[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...

In case you didn't notice, I found the camera. I took some photos this morning and spent some time updating my website so that I can add easy thumbnails (I don't have to have separate images, they are resized with code). I'm trying to add photos next to previous information that talked about a particular subject, like the sketch of the prototype I did and putting the parts on the small breadboard.

Well, I ended up solving the problem with the DIP switches not being read. Apparently for PORT A (and some of PORT B), you have to set the pins to digital through the ADCON registers. After that, it ...

[img breadboard_small1.jpg||left]I wanted to upload some pictures of the progress so far, but when I searched for the camera I couldn't find it. Anyways, I went ahead and put the 18F2620 onto one of my small breadboards and added all the resistors necessary to run it. I also took the code and stripped it down to it's minimal function by removing LCD and LED test code, which brought it to around 750 bytes, which is quite small nowadays. I went ahead and tried it, but wasn't able to get any results with regards to SPI. I decided to separate my code and set it up for the 2 different chips, so I c...

[img proto1design.jpg||right]I went ahead and drew out a sketch of what I wanted to put onto the first prototype board. In this version, I will only be making 2 boards. One, which I already designed, will hold the USB port that will be extended from the Arduino for easy access and a set of 4 DIP switches. The second board will hold the PIC chip, pins for input from the receiver, and the MMC card. Originally, I was debating on whether to use the 28-pin PIC18F2620 or the 40-pin PIC18F4620, which would give me an additional 8-pin port, but upon seeing how little space I had to work with, I decide...