yup… an airsoft gun 
yup… an airsoft gun
Well
I presume you’d want it to be able to drive forwards, backwards and turn as well. So you’d need an H-bridge (eg. an L293D) to control the motors. I’m not sure about the regulator. For the motors or the picaxe? I think the picaxe allready has one built in? (anyway the Arduino has) and you’d be better of powering the motors with 4 x NiMH AA batteries (4 x 1.2V = 4.8V). No regulator needed. Regulators waste a LOT of power and generate a lot of heat.
That’s my 5 cents
PICAXE DOES NOT HAVE A
PICAXE DOES NOT HAVE A REGULATOR! You must make sure you don’t supply too much voltage or POOF!
Listen to jklug80!!
Like I said I use Arduino. 
Hi, i just started getting
Hi, i just started getting into robots and i was wondering if you read any books hat you could recommend.
and give pointers on how to build a robot like yours.
but I am doing the things
but I am doing the things like little 8 and he used 5v regulator and 9v battery
Well…
You can (in theory) use a 9V battery to power both the motors and the microcontroller via a 5V regulator (if that’s what you had in mind?).
BUT…
1) It’s not optimal to power motors via a regulator. Like I said it wastes a lot of power and generates heat proportional to the amount of current drawn from it.
2) A single 9V battery may not be able supply enough current for the motors (they can draw quite a bit).
3) Usually you’d power the motors and the microcontroller from two seperate sources because when larger amounts of current is drawn it makes the voltage unstable and microcontrollers need quite stable voltage.
It works in the case of little 8 because it’s a tiny robot with tiny motors and a tiny microcontroller = it consumes very little current. If you’re using larger motors I’d suggest powering them seperately and NOT using a regulator to power the motors.
so you are saying use to 9v
so you are saying use to 9v battery
Jonny, what he is trying to
Jonny, what he is trying to say is that the 5V regulator wastes alot of the energy in the battery and makes the regulator hot instead.
A good time to use a regulator is on a small robot with small parts that don’t require a bunch of energy to make it work well. If your working with a small robot and you don’t really want a battery case hanging over the side of the robot which it would in Little 8, then you can use a 9V battery decreasing the amount of space it takes up.
Also, were trying to help you get some more ideas to add on to this robot your working on, not Little 8. Since there is a lot of room on the chassis and you can make different stories, just add up how much voltage you will need and put that into a battery case. If you do this instead of the 5V regulator, it will most likely make the motors run faster and longer and you won’t be changing your batterys as often.
Hope this helpped bud!
so use 2 regulaters29v
so use 2 regulaters
3 9v batteries
PS: thanks for the support!!!
I think everyone is using
I think everyone is using far too complicated words.
You have 2 options for power…
1. Use 4xAA batteries to power everything, both picaxe and motors. Fine for a first robot.
2. Use a few AA batteries to power the motors, THEN use a 9v battery and regulator for the picaxe. Better but more complex.
I don`t know where you got the 3x 9v and 2 regulator advice from.
thank you know I get it he
thank you know I get it he did not say anything like that
exactly
Dude, Jklug, that’s exactly what I was thinking!
But anyways, Jonny, that is an awesome Tamiya set. Got one of these for x-mas a while back, and loved it. Pretty noisy little thing!
slap
Picaxe is a much quicker to learn system for beginners. It’s very easy, and the BASIC teaches you somewhat the setup of all code. Its a great place to start. And its cheap!
would 3 or 4 AA batteries
would 3 or 4 AA batteries work.
**I meen AAA battries **
I meen AAA battries
**OK **
OK
I think I will choose option
I think I will choose option #2 so use a few (AAA) battries and for the picaxe 9v battry and 5v regulator.
9 volt batteries are a waste
9 volt batteries are a waste given how long they will last versus the cost. You are really better off with AA or AAA. AA is the best bang for your buck.
I disagree
I wasn’t really trying to promote Arduino in this case, but I can’t help thinking that it’s biased when people on this VERY Picaxe dominated website keep saying that Picaxe is MUCH easier to program than Arduino.
Anyway I’m biased too because I’ve been programming may years in a dozen different languages and I generally hate the syntax of basic languages, so I wont use my personal experience as an argument.
However the Arduino platform IS intended for designers and other people without a programming background and has been remarkably succesful at that. I’m pretty sure that if you asked the 1000s of Arduino users (most of them non technical people) what they thought of Picaxe code they would likely say it looks pretty messy.
In many ways Arduino is much more user friendly than Picaxe. Take for instance some of the command names:
readadc: Not very saying unless you know what an ADC is, which beginners DON’T. Hell I didn’t know what it was a few months ago. The Arduino equivalent: analogRead() is definately a lot more intuitive and easy on beginners.
sertxd: Not exactly very intuitive either. Again the Arduino equivalent is though: Serial.write()
Or take the variables. In Picaxe you have to allocate a certain memory block to contain a specific variable (b0, b1, w2 etc…). Definately NOT very user/beginner friendly either. In Arduino you just create the variable and don’t have to worry about where it is located.
Anyway both platforms are intended for beginners and have their pros and cons. And again I’m not trying to promote Arduino but simply destroy the myth that it’s too hard for beginners. It’s not! That’s the whole point of the Arduino platform.
And “cheap” is a very relative word that doesn’t make much sense here since I’m pretty sure that the Arduino is cheaper. I’ve seen Diecimila boards or clones for down to 20 us$. There you go: 14 digital I/Os (6 of which are PWM capable), 6 analog ins, USB interface, uart serial interface, I2C interface,SPI interface etc…
That’s just my opinion anyway