Monthly Archives: December 2012

Robot Sentry Duty

Posted on December 28, 2012 by

Obviously, there’s going to be course error buildup. I don’t think encoders would help that much. I’m thinking of navigation beacons, like so: (Maybe infrared? Hmm . . . . ) Advertisements

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Naked ATMega circuit layout

Posted on December 24, 2012 by

This is related to the previous entry and shows the circuit diagram and breadboard layout for an ATMega removed from the Arduino prototyping platform after being programmed. The wiring layout on the right isn’t mandatory, of course, but it does … Continue reading →

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The Naked ATMega

Posted on December 22, 2012 by

Why take the ATMega328 chip off its happy home on the Arduino to sit naked on a breadboard? Because Arduinos cost $22 while the ATMega328 with Arduino bootloader runs about $1-2 plus a dollar for the support components and a … Continue reading →

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Surgery on a servo

Posted on December 22, 2012 by

Servo drift occurs when the potentiometer shaft (the one on the left in the photo) turns from the centered position (ie 90 degrees). I tried to prevent servo drift by soldering the pot shaft in place, but apparently all I … Continue reading →

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Servo Center Location Test

Posted on December 20, 2012 by

It looks like the climactic scene in a monster movie, Arduino vs. Bot. In reality, this setup enables me to keep the ATMega328 chip on the Arduino while I upload test programs to locate the servo centers. According to the … Continue reading →

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Minigris test matrix demo

Posted on December 20, 2012 by

This demo shows that the mini grisbot (graphical robotic information system) test matrix has been successfully completed, with photocells and servos functioning and integrated. (And special thanks to Adafruit for the link yesterday.)

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Minigris test matrix

Posted on December 19, 2012 by

Since minigris did not perform as hoped, I’ve had to go back to basics and rebuild the circuit, testing at each stage. Hence a test matrix, where I build the circuit with a component added, write a test program, test … Continue reading →

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