Hi.
I wish to build a simple robot and need some electronics and a development environment.
The robot:
The robot should wait for a start signal which would consist of pressing a button or, even better, receiving a signal from a hobby type radio control. Once started, a rotator would rotate to a start position, flash switch a low voltage circuit on for a duration of ~200ms, rotate a predefined number of degrees, flash switch the low voltage circuit, rotate.... and so on.
Wait for start -> rotate -> switch -> rotate -> switch .....
It should do this for 360* of rotation.
It should be completely battery powered so I can move it around freely.
The rotator:
I would like to use Lynxmotion's rotator as it looks to be exactly what I need.
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Product.aspx?productID=579&CategoryID=35The development environment:
I would much prefer to use Linux to develop and test the software for this microcontroller based robot. I have plenty of access to Windows but I spend 99% of my time with Linux so this is where I am comfortable.
I would like the language to be C. I have a few decades of C experience and prefer this language but I can write in pretty much anything.
The electronics:
I would like to build the least amount of electronics possible. I can certainly add some supporting circuitry but I don't want to go to the board making level. If I can spend a little more on someone else's controller, this is what I much prefer.
Current ideas:
I've done quite a bit of reading on this site and others. It would seem I need to look at an AVR controller so I can cross-compile the code on a linux box.
I would appreciate it if someone were to suggest a board that can control 3 R/C servo channels of output and also has a few channels of input. I'll need a programmer and all that stuff too. I prefer to keep it under $500 but do have some flexibility.
Thank you in advance,
Tom (the new guy)