Making a basic Arduino robot tutorial

Community General Discussions
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I'm working on putting together an inexpensive kit to help students build a basic Arduino robot (more on that here) and have been working on a tutorial: how to make an Arduino robot. It's a work in progress, but I was hoping to get feedback on the tutorial and see what you guys think. Any suggestions?

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Thanks for your feedback –

Thanks for your feedback – this is the first tutorial I’ve written like this, so I appreciate your input.

Only real nit picky feedback I would give is the spacing between the descriptions and headings of the next component isn’t consistent and sometimes is right under it, which can make it look ‘less pretty’.

It’s a bug with the CMS on my website. I submitted a bug report and hopefully they’ll fix it (it’s really annoying…).

I like your alternative to the caster/balance wheel using the cardboard “v.” It’s admirable to use the resources you have like that!

Thanks! I’m trying to keep the robot as low cost as possible, as well as trying to spur creativity!

One comment: you are powering the servos from the Arduino 5V pin. That’s not a very good idea. It might work but you’re putting a lot of stress on the tiny voltage regulator on the Arduino.

Agreed. I put a note in the tutorial about that (with a link to this page: http://www.foxytronics.com/tutorials/_/arduino/how-to-use-continuous-rotation-servos-with-arduino-r32), but maybe I should make it bold or something to make it more prominent. The reason I wire it like that in the tutorial is that hooking up the motors to the battery pack can be a little confusing for someone just getting started.

 

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Well, it’s pretty much done,

Well, it’s pretty much done, aside from the line-break bug… I ended up taking Bajdi’s suggestion on not powering the motors from the Arduino (it makes it a tad more complicated and raises the possiblity of the person reading the tutorial on getting the polarity mixed up, but I guess it’s worth it to get it the way is really should be).

http://www.foxytronics.com/tutorials/_/arduino/how-to-make-a-robot-r35

Let me know if you have any suggestions or corrections!