Axon...MCU or complete board?

[blackheart]

Hello. I was thinking, while trying to find parts for my first robot about axon. If I get the Axon, do I need anything else other than sensors and battery for the basic robot(I still need the wheels, servos, chassis of course) on the electronic side? The board is the axon itself, I think. I think it's a great deal instead of having to solder the sockets, etc, just getting an already made board, easy to program MCU and anything integrated.

What do you guys think?

[Razor Concepts]

You can also try the Roboduino. Uses the same microcontroller as the $50 board and airman (who designed the roboduino) has a modified $50 robot tutorial that works with the roboduino.

[Gertlex]

Depends on if you mean Motor Control Unit or Micro Controller Unit.

The axon is the latter, not the former.  You don't need a motor control unit for the $50 robot.  In general a motor control unit for any motor drawing more than a few milliamps would be a module that you could attach to an axon or roboduino.

But ya, the roboduino would be the cheaper option.

[blackheart]

Thanks. Never heard of the Roboduino, but I am going to google right now. I did hear about Arduino, and I think it is awesome. For what I need, I think it suits me better than the Axon. Although the Axon is a kick-ass MCU for its price.

I think I will go with Arduino, unless Roboduino is better.

BY MCU I meant uC, or Micro Controller Unit.

[paulstreats]

the roboduino is really the same as the arduino. The advantage it has is the way the pins are arranged.
with servos and many sensors, they are arranged with a 3 pin socket (1 for power, 1 for gnd and 1 for output signal). the arduino only has 1 physical pin for each microcontroller pin (this is the signal pin). meaning that you cant plug servos and sensors straight into it.

the roboduino on the other hand has 3 pins for each microcontroller pin (1 for power, 1 for gnd and 1 for a signal). Exactly the same as the sockets for servos etc...

the roboduino just cuts out a little bit of work. (i think they are sold at curiousinventor.com)

[airman00]

I think I will go with Arduino, unless Roboduino is better.

Roboduino is better, thats precisely why I designed it.

Link : http://curiousinventor.com/kits/roboduino
Picture:

[frodo]

what do all of the resonator thing do, airman00?

[blackheart]

I should have created a new thread for this, but hey! I see that Roboduino has male pins. Arduino has female pins. Are there adapters for this matter or do I need to buy servos, sensors, led's, etc with female pins? What kind of pins do most of the parts have?

Roboduino seems best for robots(in my case), but is it also ok for general electronics, like attaching it to a phone and making it send an sms to a high price number, wasting all the credit?(I am just kidding)


I know about the digital and analog ports now on the upper and lower side of roboduino. The 3 pins on the left are for powering the uC, right?

What about the other 9 pins near the on/off button?

ALso, on the digital row, there are extra 3 pins on the left, what for?


Servos can go into any digital port, right??

[Tomas]

Most sensors and servos comes with "female" pins (Ive never actually seen one with "male" pins).

[blackheart]

Are there any adapters? for example, say I want to plug a servo into an arduino. DO I need a special separate board? Can someone please explain what are the other pins on the roboduino used for? I saw the pictures and I know the ones near the button are for programming now.