Axon, Sensors, and Robots oh my

[MarkBrown]

I am not sure if this is the right place for it, but hopefully someone will correct me.  Before finding this site, I was planning on buying one of those Lego Mindstorms to learn about robotics.  After alot of reading and much consideration, I have decided I would rather spend that 250+ on the Axon and sensors and building materials.

Regarding the Axon, I am wanting to purchase one for now and use it to build my robots due to its simplicity.  This way I can concentrate on the building, power and programming of the robots.  Once that is down, I plan to either build the $50 Robot unit to perminatly use.  Will this work or are there enough differences in the programming that it might lead to more trouble than it is worth?

Regarding the sensors, I would like to stock up on some sensors for the next few project I am going to work on.  Can anyone give suggestions on which brands of sensors are suggested?  I know I want to get at least 1 ping))), but as far as compases and other standard sensor types, there are so many brands and adds that I was hoping to tap into your knowledge and experience.

Thank you,
Mark Brown

[Afroman]

I think the maxbotix ultrasonic rangers will work a lot better with the Axon because they have rs232 and analog outputs
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8502

[MarkBrown]

Thanks, I will look into those.

What I am wanting to do though is use the Axon for testing and initial setup and then once all is setup, substitute a cheaper MCU when I finish the bot, as I can't afford to by an Axon for every project.  Is there any down fall to doing this, other than not using an awesome ass MCU with the finished bot?

[pomprocker]

I wrote a tutorial on using the Parallax Ping with the $50 robot board.
http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/174

although untested with the Axon, it should work in theory with minor modification.

[MarkBrown]

Thanks very much.  This is going to be a great help for one of the robots I am designing.  I planned to use sonor on it because it will be an outside robot and from what I have read, sonor is usually a more reliable way of detecting object outside in the sun.

[Iron Man]

you could always make your control boards easily removed so that you can just move one board around to many different chasis.

[paulstreats]

Out of experience one of the sonar modules like the maxbotics type mentioned above is a lot easier to use. They output actual distances (they do the maths on the module) to the mcu whereas as far as i can see the parallax ping just lets you know when the signal is received leaving you to do all of the mathmatics and converting sound speed data into a useable distance (meaning having to use timers etc..).