Well, I went ahead and swapped the 2 USB chips and to my surprise, both tested good. I now have a working and tested USB powered ICD2 clone on a circuit board. I figure the USB chip wasn't working because of a bad solder job and probably 2 important connections had a short in them. However, my recent SMT soldering skills have become considerably better and the new solder job looks and works excellent. I also went ahead and modified the board so it is using the MC1458 chip. Additionally, I disconnected the Vpp (Programming voltage) from one of the op-amp inputs and that helped increase the prog...

[img icd2_clone.jpg||left]I finally got the ICD working yesterday. I ended up attempting to see what the test pin was on the FT232BL and in the process of moving around parts, it suddenly started working. I'm not quite sure of what was wrong, but it was probably a part that had a short in it and wasn't making a connection even though it was plugged in correctly. Anyhow, after I did that it was recognized correctly as a device on the computer. I went ahead and downloaded the firmware into the device, but it wasn't passing the self tests. After careful examination, I found a resistor plugged int...

[img icd2_bb.jpg||right]I've been taking a break from working on my robot and have been trying to get my ICD2 clone working. Back on 2008-6-3 I built a version that wouldn't even show as a device on the computer. After a little troubleshooting, I found a couple board design errors and fixed them so that I was generating 2 voltage levels now. However it still wasn't being detected, so I went ahead and built a version on breadboard. For the SMT chip, I went ahead and designed and built a breakout board, which seems to have come out good this time and I soldered a couple leads onto an SMT crystal...

[img usb_dip_mounted.jpg||left]I finally went ahead and mounted the board with the USB port and DIP switches on it to the underside of the car beneath the battery flap to protect it. This took me a while since I had to carve exact holes for the parts and narrow the board and coverplate to get it to all fit. I also went ahead and shortened the yellow cable that goes between the bottom of the car and the board on top by clipping each wire, slipping some heatshrink tubing on, soldering the wires together and shrinking the tubing over the soldering job. Overall, I think the result looks pretty goo...

[img car_all_boards.jpg||right]I've been quite busy the past couple days. I finished making the wiring harnesses, I ended up making another board that sits on top of the arduino, I had to do a little reshaping of the inside of the car, I mounted the Ping sensor, and I updated the code. The board that sits on the arduino is quite nice, since it organizes connections and distributes power very nicely. I can plug my servos and sensors directly into it that way. I also added a connector for an MMC card for the future with enough pins for SPI communication and one of the pins to notify the arduino ...

[img boards_mounted1.jpg||left]I went ahead and mounted both the Arduino and the new board I made onto the robot and created several wiring harnesses. I have 2 hooked up that go from the receiver to the PIC board and have another one going from the PIC board to the arduino for communication. After doing all that work, I finally tested it and it worked great on the first try. Today's work will be finishing up the rest of the wires going from the receiver to the PIC board and doing some work on mounting the USB/Switch board. This will include shortening a really long cable (the yellow one in the...

[img boards.jpg||right]I've been working on modifications to my desk the last few days, but I decided to do some more work on the robot yesterday. I ended up making 3 boards complete with parts. I haven't tested the boards yet, which is on today's agenda. One board is the DIP switch and USB port board, which will be mounted on the underside of the car. Then there's the main PIC board, which will read the signals from the receiver and transmit the information to the arduino via SPI. The last board is for another robotics project I'm starting on the side.

I decided to remake the insides of the s...

[img ir_test_setup.jpg||left]I continued working with the IR sensors. Apparently what I thought was working before was just noise in the line triggering the LEDs to light up. I wasn't sure what wasn't working, so I ended up building several 38kHz oscillators until I realized the problems was actually the IR receiver module. I was testing with a TSOP1838, which would detect a remote control fine because the signal from the remote is sent in pulses and that is the only way the TSOP1838 works. I plugged in a TSOP1738, which will detect a continuous stream just fine and as soon as I did that the s...

I've been working on some designs for an infrared sensor. I started by searching for designs already on the internet and have been working on getting something that works with parts I have on hand, and then I'll keep working the design down to use very few parts and as much as what I have on hand even if it means using just transistors and resistors if I have to. The idea will be to design a reusable IR sensor module with a small footprint, so I can mount them where I need them and use them in future robots if I want to. I currently have a basic circuit working, but the next step will be to re...

[img car_with_ping.jpg||left]It works!!! After almost 3 years, I now have a working robotics platform. The first test I did was I just used the remote control as normal and it worked great on the first test, which was a great thrill. I set it to ignore the remote if the first DIP switch is on, so it can be used as just a robot without remote input. After that, I hooked up my Ping sensor and wrote a program for it to back up. I had to modify the code a little, but now it backs up if it senses an object within a half meter and stops when there is nothing else in front. The plan is to continue bu...