1. Home
  2. General Robotics Forum
  3. Whats a good start?

Whats a good start?

Fairly new to robotics and I was curious as to what to start with. I have at my disposal information to learn VB6 and AVR programing. I can solder quite well and have done basic SMD work. I have aquired an interest in muscle wires and have a book on the subject. Want to explore "mini tech" and alternative power.

I'm sure this has been asked many times and I apologise for the tedium, Many Thanks

TR

Reply to
TrailRat
Loading thread data ...

I tried the BASIC Stamp some years ago. Gives you a lot of options for outputs and inputs plus some excellent examples for programming.

Wayne

Reply to
Wayne Lundberg

Hi,

Have a look at Atmel CPU's with bascom avr (Demo version upto 4Kb code). Have a look at your local Ebay for a beginners board with a AT90S2313 or Mega8. I would recommend the Mega8 - more ram,I/O's and ADC's.

Regards Ian Dobson

Home of the Atmel based UDP mobile web cam

formatting link
mails scanned with av-filter.pl (F-Prot / perl)

"TrailRat" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...

Reply to
ian dobson

have a look at:

formatting link
should assist you.

Don...

Reply to
Don McKenzie

Didn't the Bascom AVR free version limited to 2kb code? I used Bascom AVR with the AT90S2313 because of this limit. (the 2313 has 2Kb flash for code)

-Patrik

"ian dobson" schreef in bericht news:dbefnj$2cl3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.imp.ch...

Reply to
RedX

Hi Patrik,

As of Version 1.11.7.9 the demo version compiles upto 4Kb code.

Regards Ian Dobson

Home of the Atmel based UDP mobile web cam

formatting link
mails scanned with av-filter.pl (F-Prot / perl)

"RedX" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:3e3De.148287$ snipped-for-privacy@phobos.telenet-ops.be...

Reply to
ian dobson

Could use any small micro from avr's , pics , z80's/z80e , rabbits , msp430

Depending on your programming abilities there are also others like some of the more powerful 32 bit micros like the various arm7 chips and others. like the philips lpc2000 range.

There is a lot of pic , avr , basic stamp and other micro stuff on the web.

A matter of picking something and getting stuck into using it. See if there is a local robotics club or any friends into robotics etc may be able to help you with etc

Options build your own board or buy a premade one

formatting link
have nice avr boards. Can be used with bascom , avrgcc and so on. Brian also provides sample code to use with the boards.

formatting link
sell a range of avr , arm7 and their pod boards(freescale dsp hybrid). Their "plug a" board range is

Get a few motors , rc servos and others. Get afew sensors etc , learn how to get them working with the micro and move from there.

formatting link
sell a range of preassembled , low cost boards.

Alex

Reply to
Alex Gibson

Since you mentioned SMD soldering and also AVR, you might be interested in my MAVRIC boards which are AVR based and are also available in kit form:

formatting link
Buying the kit can save you money, and you probably already know that soldering surface mount is not too difficult once you learn a few techniques.

You can program in BASIC using BASCOM-AVR or C using the freely available GCC toolchain. If you like FORTH, a free implementation is available here:

formatting link
If you go that way, you'll need to get the MAVRIC-IB which includes the external SRAM on-board, or you will need the MAVRIC-II-RE ram expansion board that goes with the MAVRIC-IIB. BTW, I have tested this FORTH implementation and it runs fine on my boards.

Commercial C compilers are available as well as other languages such as Pascal.

-Brian

Reply to
Brian Dean

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.