Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: BEAMer on February 18, 2009, 06:40:16 AM

Title: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: BEAMer on February 18, 2009, 06:40:16 AM

hi,

i have seen many Robotic development boards with AVR microcontrollers powering them, like the Axon and the arduino... But i have not seen anything like the axon or the arduino powered by PIC microcontrolers...

Are there any boards like that??? I am kinda comfortable with PICs, thats why!!

BEAMer

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: jka on February 18, 2009, 11:36:41 AM

There is the PICaxe, but it's programmed in BASIC, not C or assembler. I use PIC's too, but I build my own boards. You may be able to use some of the Microchip evaluation boards, but I haven't tried them.

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: madchimp on February 18, 2009, 04:24:50 PM

I believe the oopic line is based on pics they have a decent ide and are programmed in a variation of java, basic or c I have an oopic-r which I've only toyed with haven't really done much with and now I'm considering not even using it since I haven't found a way to program it from Linux yet.

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: airman00 on February 18, 2009, 07:58:29 PM

Cerebellum Microcontroller
(http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/tlauwers/cereb.jpg)

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: BEAMer on February 19, 2009, 11:57:10 AM

thanks for the valuable info...  :)

BEAMer

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: ArcMan on February 19, 2009, 03:45:24 PM

Also, Sparkfun.com sells Olimex dev boards.  That's what I use.  For about $15 you get a dev board with a voltage regulator, RS232 serial port and a 20 MHz crystal oscillator.

Also about the OOPIC board.  It's an awesome dev board and you don't have to use the wonky OOPIC objects or the extremely slow BASIC.  I just connected a ICD pigtail onto the board and now I use it with compiled C.

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: MaltiK on February 19, 2009, 07:29:38 PM

Cerebellum has been discontinued for years... :/

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: HyperNerd on February 22, 2009, 02:44:49 AM

How do you feel about making your own circuit boards? If you are comfortable with this, you could throw together a pretty decent board for little money.

Also, what kind of features are you looking for? ADC, PWM, UART, USB / Serial? I could design a board for you if you wished. If you need only a board with a voltage regulator and UART, go with one of the Olimex boards. If you need servo connections or LEDs / Screen, then think about designing your own board.

 -HyperNerd

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: BEAMer on February 28, 2009, 08:02:00 AM

hi...
yeah i am really thrilled by the thought of making my own dev board... i would like to have almost all the features on it. Mostly i will be using the board for datalogging, so i would need ADC and USART. further i will be using it for robotics, so i will be needing PWM and all other ports... thats all


BEAMer

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: HyperNerd on February 28, 2009, 09:38:34 AM

Do you have a circuit board CAD program to design the schematics/board in? if not, try out EAGLE (http://www.cadsoft.de/), it's free! ;D

There are loads of tutorials on it, just do a google search!

 -HyperNerd

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: BEAMer on February 28, 2009, 11:54:10 AM

i have not used a circuit board CAD program before.. anyway i ll try EAGLE, since its free  ;D

Thank you!

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: HyperNerd on March 01, 2009, 01:48:12 PM

EAGLE's really easy! You just drag on the components you need, then link up all the relevant pins. Then click the 'switch to board' button and you see the board design. Move the components to where you want them to be on the circuit board, and click 'autoroute' to add all the traces!

 -HyperNerd

PS. Attached is an example schematic of a LM555 timer circuit

Title: Re: Robot development boards using PIC micros
Post by: BEAMer on March 02, 2009, 10:39:55 AM

thank you very much....

BEAMer.