Musings on the Human Condition

[Everything in this robot is built from scratch, no kits used (except for the chassis).] I finally found the time to add remote control capability to the robot I had created around this time last year. Check out my earlier blog entry for details on how I created the core robot . After building the core robot (see link above) and getting it working, I decided that the next best step would be to add remote control capability to it so that it could be moved around as desired. I decided to try the Vishay TSOP4838 infrared remote receiver/sensor. I first created a proof of concept for the remote and the receiver. Even though I have several remotes at home, I decided to buy a cheap and simple remote just for the robot so that I could do all of my testing without interrupting those at home who wanted to watch TV. As it turns out, any infrared remote can be made to work with the robot. Just get your program to spit out (to the serial console) the received raw codes from the remote ...

PICAXE 08M2+ I generally prefer to do things the hard way. For example, you can either microwave a frozen dinner or cook from scratch. The microwave option is a good backup plan, but cooking from scratch has far too many advantages, as I outlined in a recent blog post on the do-it-yourself way of life. In the electronics and robotics world, the analogy of cooking from scratch is to build circuits using a bare bones micro-controller chip (e.g. the PICAXE ) rather than a fancy board (e.g. the Arduino ). Therefore, once I get a circuit working with the packaged Arduino approach (e.g. this robot I built recently), I usually try to replicate the circuit using more basic components like the PICAXE. My decision to consider the PICAXE was influenced by Charles Platt's coverage of it in his awesome book Make: Electronics . But essentially, I am a minimalist and I want to see how much I can get done with a bare bones chip rather than a bulky board-based micro-controller like the Ar...

Arduino Robot | Step 1 (Basic Operation) I started this series of projects to teach my kids (Ria and Ronak) about programming, electronics, mechanics and robotics. Although this design has been informed by numerous books, videos and articles (see references below), the final design is my own (not kit-based, except for the chassis, or copied verbatim from anywhere) and I will have to take responsibility for any flaws and imperfections. However, as you can see from this  video  I uploaded to YouTube, it does work reasonably well for its intended goal. Component List Arduino Uno. I plan to switch to the smaller Arduino Nano to see whether the Uno is overkill for this project. Subsequently, I also plan to see how far I can get with the ATtiny85V, PICaxe 08M2 and any other smaller micro-controllers worth trying. Breadboard. I know how to solder (and you should, too), but it's not much fun at all and risks burning out components. Breadboards are great for prototypin...