Aahhmm...Behalf of my Majestic Awesomeness,
I would like to ask a QUESTIONs that bothers me always when thinking about the Purpose of Motor Controller.
I was reading about the Lessons in How to Make a Robot in http://www.robotshop.com/gorobotics/articles/how-to-make-a-robot-lesson-1
then I found out that we need Motor Controller in order to control the Actuators.
Micocontroller and Motor Controller must work together in order to operate a Robot.
If you want to buy a present for the person just starting with Arduino, or provide the
next exciting project that will bring a smile to any Arduino enthusiast, or even yourself,
here is my list of great Arduino gifts.
Today marks the debut of the bimonthly "editor's choice" hangout on air, live and online on Google+. This week MAKE editorial director Gareth Branwyn will discuss robots and the Rovera, a new Arduino-powered robot now available in the Maker Shed. As we typically do, we'll announce a special offer during the hangout. 
Arduino was conceived as an open source microcontroller for artists, designers, and others who aren't necessarily techie/programmer types. Of course, all sorts of makers have flocked to this technology because of its versatility. But in spite of its relative ease of use, there's still a barrier to entry for new users. Like kids. For that reason, BirdBrain Technologies' Hummingbird looks promising. They call it "pre-Arduino."
Introduction
[Updated 18/06/2013]
There are many types of microcontrollers on the market, and it would be fair to say one of the two most popular types is the Microchip PIC series. The PICs are great as there is a huge range of microcontrollers available across a broad range of prices. However learning how to get started with the PIC platform isn’t exactly simple. Not that we expect it to be, however a soft start is always better. There are some older books, however they can cost more than $100 – and are generally outdated. So where do you start?
It is with this problem in mind that led fellow Australian David Meiklejohn to develop and offer his PIC Training Course and Development Board to the marketplace via his company Gooligum Electronics.
In his words:
There is plenty of material available on PICs, which can make it daunting to get started. And some of the available material is dated, originally developed before modern “flash” PICs were available, or based on older devices that are no longer the best choice for new designs. Our approach is to introduce PIC programming and design in easy stages, based on a solid grounding in theory, creating a set of building blocks and techniques and giving you the confidence to draw on as we move up to more complex designs.
So in this article we’ll examine David’s course package. First of all, let’s look at the development board and inclusions. Almost everything you will need to complete all the lessons is included in the package, including the following PIC microcontrollers:
You can choose to purchase the board in kit form or pre-assembled. If you enjoy soldering, save the money and get the kit – it’s simple to assemble and a nice way to spend a few hours with a soldering iron.
Although the board includes all the electronic components and PICs – you will need are a computer capable of running Microchip MPLAB software, a Microchip PICkit3 (or -2) programming device and an IC extractor. If you’re building the kit, a typical soldering iron and so on will be required. Being the ultra-paranoid type, I bought a couple extra of each PIC to have as spares, however none were damaged in my experimenting. Just use common-sense when handling the PICs and you will be fine.
Assembly
Putting the kit board together wasn’t difficult at all. There isn’t any surface-mount parts to worry about, and the PCB is silk-screened very well:
The rest of the parts are shipped in antistatic bags, appropriately labelled and protected:
Assembly was straight forward, just start with the low-profile parts and work your way up. The assembly guide is useful to help with component placement. After working at a normal pace, it was ready in just over an hour:
The Hardware
Once assembled (or you’ve opened the packaging) the various sections of the board are obvious and clearly labelled – as they should be for an educational board. You will notice a large amount of jumper headers – they are required to bridge in and out various LEDs, select various input methods and so on. A large amount of jumper shunts is included with the board.
It might appear a little disconcerting at first, but all is revealed and explained as you progress through the lessons. The board has decent rubber feet, and is powered either by the PICkit3 programmer, or a regulated DC power source between 5 and 6V DC, such as from a plug-pack if you want to operate your board away from a PC.
However there is a wide range of functions, input and output devices on the board – and an adjustable oscillator, as shown in the following diagram:
The Lessons
There is some assumed knowledge, which is a reasonable understanding of basic electronics, some computer and mathematical savvy and the C programming language.
You can view the first group of lessons for free on the kit website, and these are included along with the additional lessons in the included CDROM. They’re in .pdf format and easy to read. The CDROM also includes all the code so you don’t have to transcribe it from the lessons. Students start with an absolute introduction to the system, and first learn how to program in assembly language in the first group of tutorials, followed by C in the second set.
This is great as you learn about the microcontroller itself, and basically start from the bottom. Although it’s no secret I enjoy using the Arduino system – it really does hide a lot of the actual hardware knowledge away from the end user which won’t be learned. With David’s system – you will learn.
