battery clip
if my project board came with a batteryclip that is attached to the board by wires that goes on the battery holder should i use it or cut it off and attach the wires to the wires on the battery holder?
yes
you can add a small speaker but im not sure where. i remember reading about putting a speaker on this anyways just google it and you should find it
Yes you can! Check out
Yes you can! Check out Picaxe Manual 3 and read the section on interfacing speakers and piezo elements. Also read Picaxe Manual 2 for info on the sound and tune commands.
You just need an unused output on the Picaxe Project Board. If you use a speaker, the capacitor Picaxe recommends is good practice; it filters the DC voltage so your speaker is only getting the AC (variable) portion of whatever signal you feed it.
It depends on what kind of batteries you’re using
The clip is meant for use with the 3AA battery holder which is most suitable for use with regular alkaline AA’s. If you want to use rechargeable NIMh or NiCad batteries you should use the 4AA battery holder. In that case you’ll need to cut the clip wires to attach them to the 4AA pack.
thanks
im planning to use the rechargable batteries so thanks! although i need to do more work now
Flying wire splices
Hi,
My favorite method for splicing wires uses solder sleeves from Raychem (I get mine at Home Depot in the network/TV/Telephone area). Another company named Apex also sells a comparable product. They have a demo video on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24FjjIVpk9U
The demonstrated splice is environmentally sealed and is as strong as the original wire. It also adds very little bulk to the original wire.
As long as you’re pulling out the heat gun anyway, these splices are the way to go, IMHO. You can heat multiple splices at the same time, too!
Raychem also makes solder sleeve terminations for coaxial cable. With those you strip the end as directed, then slide the termination over the end so that the two solder bands are aligned on the shield and on the center conductor. After heating, you’re left with a pair of wires that you can then easily solder to a board or into a cannon plug. I think the recommended maximum distance of the wire end is 6 inches, but they’re used to handle received RF up in the radar bands.
The main issue about doing a twist and solder or a western union is that of the bulk it adds to the wiring. It’s also more time consuming than the solder sleeve. I don’t imagine many here run into a situation where they need to repair wire harnesses with a couple hundred wires, but it’s something to think about.
Flying wire splices
Hi,
My favorite method for splicing wires uses solder sleeves from Raychem (I get mine at Home Depot in the network/TV/Telephone area). Another company named Apex also sells a comparable product. They have a demo video on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24FjjIVpk9U
The demonstrated splice is environmentally sealed and is as strong as the original wire. It also adds very little bulk to the original wire.
As long as you’re pulling out the heat gun anyway, these splices are the way to go, IMHO. You can heat multiple splices at the same time, too!
Raychem also makes solder sleeve terminations for coaxial cable. With those you strip the end as directed, then slide the termination over the end so that the two solder bands are aligned on the shield and on the center conductor. After heating, you’re left with a pair of wires that you can then easily solder to a board or into a cannon plug. I think the recommended maximum distance of the wire end is 6 inches, but they’re used to handle received RF up in the radar bands.
The main issue about doing a twist and solder or a western union is that of the bulk it adds to the wiring. It’s also more time consuming than the solder sleeve. I don’t imagine many here run into a situation where they need to repair wire harnesses with a couple hundred wires, but it’s something to think about.
Nice tip. I think it would
Nice tip. I think it would be better if you posted it as a tip, rather than a comment to Frits’ post. It’ll just get lost in the shuffle here, because this post gets so many comments.
Robot veering
Hi I built my robot and everything works fine. However it appears that one wheel turns a little faster than the other causing the robot to constantly veer off to the right. Is there anyway to fine tune the speed at which the wheels turn? Similarly is there a way to fine tune how much the robot turns either right or left? It turns very slight, not anything close to 90 degrees and therefore has to do the maneover many times over to get around an obstacle. Thanks
It is normal for one motor
It is normal for one motor to turn slightly faster than the other. You can use Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to control the speed, slowing down your faster motor to match the top speed of the slower one. Look in Picaxe Manual 2 for more info on PWM.
You can also read more about this situation here.
how come my robot will never
how come my robot will never stop and it will drive into things like they werent there?
I think you should try and
I think you should try and step back, did you follow the instructions from “Programming” and down? Did you see a change in the variable ?
the varible changes but it
the varible changes but it changes only a no matter what the distance. for example i pust my hand about 30cm infront of itand it reads like 106 i think then as i slowly move my hand back to about 50cm away it changes to about 108
when i got the sensor it was in a little pick plasic package that was opened on one side and was taped back. Should i send an email and ask for a replacement?
also i have noticed in your guide the side of he cable that goes into the curcuit board is black, white then red and mine is black, red then yellow (i know that white and yellow wires do the same job they are just dfferent colours.)
i fixed it somehow…
i fixed it somehow… ipulled out the cable reattached it then redid the programming and changed 70 to 80 and it worked! thnks 
My robot is falling apart
So I recently built this robot and I did every thing exactly like you it said but my robot is falling apart every five minutes it comes apart how do I fix this
I know how to fix this
With a servo you plug it in differently than the sharp if you look at the robot from the front and plug the wires in the cable wires go in like this… the left goes on the left side of port the right side goes on middle of port and middle goes on right side of port
either decide that its a
either decide that its a permanent robot,and use super glue. Or take it apart and make another robot that you invent yourself.
Sharp Alternatives
I am just about to purchase and build this robot as my first . However I was thinking about using a slightly more accurate (and expensive) IR sensor than the sharp one used on here. Can you help about what sensors to consider and are there any significant differences in the code required to program them? Thanks
If you have a sensor in
If you have a sensor in mind, it would help if you mention it specifically. There are a few other Sharp IR sensors out there, that have different ranges. Be sure to get one with an analog output. I’m not sure what advantage any of these would give you. What are you trying to achieve?
IR range sensors are pretty good, but have limited accuracy. The IR light the emit is reflected differently by different colors and the shape of objects can cause the reflection to be scattered or come back at an indirect angle. They also won’t work in bright sunlight. Still, they are resonably accurate, have a fairly narrow beam width, and they are pretty cheap.
There are also ultrasonic sonar sensors, like the Parallax Ping, Devantech SRF05, and others. Ultrasonics will work fine in any light, because they use sound instead of light to make their measurements. Ultrasonics are a bit more expensive, but not ridiculously so.
Sensor Alternatives
Thanks for the reply. I didn’t have any particular sensors in mind but I like the look of the parallax ping. I was planning on making this robot and then playing around with the code and so on. I was also planning on then making a robot that could follow a hand or another robot. Do you know whether the ping requires different code than the sharp that is used in these instructions?
Thanks again
Luke