Newbie to robotics here - taking an electrical engineering class and into computers. I bought about a hundred dollars worth of stuff on solarbotics (resistors, batteries and motors and some ICs some ppl suggested) but im getting a microcontroller next week, probably an AVR, maybe a stamp, not sure - can I use the batteries, motors etc parts going between analogue projects like BEAM and digital ones that are similiar but with a microcontroller? reading about elect. engineering but confused on this ...
analgoue parts versus digital parts confusion!
Feb 16, 2005
3 Replies
don't know quite what you mean, but i'll take a stab. a microcontroller can only source or sink a certain amount, so most of the motor power circuitry must remain, the controller just switches on transistors and relays. for using a digital circuit to control an analog signal, yes a controller can do that quite readily, some need external conversion circuitry, but it's not too different after some basics.
so most of what i have purchased will be adaptable in a digital setting, awesome!
sure, after determining the proper interface type, a lot of microcontrollers with onboard adc's and dacs exist, they might be a little easier to get things done with.
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