Hello experts! I was lucky enough to receive a Brat autonomous (bratcb-blk) kit for Christmas this year! Unfortunately, I am a no-clue newbie when it comes to robotics. I have actually assembled the Brat but I have not yet gotten enough courage to power it up! Anyway, I have alot of questions. Here are some of them that are nagging at me right now:
I did not receive an ssc-32 and I’m not sure why I would need one. What exactly would I use it for if I did have one?
I did receive a Brat sensor panning kit, but I cannot find any assembly guide for it. Also, I’m not sure the panning kit is suppose to do!
I want to be able to control the Brat via my notebook computer … like press a key and it walks, a different key and it turns, etc. I guess I need BlueSMiRF to do this? How do I control it in the meantime?
I think I’m missing the two wires for the DE-11 accelerometer that connect to the botboard. I think that the accelerometer tells the Brat when it falls over, is that right? Can I power the Brat up before I get those wires sent to me or are they absolutely necessary before I power-up my Brat?
I’ve got other questions, but these are the most pressing. I’m sorry about the long list, but I surely don’t want to mess-up my robot due to stupidity!
Thank you in advance for any responses!
-DoomDog
Palmer, Alaska
My guess is that you found this as you said you have assembled it. To help us help you, which tutorial did you use to assemble and where are you up to?
There are several different configurations of Brats, you can build. The SSC-32 is a great servo controller, but requires some other processor to tell it what to do. The Basic Atom Pro (BAP) on the Atom Bot Board 2, is a nice Micro-controller that can as part of its program can control the servos. You can combine the two that is have the BAP figure out what to do and have it send serial commands to the SSC-32. Do you need one? Probably not, but depending on your 3) you may wish to…
There are probably 100 ways to do this, depending on how much smarts if any you want on the actual brat. If you want all of the information to be processed by the PC you could get an SSC-32 and a bluesmirf to control it. There is a tutorial up there to do it. You could however instead use something like a set of XBEES and do something like the DIY remote control (Information up on the Remote forum). In there I have a VB app that emulates the remote control. For now you can use the stuff you have to do the autonomous brat. You could also develop the program to use the serial port and run an RS232 cable for now… Lots of possibilities.
Yes, I don’t have one of these on either of my two brats. The best thing to do is to assemble the standard brat and start working through the tutorials to for example align the servos and then try the tutorial to kick the water bottle.
Again I don’t know if I answered everything, but hopefully others will step in.
Hi Kurt and thank you for the nice welcome!
I have just finished with the assembly guide and now the installation of the panning sensor kit … much thanks for the info on where to find the assembly of the panning sensor kit! I ended up having to take the brat partly apart to rotate the U panel, now I’ve gotten it put back together.
One thing that I haven’t yet been able to find is where on the botboard the panning servo is supposed to be connected. I found where the sensor goes, but not the servo itself. Do you know where it is to be plugged in?
I am about to try the Tutorial for Server Mid Position and see what happens!
Thanks for all your answers, they were very helpful. Some of it is still a ways over my head, but once I get that far maybe it’ll make more sense!
Thanks Kurt. Will try p11 for the panning servo.
Meanwhile, I actually got the guts to power on the Brat. Unfortunately, when I do the servos start continuous erratic movements … not sure yet why. I’ve been scanning the forums for something similar but have yet to come across any answers.
BTW: I’m currently working on the BASIC Micro Studio Programming Tutorial for BASIC Atom Pro. I have disconnected all of the servo’s and reset (and triple-checked) all of the jumpers on the botboard to match those in the tutorial. When I apply power, the A, B, and C lights continue to sequentially flash. The green light does stay on.
My guess is you still have the default program that Basic Micro shipped with the Bap28. Have you tried downloading one of the other programs like the servo center program and tried to program the chip with it?
Yep, that was what was going on. I looked at this post viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4683&hilit=botboard+problems and it basically said the same thing. I ran the brat servo offset finder, bratosf3.bas, and am trying to get it to walk now. Seems it doesn’t like the carpet too well, though!
Thanks again for all of your assistance! I hope I don’t drive everyone crazy with all the future posts I anticipate!
Congrats on the Brat, its a great bot and easy to learn on. Carpet floors isn’t a very good surface at all unless you have berber, and even then it’s not as good as hard floors. Hope to see some pics later.
Oops, looks like we missed updating the table and wiring diagram in that BRAT tutorial. I’ve updated the web page. Here’s the correct version of the diagram:
