Hi im azu, im new here, and I've finally decided to jump into robotics. I took everything apart as a kid, figuring out how everything was made and i still think short circuit and wall-e are the two best movies of all time. Little did i know programming them was so easy. So i decided to jump right in and make one similar to the "start here" robot.
My question is: I was planning on using a picaxe 18x1, will that do fine for what i need it to? Im going to be using a Tamiya dual gearbox instead of his two motors and ill have a light dependent resistor and two leds added on to the "start here" design. Im using the starter kit with the project board, and i figure i should be able to connect everything directly to the project board without any resistors or capacitors. So do I have to use a picaxe 28 for this? or will the 18 do fine?
Thanks a ton, I love this website and I've been looking around it for a while. Happy Australia day to anyone in Australia!
I would go with the 28x1 This chip can do more since it has more pins. The board has quite of few I/O’s also. I am not too sure about the 18 and board but I think it will have less I/O’s for you to use. I am new at this also but from what I have learned the 28x1 is about the easiest to use to start out.
Well im going to leave this Well im going to leave this in the robot when im done, so if it has more pins then I need (which i think the 18 has) then ill just go with the 18, no need to overdo it with the 28 unless i have too.
well the way I am doing my starter, is the ability to upgrade him with other sensors and the like. That is why I suggest the 28x1. The starter is cool and all but kinda boring. So upgrading him with say like an LCD display and other sensors would make him cooler.
Just make sure whatever board you get has a motor driver to drive your Tamiya dual gearbox.
I dont know what starter pack your buying but the one used in the start here bot has a motor driver which is needed.
personally i would probably sugest getting the whole picaxe kit used in the start here robot. i dont have much experiance with picaxe but from what i have read you probably want to go with the whole deal. more upfront cost but better in the long run.
thanks for all the replies. I did get a starter kit that comes with the project board, cable and documentation. It does indeed come with a motor driver, Im getting the 18 pin project board from sparkfun http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=83
it comes with a darlington motor driver. I was wondering if theres a place on the board to put an extra power input to the motors? I cant wait to get the parts, im ordering on the 1st.
technically speaking, the darlington driver is a a motor driver, but only one way. if you want your bot to have reverse, you’ll also need a “push/pull” aka “h-bridge” motor like the L239D.(not included, unfortunately)
There are two types of 18m proto boards. You want the High Powered board, or else you’ll have to make your own circuit to get forward/reverse. Both of them will let you add a second power supply for the motors.
Is it at all possible to Is it at all possible to wire a normal usb cable instead of that 25$ programming cable? I cant find a starter kit with a cable thats the high power project board. I saw the three pin diagram on what the usb cable connects to, so im sure i could wire it up myself. Maybe a Ti - 83 calculator cable would work… Either way, has anyone tried?
haven’t tried it, but if you haven’t tried it, but if you know how it is wired up you could surely make it yourself. The cable they sell is no more than a USB plug on one side wired to the stereo jack on the other side!
The standard USB plug has 4 The standard USB plug has 4 wires, +, ground, data in, and data out. I would think it would be easy to map to a stereo socket, but be sure you don’t apply voltage. Since the chip has to be powered by itself I think you only need to wire up the 2 data wires.
usb cable Has anybody actually succeeded in making their own plug? I think the usb cable that rev-ed sells isn’t just a regular usb (it needs drivers and such to run on a pc, and my pc recognizes it as a device).
And who said you can’t make your own? The schematic was on the page I referenced, pretty complete parts list. It might be best to use a FT232RL part that is in an easier to solder surface mount package. Even using an SSOP to DIP adapter could help. A USB jack and the ferrite bead (FB)are theother not so common parts, everything else appears to be caps and resistors. This might add up enough parts and shipping to equal that $25 though, haven’t added it up. And it is possible to put all this together and it not work properly, wasting some time and money, but what would you have learned?
If you buy from If you buy from tech-supplies.co.uk the USB cable in included. In my research (I live in the US and tech-supplies is in the UK) they are the cheapest even with overseas shipping. Shipping only took 4 business days too! It was faster than UPS from the west coast of the US.
Do you have any other kit that uses a USB-serial convertor? My Garmin GPS uint has one. I haven’t tried it, but I bet it works as the specs of the kit at the cable ends are the same.
