Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: dellagd on May 06, 2009, 08:02:07 PM

Title: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 06, 2009, 08:02:07 PM
hi-
I have a BS2 board of education and am wanting to upgrade to a c programmable board/microcontroller. what would you recomend?
plz keep the price small too
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: Webbot on May 06, 2009, 08:23:51 PM
How about $50 robot board  ::) or one of these for breadboarding http://www.active-robots.com/products/controllr/atmel-avr.shtml (http://www.active-robots.com/products/controllr/atmel-avr.shtml)
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: SmAsH on May 07, 2009, 01:07:55 AM
$50 robot board!
its cheap and can have almost everything that the arduino/roboduino has.
or if you prefer not to make it, the roboduino is a great choice!
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 07, 2009, 05:30:10 AM
I know that
I tried to build one but mine just wont work
solderings fine
voltage out of the regulator
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: SmAsH on May 07, 2009, 05:33:04 AM
well, there must be something wrong or else it would work ;)
can you take some pics with something better than that webcam?
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: GearMotion on May 07, 2009, 11:24:39 AM
I'm gonna plug this:

http://www.circuitgizmos.com/products/cgbbb/cgbbb.shtml (http://www.circuitgizmos.com/products/cgbbb/cgbbb.shtml)

(http://www.circuitgizmos.com/products/cgbbb/cgbbb.jpg)

(http://www.circuitgizmos.com/products/cgbbb/cgbbbassembled.jpg)

It is a lot easier to assemble than the $50 robot board, just not quite as cheap. The $50 robot board is good if you are comfortable putting it together that way. The board pictured above just might be easier for some people.

And you can use the Arduino development system to write in C (with libraries) for free!

The board/kit above is $14.99.

Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: aludra_55 on May 07, 2009, 11:46:27 AM
wow!.. that looks really good.. and pretty cheap too!!!    ;D
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 07, 2009, 01:50:33 PM
I think I might have fryed the atmega so first I will get a new one of those.
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: aludra_55 on May 07, 2009, 02:15:46 PM
before you do, just double check them... they're usually pretty durable...
double check your connections especially the positive and negative terminals...
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 07, 2009, 02:41:33 PM
and how would I do that?
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: SmAsH on May 07, 2009, 02:46:34 PM
erm, multimeter.... continuity setting, or resistance...
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 07, 2009, 06:53:47 PM
no I mean like what pins, ect.
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: Razor Concepts on May 07, 2009, 07:13:08 PM
You can't, you have to flash a program in it and see if all the ports work.
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 07, 2009, 08:05:59 PM
well then what program!
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: tralfam on May 07, 2009, 08:31:01 PM
I like the Cerebot II (http://digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?NavTop=2&NavSub=535&Prod=CEREBOT-II) from Digilent. I also have an Arduino, but the Arduino is not nearly as good as the Cerebot in my opinion.
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: Razor Concepts on May 07, 2009, 08:52:11 PM
Just make a program that turns all the ports high and low constantly (and put leds on the ports to see if they are working)
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 08, 2009, 06:11:27 AM
ok
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 08, 2009, 07:16:48 PM
can someone explain if this would work/what it is?
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=29 (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=29)
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: SmAsH on May 08, 2009, 07:28:35 PM
its a dev board that has all that stuff like programmer header, power jack etc.. on the board
it allows you to develop things with the microcontroller easier.
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 08, 2009, 07:29:38 PM
so its basically a $50 board but with no I/O pins on it?
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: GearMotion on May 09, 2009, 10:00:53 AM
so its basically a $50 board but with no I/O pins on it?

It is like the $50 board, with a serial port.

Description: Prototype board for 28 pin AVR microcontrollers with with power supply circuit, crystal oscillator circuit, RS232 port, reset IC, status LED, and 10 pin STK ICSP port.

Works with Mega48/88/168

Has a reset IC, rather than just a pull up resistor

Has a crystal - 8 MHz - easy to change

10 pin ISP instead of the 6 pin ISP


Freatures:

    * STK200 compatible ICSP 5x2 pin connector for in-circuit programming with AVR-PG1 or AVR-PG2
    * RS232 Tx, Rx interface with MAX232 IC on socket
    * 8 MHz crystal on socket (user replacable)
    * Reset IC ZM33064
    * Reset button
    * General purpose push button
    * Status LED connected to PC5 via removable jumper
    * DIL28 microcontroller socket
    * Power plug-in jack
    * Selectable +3.3V / +5V power supply voltage regulator
    * Extension pin headers for each uC pin
    * Four mounting holes 3.3 mm (0.13")
    * GND bus
    * Vcc bus


The jury is still out on what "Freatures" are, but if these were "features" they would be OK features. :-) You get a serial port, but otherwise your i/o ports on the microcontroller are free for you to do with as you please.
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: dellagd on May 09, 2009, 02:08:14 PM
Quote from: parallax BS2 compiler
Syntax: PULSIN Pin, State, Variable

Function
Measure the width of a pulse on Pin described by State and store the result in Variable.

Pin is a variable/constant/expression* (0 - 15) that specifies the I/O pin to use. This pin will be set to input mode.
State is a variable/constant/expression* (0 - 1) that specifies whether the pulse to be measured is low (0) or high (1). A low pulse begins with a 1-to-0 transition and a high pulse begins with a 0-to-1 transition.
Variable is a variable (usually a word) in which the measured pulse duration will be stored. The unit of time for Variable is described below.

*  Note: Expressions are not allowed as arguments on the BS1. The range of the Pin argument on the BS1 is 0 - 7.


Quick Facts
  BS1 BS2, BS2e, and BS2pe BS2sx, BS2p, and BS2px
Units in Variable 10 µs 2 µs 0.8 µs
Maximum pulse width 655.35 ms 131.07 ms 52.428 ms


Explanation
PULSIN is like a fast stopwatch that is triggered by a change in state (0 or 1) on the specified pin. The entire width of the specified pulse (high or low) is measured, in units shown above and stored in Variable.

Many analog properties (voltage, resistance, capacitance, frequency, duty cycle) can be measured in terms of pulse duration. This makes PULSIN a valuable form of analog-to-digital conversion.

PULSIN will wait for the desired pulse, for up to the maximum pulse width it can measure, shown in the table above. If it sees the desired pulse it measures the time until the end of the pulse and stores the result in Variable. If it never sees the start of the pulse, or the pulse is too long (greater than the Maximum Pulse Width shown above), PULSIN "times out" and store 0 in Variable. This operation keeps your program from locking-up should the desired pulse never occur.

Regardless of the size of Variable, PULSIN internally uses a 16-bit timer. Unless the pulse widths are known to be short enough to fit in an 8-bit result, it is recommended using a word-sized variable. Not doing so may result in strange and misleading results as the BASIC Stamp will only store the lower 8-bits into a byte variable.


yep
basic has a pulsein command
Title: Re: microcontroller board
Post by: Razor Concepts on May 09, 2009, 04:55:16 PM
I think using that dev board would be a lot easier than soldering up on a proto board like the $50 robot... maybe it could be added to the tutorial.