Tombot

Let's Make Robots Robots
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Update - took a few photos to magically transform this blog from a mere “schematic” to a fully fledged, utterly incomplete “robot”.

Like a few others here, I’m trying to optimise the functionality of the picaxe 08. My approach is a little different - that by brute force. Some people prefer a more elegant and resourceful style, but I find that stuff too fiddly. I’m calling this tombot, because it’s ultimately a present for a friends 7 year old. Called Tom.

 

 

 

This robot will navigate using the homebrew IR tx/rx, from oddbot:

which has a great range, and having the tx/rx spread apart like this and soldered snug against the perf board eliminates problems associated with lining up the two components.

The IR tx/rx is moutned on a servo, that will constatnly pan lef/right looking for things in it’s way, so it can run the other way.

It will also have a bumper switch for fuzzy and/or narrow things that the IR can’t pick up.

 

Abuut 2 minutes prior to writing up this post, I learned about using the tristate capability of the iO pins to get a third pin state for control of the motors - but, I’ve already etched the board, and I don’t really need the robot to be able to stop. Anyhow, nuumio promised he was about to do a tip/walktru on tristate operation in a few minutes.

At present, one pin controls one motor - high=fwd, low=bckwd. the signal from each pin is split into two, and half is inverted and fec into a L293. Why don’t I use servos? well, as oddbot says, because that’s cheating, and also, it’s more fun to do things the hard way…

here’s a breakdown of the pin allocations

pin 1 - NA

pin 2 - NA

pin 3 (in/out/adc 4) motor 1

pin 4 (input 3) bumper

pin 5 (in/out/adc/speaker) speaker AND adc input (from IR pulse)

pin 6 (in/out/adc) motor 2

pin 7 (out 0) neck servo AND IR pulse out.

pin 8 NA

Yes, having the IR pulse out on the same pin as the servo causes problems - can cause problems - but re initialising the pin as aervo pin AFTER the pin is used to pulse the IR mitigates that problem pretty well. I couldn’t find a way to get pulsout to control the servos AND use a high pin command - I don’t know why, and I’m too scared to ask the crew at picaxe.org any more…

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the circuit - apologies that it’s small. The two-pin headers are additional power outlets: Aside from the IR tx/rx, bumper switch and speaker, there’ll also be some neato flashy lights and things to spank it up a bit. pictures to follow for those who need them.

 

The diode seems handy for stopping the IR sensor from interfering with the servo and the adc signal is too weak to make the speaker do anything much - it’s only a pizo…

 

Here’s the layout from the top down. The brain-board of the 08M is the smaller one on the bottom, and the driver board is the big one on the top.

It’s not entirely clear why I am trying to so hard to have a small brain board, and then put a big fat driver board on there…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My question to any readers is - does anyone have any snappy little tones they’ve coded into a picaxe? when I say “little” - I really mean quite miniscule, my little arpeggios are a bit tame…

optimsing the 08 by sheer brute force

  • Actuators / output devices: one servo, 2 geared motors, pizo speaker
  • Control method: autonomous
  • CPU: picaxe 08M
  • Power source: 4.8 v
  • Sensors / input devices: homebrew IR sensor, contact bumper switch
  • Target environment: indoor
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/tombot
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First off, cool

First off, cool robot.

Second, I’m glad you used 5 on the chip (where you have the piezo). This is Out2 for the Picaxe-08; the tune and play commands for Picaxe are fixed on Out 2 for the 08 models.

Third, I do have some sound examples.

You can use the play command on the 08 to play one of four tunes (Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, Silent Night, or Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer).

I have composed a couple of tunes using the tune command. I have sounds for the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Song of the Volga Boatmen”. The Volga Boatmen song is a bit iffy, but you can work with it to make it better, probably.

I have also used the sound command to do a few simple sequences of buzzes and rising tones.

I will post the code for all on a tip. Good luck.

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Tunes on the 08m

Have you played with the ringtone wizard? You can convert any Nokia RTTTL ringtone into a ‘tune’ command for the 08m. There’s a link to a couple of zipped files full of RTTTL ringtones on the TechSupplies website and others available in the Web (although it’s hard to find a genuine free site). If you’re musically inclined you can write your own or create them from sheet music.

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IR sensor

Hello i’m new to this thing. Could you please send me a schematic with the entirely IR proximity sernsor (the connections for the LED emitter and receiver) and the code, just the part for IR. My emai is [email protected] . I was thinking of making a simple circuit that will give 5v (high) when nothing is in front and will decrease when there is something to receive from the IR sensor (low). I want to see how did u do.