Question: Microcontroller/kit for college project (robot)

It's a pleasure to find a student post that is well written !

1) select a breed of micro, say 8051 , Atmel AVR or TI's msp430 2) C++ is not really used on small micros, usually plain C or assembler, look at GCC compiler, it's free 3)Linear.com for battery management, good docs 4) TI.com( unitrode) and irf.com for motor drivers etc

Martin

A standalone Forth system on PIC18Fxxxx.

: Mikael ;

Indeed.

8051 - blech archaic architecture, but heavily deployed in commercial items. Lots of choices of parts.

AVR - a joy to work with. I started learning uC with PIC in assembly language. Once I found the AVR I never turned back. I strongly encourage the purchase of an STK500 from

MSP430 is a nice device. The relevant question here would be whether or not the free tools for it are as easy to work with as those for AVR. Also, whether low cost development/evaluation boards are available. And are any devices available in DIP packages the OP can use in breadboard sockets without having to make PCBs?

I'm rapidly reaching the conclusion that almost never is assembly needed for the sort of thing the OP is talking about. So since Chris needs to get results, I wouldn't advise spending time with assembly. Use C.

WinAVR GCC implementation for the AVR is easy to use and has a good support forum at

What may also influence the choice of device "brand" is whether one is available that makes a breeze of controlling up to 8 motors as the OP indicates.

Hopefully some suggestions for what specific driver chips to use for this will appear. It can be a formidable task, especially for a relative beginner to wade through all the options on a site like IRF.

Consider also sci.electronics.design. Though I abandonded that one a while back due to excessive incivility.

--
Good day!

________________________________________
Christopher R. Carlen
Principal Laser&Electronics Technologist
Sandia National Laboratories CA USA
crcarleRemoveThis@BOGUSsandia.gov
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Hi Chris It's good to see you on the usenet again. Thanks for filling in th gaps.

I'm very bad at that sort of thing, I just tend to give the basics, and hope that the OP can figure out the google interface.

OT. I have a minor optical question, leds and intensity control, what would be the best place to post, I'm not particularly versed in optics (a virgin)?

Martin

There's sci.optics, sci.engr.lighting, alt.lasers (which can tolerate some LED questions, I suppose), and it may fit in SED.

What's the question? If it's in an embedded system or if there's reason to think a uC can be involved, I don't see why you can't discuss it here. Though this might not bring out the largest cross-section of LED and optics experts.

I never left usenet. I just lurk here and there most of the time, and post something every once in a while.

--
Good day!

________________________________________
Christopher R. Carlen
Principal Laser&Electronics Technologist
Sandia National Laboratories CA USA
crcarleRemoveThis@BOGUSsandia.gov
NOTE, delete texts: "RemoveThis" and
"BOGUS" from email address to reply.

Our robotics club uses a controller from IFIRobotics:

that uses an two 18F8722. They're programmed in C using MicroChip's MPLab IDE:

Real easy to use drive motor/wheel assemblies, I just got 2, from:

They have some interesting motor controllers, though I connect to an H bridge motor speed controller and apply a standard R/C PWM input (1-2mSec pulse every 20 mSec) to the motor speed controller.

Then, of course, there's Parallax, easy to use & good robotics support, but the BasicStamp is kinda high-school level programming.

Best bet is an 18F8722 with MicroChip's MPLab. Check Parallax for parts.

Rearrange chairs on Titanic , the Micros and so called =A8Support=A8 software is

dead , useless and an huge waste of vaulable time .

Arm is too low cost , and too powerfull to be considered =A8competition=A8

for PIC , Intel 51 , etc etc .

A.R.M. STR710FZ2 has about 80 I/O pins and 65K SRAM , 1/2 MB FLASH and

costs under $10 , and runs on two AA=B4s .

DS Lite uses ARM MCU=B4s , GP2X also .

Wasted effort using the old crippled MCU=B4s

Assemblers are used only to hide S/W , Forths are created in hours , in L.T. 10KB ,

and used to build a larger O.S.

Problem here , is there is nothing to brag about , the job is so easy , no one will

raise you to genius status , as Linus B. Torvalds , Bill Gates ....

Thomas Lloyd Scott . Worlds fastest systems programmer ..

I would add that the USB-Stick approach is very Teaching/Project friendly.

TI has some good ones, as do Silabs, and Infineon, and ST.

Both TI and Silabs have 'two piece' cheap solutions, where you connect the USB stick for Debug, and then run the module standalone - Silans ToolStick LIN DC is a good example.

12V ready, and Debug ready too. Also has 0.1" pin-holes

-jg