Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: Kylepowers on October 24, 2009, 09:49:19 PM
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I would like to make my own microcontroller like the one in the $50 robot tutorial but i dont know how to read the diagrams for IC chips. How do I know where sensors gor and where servos go and how would i wire it. Please can some one give me a clue on how to read IC schematics thank you. Also can you inter link multiple microcontrollers?
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Hi,
I would like to make my own microcontroller like the one in the $50 robot tutorial but i dont know how to read the diagrams for IC chips. How do I know where sensors gor and where servos go and how would i wire it. Please can some one give me a clue on how to read IC schematics thank you. Also can you inter link multiple microcontrollers?
First off, you don't make your own microcontroller, you use one with other components to make a microcontroller board.
Secondly, you shouldn't worry about multiple controllers or what goes where in something that doesn't exists - with your selfdeclared zero electronics capabilities, your only option presently is building something already designed, like eg. the $50 robot.
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the $50 robot board is a good board as it can be used for alot of robotic platforms, and it will probably give better results than designing and building your own.
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Yes I see but once I build that is there a way to get more ports for servos that you know of? I want to have a few more ports so I can add more to my robot. If you do can you tell me how to wire that up?
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the $50 robot board does not utilize all of the available ports on the microcontroller, how many do you need?
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At most i would need about 2 to 4 more if that were possable. How many can you have on it though? Thanks
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. . . The atmega8 has about ~15 digital ports on it. only two of them are in use on the $50 robot.
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Really well then how would i split them up. Would it be like 5 for sensors and 10 for servos? How do i get that setup because that would be what I want.
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A picture would probably help you.
You have all the reading you need in this forum. If you want more Google it.
I suggest to do the $50 robot tutorial as start.
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. . . The atmega8 has about ~15 digital ports on it. only two of them are in use on the $50 robot.
Actually the "analog" ports are just digital ports that have the ability to read analog voltages. 14 digital + 6 digital w/ADC = 20 digital pins. If you dont have a crystal then that adds another two. High voltage programming will give an additional 1 (the reset pin).
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Thanks to all of you. I have another question is there a way to add more memory to the microcontroller by adding more IC? If you have any suggestions please let me know.
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Not really unless you get an external memory controller...
If you need more memory than an atmega8 has, look into atmega328's. They have much more.
By memory did you mean flash space or ram?
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Flash space so I can put larger programs on it. But would RAM increase proccesing speed?
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Yeah, with flash space, you can increase it with external chips.
Im not too sure of ram though :-\
how much more did you want?
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Hi,
Flash space so I can put larger programs on it. But would RAM increase proccesing speed?
You cannot increase the program storage space!
It's a common thought for a newbie to think a lot is required, but a microcontroller is not like a PC, where the graphics makes the programs very large. Just 1kB can hold a lot of program in a controller.
More RAM (up to a point) in a PC will speed things up (depending on your usage pattern) since it's faster to keep data in RAM than to fetch code/data from a HD.
In a microcontroller however, adding RAM won't help, since you cannot add to the stack space or scratchpad memory.
You can use RAM (whether flash based or not) as data storage space, if you want to collect a lot of data eg. for logging every move a robot makes for later study, but that's an entirely different story.
Just use the project as designed for now and build up some experience. That way you may get to a point where you will be able to modify such parameters in a sensible way, but for now, you are best served by using the standard configuration, which has proven itself usefull for a number of first timers.
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True When i get farther along ill post about catologing those movements. Thanks again.
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Is the Atmega8 BS2 compatable?
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Do you mean can it be switched out one for the other? No.
Atmega8 is atmega, bs2 uses a pic i think?
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can you use basic stamp 2 on it is what my question is actually to program it if not dose it work with the lynxmotion bot board 2?
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So you want to do the $50 robot tutorial with a bs2?
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Yes but i was just trying to see if the Atmega 8 will work with the lynxmotion bot board 2? If i wanted to connect it to that board latter down the line.
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what do you mean by "connect it to the board"?
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Can i plug it in to the board sence it has a place for 24 to 28 pin microsontrollers. It has a socket for you to choose what microcontroller you want to use with it. Pic of board is attached
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Can i plug it in to the board sence it has a place for 24 to 28 pin microsontrollers. It has a socket for you to choose what microcontroller you want to use with it. Pic of board is attached
No you can't. For this board you need a basic stamp compatible micro-controller board (It looks like you can plug a micro-controller directly in the socket, but actually you plug in pcb which contains the actual MCU, eeprom and voltage regulator).
Chelmi.