Help me with Microcontrollers

[cyber0066]

I'm looking for a versatile microcontroller unit. Just some background on me, I'm pretty familiar with the mechanical things (I'm Mech Eng student) as well as software but I know NOTHING about electrical. I've already built a mini sumo bot at school but I didn't touch the electrical part at all. So now I'm trying to learn more about electrical.

For the mini sumo bot at school, we were already given a circuit board so all we had to take care of was the mechanical and software portion. The circuit board was custom made but I was wondering if I can buy ready made circuit boards that I can use for other robots I want to build. Don't know if this matters or not, but the IC  components were:
PIC18f4580 microcontroller x1
MAX3313 x1
MC33886 HSOP package x2
Can anybody tell me what these parts do?

Anyways, I'm looking for some suggestions on a whole circuit board unit that I can buy. Here's my criteria

1. I don't want it pre-programmed. I want to program it myself using C.
2. I'm planning to use the board for a few robots...first will be another mini sumo and maybe some other applications like a line follower or other simple robots. I'd prefer to have more I/Os if I want to make more complicated robots in the future.
3. Have some sort of H-bridge so I can drive motors from it.
4. Some output indicators. LEDs are fine.
5. Cost...under $150. The custom made one cost around $60 CDN and that suited our purpose already.

So I hope these aren't very rudimentary questions...I really don't know a lot about electrical.

Thanks

[ed1380]

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/study.htm
Heres a great site to get you started

My suggestion is that you go to www.digikey.com and use that to find the data sheets for the ic's you mentioned

[snow]

I like http://www.datasheetarchive.com/ for datasheets.

[zamboniman60]

I recommend you get a 12 v wall transformer, a breadboard, and some parts (resistors, capacitors, transistors) from your local gougingly expensive electronic parts store - then get a beginner's guide from the library and muck around for a few hours. It's much more useful than extremely math-heavy theory courses.

[ed1380]

I like http://www.datasheetarchive.com/ for datasheets.

bookmarked
Thanks

[Brandon121233]

First of all, currently I am not aware of any microcontroller development board which has a good H Bridge motor driver built in. Your probably better off buying one like this separately http://www.hobbyengineering.com/H1918.html. Now on to the microcontroller, you mentioned under $150, so I have a couple of suggestions about where to get started: If you want an AVR based controller board I would suggest the Wiring Programming Platform http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=744. The Pololu Orangutan Robot Controller http://www.pololu.com/products/pololu/0225/ seems to be a good choice as well. Another often used board is the MIT Handy Board http://www.handyboard.com/hardware/, it is based on the Motorola MC68HC11, but it is a bit more expensive. If you want a lower end board that still has many features I would suggest the Arduino board http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=666, I just ordered the Arduino myself and I am anxious to find out how much it can do.