I started on Basic Stamp 2 and made BOE-Bot then ported to picaxe and made my robot Lexi. After a lot of months of rest from my robots all together I think I would like to try arduino next. I have been using 28x1 starter kit but now it seems like its giving a lot of trouble. I have some experience with servos, motor, sensors and essentially regular wheeled/tracked carpet robots.
So my question to arduino users, where should I start on arduino? Should I buy the arduino beginner pack - http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10174 or should I just buy the arduino uno r3 and just dive-in? For a newbie on arduino should I buy the arduino uno or the cheaper freeduino?
the starter kit is pretty cool, you’ll definitely want those male-to-male jumpers for breadboarding. but you should be fine just jumping right in. You’re going to want a motor-shield (guibot’s motorino is great) or make your own. The freeduino is supposed to be identical to the arduino, so calculon says “go for it”.
also, the 2 -sided proto board from dagu is great for building your own shields.
I could not make the servo working on the 28x1 starter kit. I tried servo, servopos, pulsout but still can’t make my servo look right, left & center. I thought it was the darington driver chip but after installing the servo as the manual intends(with resistor to the input) still not working. So I think I’ll port to arduino instead of buying a new 28x1 starter kit.
they made a batch of picaxes that have an internal timer problem that basically means they can’t servo. In the Picaxe editor if you open the options screen and click “Firmware?” it will tell you. It also tells you the firmware when you program it. A.4 can’t use servos. A3 and a5 can.
WTF! that’s maybe why! I use the Linaxepad so I probably didn’t get the memo through the editor. Damn! I thought its my connection or other stuff! damn! thanks! for the info! I’ll update you guys how my project is going so far…