If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you can review the tutorial summaries. Finally here’s a quick demonstration of the 7-segment displays in action:
Update – 18/06/2013
David has continued publishing more tutorials for his customers every few months – including such topics as the EEPROM and pulse-width modulation. As part of the expanded lessons you can also get a pack which allows experimenting with electric motors that includes a small DC motor, the TI SN75441 h-bridge IC, N-channel and P-channel MOSFETS and more:
So after the initial purchase, you won’t be left on your own. Kudos to David for continuing to support and develop more material for his customers.
Where to from here?
Once you run through all the tutorials, and feel confident with your knowledge, the world of Microchip PIC will be open to you. Plus you now have a great development board for prototyping with 6 to 14-pin PIC microcontrollers. Don’t forget all the pins are brought out to the row of sockets next to the solderless breadboard, so general prototyping is a breeze.
Conclusion
For those who have mastered basic electronics, and have some C or C-like programming experience from using other development environments or PCs – this package is perfect for getting started with the Microchip PIC environment. Plus you’ll learn about assembly language – which is a good thing. I genuinely recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about PIC and/or move into more advanced microcontroller work. And as the entire package is cheaper than some books – you can’t go wrong. The training course is available directly from the Gooligum website.
Disclaimer – The Baseline and Mid-Range PIC Training Course and Development Board was a promotional consideration from Gooligum Electronics.
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The post Review: Gooligum Electronics PIC Training Course and Development Board appeared first on tronixstuff.
The Parallax Boe-Bot has long been used for teaching robotics to hobbyists and students. Earlier this year, Parallax took the idea behind the Boe-Bot and applied them to the Arduino to create the Robotics Shield for Arduino Kit. We in the Maker Shed like this kit so much that we worked with Parallax to have the chassis custom anodized in royal MAKE blue, just for you!
Far removed from the legions of 3D printers featured at this year’s Maker Faire in New York was a much smaller, but far more impressive announcement: The ARM-powered Arduino DUE is going to be released later this month.
Instead of the 8-bit AVR microcontrollers usually found in Arduinos, the DUE is powered by an ATSAM3X8E microcontroller, itself based on the ARM Cortex-M3 platform. There are a few very neat features in the DUE, namely a USB On The Go port to allow makers and tinkerers to connect keyboards, mice, smartphones (hey, someone should port IOIO firmware to this thing), and maybe even standard desktop inkjet or laser printers.
The board looks strikingly similar to the already common Arduino Mega. That’s no mistake; the DUE is compatible with existing shields, so connecting a RAMPS board for your 3D printer should be a snap.
Here’s a PDF the Arduino and Atmel guys were handing out at their booth. A few DUE boards have already made it into the hands of important people in the Arduino community, including 3D printer guru [Josef Prusa]. Sadly, the folks at Arduino didn’t think media personalities needed a DUE before its release, so you’ll have to wait until we get our hands on one later this month for a review.
The Arduino IDE is an abstraction layer for the AVR chip which the board is based around. So it’s no surprise that it is now possible to use the Arduino IDE with the TI Launchpad board. This makes it dead simple for beginners to play around with the inexpensive and low-power MSP430 platform. This is all thanks to a lot of hard work on part of the Energia developers.
The project branches from Arduino so the look, feel, and function are all about the same. Most notably, the color scheme has migrated to red to match the board color of the Launchpad. You can configure the hardware the same way by selecting a COM port and target board. Almost everything is already working, but you should check the known issues page so that you don’t try to use a function that hasn’t been ported. Right now the list includes the random and random seed functions, as well as tone, notone, and micros. There is also an issue with analogWrite; it will only produce half the requested frequency and duty cycle can only be set from 0-50%. Still this is a great development if you’re most comfortable working from this IDE.
An LCD screen can bring a whole new level of interactivity to your Arduino projects. They can provide instant data without using your computer and give visual feedback about your project. Normally, you would use a separate breadboard to hook up an LCD but using a MakerShield and this tutorial from Make: Projects, you can make your own LCD shield!
LCD screens look complicated but using an Arduino it’s not too bad at all. This tutorial will teach you how to hook up an LCD display to an Arduino using a MakerShield. All the components you need for this build are included in the Ultimate Microcontroller Pack.
You can pick up an Ultimate Microcontoller Pack from the Maker Shed, Micro Center, and select RadioShack locations. Call me crazy but I love the look of all those jumper wires!
More:
Using the MakerShield – Button
Using the MakerShield – Servo Control
