Content in “Absolute beginners”

im thinking of making a robot that could follow one's feet, by using infrared.

the idea would be to use two or more infrared LED's and attach them to my Shoes and then two infrared sensors on the robot. it would roll a bit, then read witch sensor riceves more IR light, turn that way, roll, and repeat.

any chance it would work? Or am i just talking crazy talk?

 

 

I thought i'd make this post to help any beginners that also run into this problem, i wasted a good hour and a half on this, so hopefully no one else has to.

Hey guys...another question...which would you use and how?

I want to make a rack and pinion armature system for my bot. But I'm unsure of which direction I should go...Let me explain my ideal setup.

Two parallel rails that run in parallel with the rack. the Motor would be on a platform that uses bearing to run in the rails and the pinion to drive the platform back and forth. similar to a gantry.

Ok, so i have my Arduino, 3 x servos and an ultrasonic range finder.  Running all these at once from the 5v that the arduino provides is not supplying enough current (i think). I can run at maximum any two of these components from the 5v.

So i guess my solution is that i need to supply the servo's with their own separate power source.

If i hook up some AA batteries to the + wires of the servos connect the gnd to the gnd and the PWM wire to the arduino, will this work? How have other people dealt with this problem?

Can you make a 3d LED cube with an Picaxe 28x1.  Like a 3x3x3 or bigger.  It something second I would love to do.  Robot is the first thing I want to do but learning more about LED and wanted to know if it is possible to do something like this.  I can't wait till I place my order in soon to get this and share my project with everyone.

Well I know this had maybe been ask a long time ago so I was wondering where could we get the full package of the picaxe 28x1.  This include the USB cord also.  I remember seeing I think an UK site that comes with it but show sparkfun doesn't.  They actually charge you another $26.  That $64 and not including shipping.  Seem a bit high to me.  Forgot to mention I'm from the U.S.

i recently ruined my 2 gm-9 motors because i soldered the wire to the board and to the 2 motors, and i moved the motors around to get the balance right.  i snaped the copper connections off of the 2 motors because the wire was so stiff that it just tourqed them off.

 Can i use a different kind of wire?  What kind of wire should i use that will have more give than this stiff hookup wire?

HELLO guys,

TOday i got my first Picaxe board, and i want to make a bulb light up.

---

  This is the board,

 

THis is where im connecting:

 

 I typed in my Piaxe editor,

High 3

Low 3

and a message came saying something about Sucsses and uploading.

but the bulb didnt do anything,

Can anyone tell me why it doesnt work?

So i've just started getting into electronics for the purposes of robots and the learning experience. 

 

Last night i manually built a H-Bridge using 4 transistors in a layout exactly like the one pictured here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-bridge

 

I then used the arduino to control the 4 transistors turning them on and off two at a time to redirect current through the motor different  directions.

I was just wondering what other things i should look out for in a real cicuit to do this, protection diodes ?

 

I am ready to place the order(s) for my parts for my first bot, however do to the overall total, which is right around $130 USD I will be doing it in two parts, off of two different paychecks.

 I figured a good way to go would be to get the most expensive order out of the way, which is the one with the PICAXE starter kit, so I could start programming with some LEDs and such and such that I can pick up for cheap at Radio Shack.  However I have a few questions to make sure I have everything right.

 

So, here's my list that I am getting from Sparkfun