Build Your First Robot

Build Your First Robot
Assembly Guide
Additional Tools Required
Soldering Iron
Solder
Wire Cutters
Phase 1 Basic Motor Control
1. Using the guide from the Chassis Kit, assemble the robot body. Before
placing the lid on top read the next steps to attach the leaf switches and
Arduino board. You may also want to switch your soldering iron on so it's ready
for later on.
2. Cut the 3-wire cable at the one end leaving the female header remaining.
This allows you to use jumper wires to connect it to the breadboard.
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3. Strip and tin the three wires and attached them to the leaf switches, making
sure you attach the wires to the pins as shown below. Do this for both
switches.
4. Now affix the switches to the front of the chassis and slide the rubber
tubing onto the steel leads.
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5. Screw the copper spacers onto the chassis lid as shown below. If you match
the spacing up correctly the Arduino should fit neatly on the lid.
You should then be able to easily screw the Arduino firmly on top.
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6. Remove the adhesive backing from the breadboard and stick it to the centre
of the chassis lid right next to the Arduino. This is to ensure the jumper wires
will easily reach.
7. Now it's time to solder the headers onto the motor driver. Slip the short
end of the headers through the holes provided, from the bottom up, and
solder each pin. Then you can push it into the breadboard and wire it up.
8. Wire the components as follows.
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9. With everything in place, plug the USB cable into the Arduino and upload
the Phase1.ino sketch. If all goes well your robot should roll forward for two
seconds, then roll backwards for two seconds, and continue doing this forever
and ever.
This marks the end of the first phase. Run through the code and make sure it all
makes sense before moving on.
Phase 2 Simple AI
Now it's time to make your robot more intelligent. You will do this by using the
leaf switches as indicators for when it bumps into obstacles.
10. Solder jumper wires onto the Piezo (the polarity doesn't matter) and wire
the switches and the Piezo into your setup as follows. It is important that you
add the provided resistors as they act as pull-downs for the switches. Without
them the state of the switches (on or off) will be random.
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11. Simple enough. Now upload the Phase2.ino sketch to the Arduino. If you
hooked it up correctly the robot will roll forward until one of the switches gets
triggered, then reverse a bit, then turn, then carry on moving forward. And this
process will continue on and on. And when a button gets triggered you will
heard the Piezo make a beep sound.
This marks the end of Phase 2.
Phase 3 User Remote Control

And now for the final phase. This one is all about control. The wiring is even
simpler than the last.
12. Find three jumper wires (orange, green, red) and chop one end off from
each. Find your IR receiver, and making sure the rounded part is facing towards
you, solder the wires onto the receiver's legs as shown below. Try and match
the colours because the way you connect it to the Arduino is very important.
Left Leg
Centre Leg
Right Leg
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Signal
Gnd
Vcc (3.3V)
13. Now you can wire it into your setup as shown below.
Now all you need to do is pop the battery into the remote, upload the
Phase3.ino sketch to the Arduino and fire away. The same functionality exists
as in Phase 2 but now you can control your robots movements to some extent.
Power
Channel Up/Down
Volume Left/Right
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- Stop or start the robot

- Increase or Decrease the speed
- Change the pitch of the Piezo
And this marks the end of this guide.
Known Issues:
Switches sometimes do not trigger. This is because interrupts are not being used.
The next steps are to make improvements and add new features. Some
suggestions,
Add a LED to indicate if the robot is on or off

Change the tone of the Piezo depending on which switch was triggered
Add more intelligent AI
Use interrupts to catch switch triggers
Good luck and happy building!
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Build Your First Robot

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Build Your First Robot

Phase 1 Basic Motor Control

8. Wire the components as follows.

This marks the end of Phase 2.

Phase 3 User Remote Control

- Stop or start the robot

And this marks the end of this guide.

Add a LED to indicate if the robot is on or off

Good luck and happy building!

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