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I/O Board for Mobile PC-Based Robot — Parallax Forums

I/O Board for Mobile PC-Based Robot

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2010-08-14 07:58 in Robotics
Let's say I want to step up (more like a quantum leap) and make a robot out of my Acer Aspire One, along the lines of Evolution Robotic's discontinued ER-1 robot, which was a mobile laptop-based robot. It's got a camera, vision, tons of memory & processing power, and I can finally use my RoboRealm software.

I need a Windows-based USB-based I/O board that lets me connect lots of A/D and D/A converters, external sensors, servos, motor drivers, etc. And it has its own software, and lets me program in my beloved BASIC. Not just a servo controller or motor driver that gets programmed one time and does its own thing, but one that lets the PC do all the computing and thinking. Hopefully in the $100 aisle...

Anybody know of a product along these lines?
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300 x 300 - 9K

Comments

  • John AbshierJohn Abshier Posts: 1,116
    edited 2010-08-12 14:44
    You could use Parallax's Robot Control Board and add an additional board with an ADC chip. Any microcontroller board could work; you may need to add a USB to serial converter. It is just a matter of software--famous last words. PC sends several values, e.g., left motor speed, right motor speed, pan servo setting and tilt servo setting. The IO cog reads those and updates global variables that other cogs use. Then the IO cog sends variables from global values updated by other cogs to the PC, sonar 1, sonar 2, bumper switches, etc. Repeat until battery dead.

    John Abshier
  • icepuckicepuck Posts: 466
    edited 2010-08-12 17:12
    Here's something that might get the creative juices flowing.
    http://revision3.com/systm/crane
    http://revision3.com/systm/robots
    -dan
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2010-08-13 08:32
    I found http://www.awce.com/gp3.htm which is a little board with ~16 I/Os, which isn't enough for my intentions, but the kit is a good value at $35. Might be useful for someone out there!
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2010-08-13 21:17
    LABJACK !!.it works wonders with NIs Labview .. and for other stuff too.

    Peter KG6LSE
  • Kevin WoodKevin Wood Posts: 1,266
    edited 2010-08-13 23:21
    The Arduino Mega has quite a few I/O: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardMega.

    You would probably need a shield for motor control. I'm not sure if there's a free BASIC compiler available, but I believe that commercial compilers exist. You would also need a programmer if you went the BASIC route (~ $35 for AVRISP mk2).
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2010-08-14 07:58
    This looks interesting for $39:
    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320574091051

    If Shipping from the UK wasn't $23 (15GBP), I would have ordered one already!
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