I have the design of the robot down, I am trying to decide which electronics would be cheap and easy to use. I have the Picaxe-28 board, L293D Motor Driver, and Picaxe 28x1 in mind, will these support 2 - DC motors, 4 servos (maybe 8), 1 sharp analog range finder (maybe a touch sensor or another range finder)? Would it possible to program a battery meter into it? If not, what suggestions do you have?
Hi smutblt99,
Welcome to the RobotShop Forum. The Picaxe 28 is an excellent choice for first microcontroller (also consider a breakout board with cable) and has analog, digital and PWM pins. Four of these pins would be used by the L298, while each servo would likely use a digital output, leaving the analog free for analog sensors (distance, force, voltage). The “battery meter” can simply be a voltage sensor. Can we safely assume you are building a mobile robot? The L298 is an excellent motor controller for smaller sized motors. RobotShop has also put together a kit, the DFRobotShop Rover, which uses the L298, and Arduino (very easy to use), Tamiya gearbox and tracks. Many microcontroller manufacturers also make a mobile starter kit (Parallax, Pololu, Solarbotics). Picaxe has the “Buggy model” (MOD001) which uses a programmable PIC16F627.
If in fact you are building a mobile robot for the first time, consider the RobotShop “How to Make a Robot” Grand Tutorial which will guide you through the process of making your first mobile robot.