I hope you still keep Picaxe bots around.
I hope that you still keep the Picaxe Start Here and Little 8 robot build instructions around for those people who are still using them.
(Like I soon will be…)
-Ackjay
Why do I keep coming back to this thread?
Like a bug to a light or something, I don’t know. Anyway, I was ordering something else (for the actual for hire stuff) from a place with free shipping and the poor neglected cheap RC toy I half hacked started whimpering so I browsed the motor controllers. I came across the TI SN754410, which supposedly does the same work as the H bridge I burned up only with internal diodes to protect against that, and only $2.95 each. I ordered a couple. Each one should control 2 motors in 2 directions. It is a chip, so this is a breadboard or soldered circuit board if you’re sure you know what you are doing project (I think I will go with a breadboard). Under three dollars ?!? I think I vote for UNO (or equivalent) + a breadboard now.
A breadboard could be very newbie friendly
A good idea for implementing a solderless breadboard would be to use a 400 point like from pololu. Every point (not including the four outer rails) has a unique coordinate using the letters and numbers silkscreened on the breadboard (ie. G-24). This will make it very easy to write exact instructions for each connection required for building small circuits such as a motor driver.
Did you notice the little
Did you notice the little snip of green wire on my breadboard? That is a TWD marker (This Way, Dummy!).
I recently switched all my LiPo batteries over to a Dean’s #1009, because that is the keyed connector the local hobby shop had the most of when I visited them after a close call using a simple 2 pin interface. There is something to be said for connectors that make you do it right.
I am anti "cook book"
I may be in the minority here, but I don’t like the tab-a-into-slot-b approach. Is the point of the exercise to make a robot or learn robotics?
I agree, sort of. They may
I agree, sort of. They may learn more from working it out from a picture OR they may give up the first time they turn it on and it doesn’t work…In my opinion it makes no difference as to whether they have coordinates or not, if they are given a picture or fritzing (http://fritzing.org/) drawing then they should be fine 
It’s the old "Give a man a
It’s the old “Give a man a fish” adage or its punked out variant…
Build a man a fire, keep him warm for a night. Start a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
On a more serious note, I had offered to do a sidebar of sorts on using an ESC for motor control. I would expect the “main” tutorial to teach/explain in such a way that it would be clear what steps were replaced without listing them numerically or whatever.
Kits and “cookbook” instruction are fine if you are just after the end product. I have assembled a couple of the Adafruit xBee regulators and they work fine, but I have very limited knowledge of what the ICs do, why there are resistors of various values at various places, etc. If I were looking to make building transceiver adapters my hobby, I would want to build with a tutorial that explained that.
A complete premade board is
A complete premade board is much more cookie cutter IMO, I think more can be learned by wiring the connections first hand. The point is it can make it both easy to instruct (by Frits) and a newbie is less apt to make mistakes and can feel more confident as it is less abstract than a picture alone. Anyway, just a possible tool for success.
I think the goal of the start here robot is not only to learn robotics, but also to experience success so the user will want to continue building robots. This thread is destined to get off topic.
I will likely start another thread about this idea
I ordered a couple of SN754410 chips and an Atmega32u4 Breakout Board. I need to investigate what it will take for some of my projects to go to “straight” AVR instead of Arduinos for manufacturing. It should not be bad; I knew it was coming and have been avoiding objects in my code and only use a couple from libraries that will also be easy to convert to plain old C. But, as long as I have to do that, I feel inclined to make a toy come to life with it, hence the motor controllers. Some of my stuff is not proprietary and could be shared. When I start working with the ultrasonic distance finder, I will almost certainly be in a mood to share as that will be difficult to get worked out using just my test case.
I had promised a tip.
And I have a link to one that isn’t mine. This is an outstanding writeup by patrickmccabe
https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/19554
and it includes a lot of info about using the Arduino with an ESC based vehicle and other options. No, it isn't a beginner topic, but it would be silly for me to post a how to on using an ESC when Patrick has already done such a great article.
Of course
Of course