My First Robot - HC-SR04 rather than InfraRed Range Finder

Community General Discussions
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Hello - 

I am working on my first robot project and thoroughly enjoying it.

I have already had to post once on the forum about a little motor issue and that got answered very quickly by you all and hoping you can help with this more challanging step...

I am following the Start Here instructions but I was unable to buy the IR range finder but did manage to find HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor.

20141222_225343.jpg

As this is my first ever attempt at electronics and robots I was wondering if anyone could advise on how to connect this up (in the scenario where we have already switched out the Darlington Chip as per "Start Here" robot) and the modified code?

OR I suspect this may have already been answered, if so can someone point me to that thread?

Thanks very much.

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HelloThanks for the tips.I

Hello

Thanks for the tips.

I spent time on this today and I managed to get it to work.

Video here: http://youtu.be/zuISrbRNdmE

I realise this is very basic compared to all the cool stuff others are doing but a big achievement for someone like me, who has little knowledge of electronics and programming! This website is fantastic - thanks.

For reference to anyone else that stumbles upon this thread I used the info on this page to help me along with integrating the ultrasonic sensor with the Start Here first robot projeact: https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/66

Then a little searching on google to learn how to tweak the code a little further.

Thanks again and now thinking about how to make this even better :slight_smile:

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I agree with bdk6; I find
I agree with bdk6; I find watch simple builds to be interesting.

I also love that you were willing to improvise. While it may not seem a huge deal to switch out one sensor for the other, some people don’t even try. I tend to use a variety of sensors when I build; I like the IR rangers, but it’s difficult to beat the price on the SR-04s. When I was starting out, the sonars were expensive.

So use what you have.

And merry building, and a happy new gear!

4

I posted some relevant info on your other forum post.

I did not repost the info here as I thought you might check it out before going too far.

I was wrong. Glad you got it working.

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thanks everyone. it was
thanks everyone. it was certainly good fun and I can’t wait to refine the robot a little further and do other projects.
birdmun ever so sorry I only just realised about your reply on the other thread.

I plan to learn more on picaxe but out of interest… what would be a logical next step from picaxe for most beginners? arduino?

Thanks and Merry Christmas

6

I’d go for the Arduino
I’d go for the Arduino because it has a huge community and since it’s open source, you can buy clones cheaply on eBay. Dagu sells several Arduino/motor driver combinations which are a nice setup for robotics.

On the other hand, the RasPi has a large community also, and is a single board Linux device with GPIO pins and such.