know what to do.
**Robot Project ** Hi I am new to all this but i was wondering if you anyone would be able to help me out . I am building a robot as part of a college project and i wanted to ask is it possible to control an rc robot from a pc or laptop .The robot i have to build has to be able to interface with a pc.I was thinking of sending some how sending a signal from the laptop or pc to the robot but am stumped on what way i would go about it plus could i possibly use hyperterminal.Any help of any kind would be greatly appreciated
Ok, is it an RC robot arm? A robot car? An autonomous aerial vehicle? What distance needs to be covered? Are there obstructions in between? How much data needs to be sent? Good answers require a detailed problem definition. And if it varies much from above, it might need it’s own starting post.
That said, a wireless serial link could be established with XBee modules. Similar short distance slower links can use bluetooth. It might even be possible with IR or IRDA. A micro thatis directly programmed and communicates with a terminal program is the New Micros “Pods”, simplest probably being the MinPod to use. I believe it’s possible to write Windows programs, that mightsend serial commands to a micro, but I have not tried that myself. Seems someone had mentioned Liberty Basic as an easy Windows compiler.
On which proc to get, a picaxe or arduino, you might want to pick up both if you have the finances. You can get into both relativly cheaply and they both have situations where one might be better used than another.
A good board to get if you don’t want to go with the official Arduino board is the bbb or the rbbb from modern devices.
I personally love the picaxe 08m and the 14m as they are small and very powerful. I ended getting a couple of (8m)proto kits as well as extra procs as they are so versitile.
As far as kits go, most come with a decent chasis that can be repurposed for later projects. The boebot kit isn’t bad, and if you can find it cheap, it’s a good deal for part and components. Building your own is always fun to do if you have time and tools.
Hey Stan-Lee and welcome to the best robot community around
As far Arduino vs. Picaxe
I personally just picked up an arduino but there are a lot of pros and cons to both. ill let those more experienced than I advise you on that topic. I will say, there are probably more Picaxe owners than Arduino at LMR. but I may be wrong.
From personal experience I would advise against the Boe-bot from paralax or kits like it. i started with that and in hindsight wish i would have put that money to better use.
With the Electrical background you have I’m sure you’ll pick robots up quickly so i would advise starting with either an Arduino or larger Picaxe so you have plenty of room to expand.
then after that just buy some standard servos. some drive motors for locomotion. and then go nuts with sensors.
The robot is going to be on wheels we are going to control the movement of it with servo motors, we have to be able to control it from the pc but the robot has to be in another room so there will be a camera on it .I dont think distance wise that it is going to be too far away we are working as a team and one of the guys is working on the programming for the microcontroller.My job is to try and develop a program which will send signals from the pc to the microcontroller,basically signals that will control the movement of the robot itself and the camera on the robot also.I have done very little programming and i am just wondering if you could offer me some pointers as where i may start or what programming language i should use.
Ps The microcontroller is going to be programmed with assembly language
also look at the programming languges for both pic and the atmega(arduino). the Pic i beleive uses a form of basic, and the arduino uses more of a C like programming languge which i chose because i am more comfortable with that syntax (i never learned Basic which i think would be step back for me)
PICs and AVRs both have a small group of assembly instructions, so either could work to use as a micro. Getting a routine to receive serial data would be a first step.
And as above, XBee provides a good wireless link between the PC andthe micro running the robot
The microcontroller we r using is the 8051 on of the guys is programming that with assembly language.I was thinking of using C but i dont even know how i would start the programme or test it or even where i would get the software to use it .Also could you reccomend any books that might help in building the robot.Im sorry for all the questions but you truely are a gent and i appreciate all the help you are giving me
