silk.png (20714Bytes)
pcb.png (50215Bytes)
basebot.zip (120856Bytes)
Basebot is a simple Open Source Robot platform which intends to provide a good balance between price and performance. We want it to be as a base platform for boards like Raspi , Olinuxino , Carambola etc which can be mounted on top of it and they can control it serially. But it should be completely usable in standalone mode also.We did not provide any mounted sensors as we want users to use it as a flexible experimentation platform , while it takes care of simple robot like functions.
Above are a few photos of the PCB area attached with the Eagle files , here are a few features and why the decision was taken for them –
- Price : < 49.95 USD , we want to achieve < 39.95 ( INR 1999 ) but if it sells then only it will be possible.
- Controller : PIC32MX with ( 128 kb Flash / 32kb ram ) , ICSP And USB Programmable. PIC32MX has re-mappable peripherals so if user does not like our setup he can map them to his wish. It also has USB host and device with ADK support for Android.
- Motors : Simple DC Motors with Encoders , we have used BO motors and commonly available wheels to reduce costs as much as possible. Encoders are there to provide repeatability and some level of precision.
- Supply : It runs off 4 AA batteries which is boosted to 9V then 5V and 3.3 V are available. Charging port is provided , and batteries can be charged with external charger.
- Sensors : You get a prototyping board with a mix bag of sensors and connector to experiment.
- I/O : Lots of peripherals like 2xSPI , 2xI2C , 2xUART , 9xADC , 2xServo etc
- User Interface : LCD Connector, Speaker , 2xButtons , 2xLED’s .
We plan to provide a linux powered robot with Wifi and inbuilt python IDE ( like jsfiddle for Python ) for under USD 79.95 based on basebot in first quater next year.
We would welcome suggestions and ideas as this is still in development.