First off I am an absolute newb to robotics, electronics, and programming. That said, the tutorial is very helpful and I have spent hours on these forums reading valuable information. Thanks.
With alot of difficulty, I have soldered the circuitboard together and plugged in the 6 pin, more expensive cord. After fooling around with the ISP frequency in AVR studi, the photovore program and the servo program writes, reads and verifies successfully (sometimes, randomly, it does not). Each time I erase then upload the program, one of the two servos just slightly moves (not even 90 degrees) then stops. Thats it. Sometimes it doesnt even do that. I thought this was 'centering', but it happens whether it is the photovore program or the servo program.
I have not used a multimeter yet (I will do this today), I do not have the photosensors plugged in and I have not modded the servo yet (how could I if the program won't work?).
Some questions are substantive.. some are just for my understanding:
1 - If AVR Studio successfully writes, reads and verifies the program.. doesn't this mean that the circuitry connected to the 9V is correct and I don't have to even check that side w/ the multimeter?
2 - If the Servo moves slightly, what does this mean about the circuitry?
3 - Do I need the photosensors plugged in to run 'photovore' and have it move the servos continously? If it is unmodded, how are the servos supposed to react?
4 - My LED doesn't light up.. what gives? I checked that the positive and negative are in the right place.
5 - My ISP frequency in AVR Studio is at 200khz.. I understand 1/4 should be 2mhz.. I read the post on this but it is still not clear. Is 200khz sufficient since it is writing OK (most of the time)? Might this have something to do with the fact that it only writes, reads and verifies SOME of the time.
Sorry for the dumb questions but like I said this is all absolutely new to me. Again, nice helpful forums here! Thanks!