Questions about arduino, rover 5, shields

Community General Discussions
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I'm an absolute beginner to making robots.

I'm looking to make a robot using the Rover 5 (4 motor with 4 encoders), and an arduino as the brains.

Based on what I've read, to drive all 4 motors as well as read all the encoders, the arduino UNO doesn't have enough pins, so an Arduino MEGA or Red Back Spider is needed.   as well as the Dagu 4 Channel 5-12V, 2A Brushed DC Motor Controller, or something similar which provides enough power to the motors, and communicates with the arduino (or spider).

First question is, is the above correct?

My second question is if I'm using the above set up, do I need another shield to hook in a Sharp IR sensor or a display to read out the data, such as
The Robot Builder's shield for arduino :
http://www.creatroninc.com/index.php/arduino/shields-for-arduino/ardrb-001301.html

I don't yet understand the purpose of a shield in this instance; why can't an IR sensor be hooked up directly to the arduino (or spider) ?

Many thanks,

Matthew

 

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Thanks for the info

Thanks for clearing that up

One additional question,  you said that arduino shields cannot be plugged onto a Spider, so does this prohibits me from using, say, an arduino Xbee shield or wifi shield?   is there anyway to use Xbee or wifi when using the spider?

 

Thanks,

Matthew

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Hi Matthew,That’s an

Hi Matthew,

That’s an excellent summary from bajdi with lots of good advice.

I have a Spider/4ch controller/Rover 4 4WD as well. I’ve just ordered a couple of XBees and AdaFruit XBee adapters. Since I haven’t used them yet, my comments are purely theoretical at this stage but I’ve done hours of research.

There are a few adapters which are not shields available for interfacing the XBee to a microcontroller (or a PC via USB or RS-232). They usually have header pins so you can just wire them to the arduino. The better adapters provide a 3.3V supply for the XBee and implement level shifting for the logic. At least one of them says that it does level shifting but you’ll find plenty who disagree with that claim.

As your robot and sketches become more complex, you’ll appreciate the fact that the ATmega1280 in the Spider (or an Arduino with a 2560) has more of everything than a Uno - digital and analog pins, serial ports and timers.