the CBA line following

new_garbage · 2011-03-17 01:34

hello..

i would like to ask something with all of you. why i cant use the CBA line following module at my BOE BOT? in term of connection or what?

please help me

Martin_H · 2011-03-17 04:53

The CBA line following module (LFM) can work with your BOEbot with a little bit of hacking. I've used it with other microcontrollers besides the BS2. The physical connection to the BOEbot should be the easy part as the BOEbot chassis has plenty of places to bolt things. The harder part is building a cable to breadboard adapter. I used a bit of perf board and header pins. On one side is a set of header pins compatible with the LFM cable, on the other side is a line of pins to plug into a breadboard. You'll then put jumpers from the breadboard to Vbatt, Gnd, P0-P6 of the BOEbot. At that point the LFM sample programs will just work!

Some questions:

Do you have the cable that comes with the LFM?

Do you know the LFM cable pin outs?

Tonight I will upload a picture of my adapter so you can get an idea what one looks like. I can also point you to any information you may need via the way back machine. On my ever growing to do list is making the LFM I2C enabled.

Ttailspin · 2011-03-17 07:41

Interesting, Where and How can I get ahold of a Common Black Ant (CBA) Line Following Module(LFM)?
We have all kinds of Ants around here, and it would be nice to follow them back to the nest..

oh wait, I see now that CBA is really Canadians Bouncing Along...

Ok, I'm sorry, I admit it, I don't have any idea what the initials CBA really means..
edit: I got it now, it's "cable to breadboard adapter" :nerd:

new_garbage · 2011-03-17 09:57

yes, i have the cable and i know the LFM cable pin outs. still none of the sensor response. ok, i will wait you to upload it.

Whit · 2011-03-17 11:59

@Ttailspin - CBA stands for ChiBot Alpha. It was a beginner robot produced by some members of the Chicago Area Robotic's Group - see http://www.chibots.org/

Also see the attached pdf.

Ttailspin · 2011-03-17 15:10

Thanks Whit,
ChiBot Alpha line following makes alot more sense then Common Black Ant line following..
I really wasn't sure what I should do once I found the nest anyway...

That web sight and the instruction manual has lot's of good information though, thanks again.

Martin_H · 2011-03-17 18:55

In many ways the CBA is an over grown BOEbot in kit form. It uses the BS2e instead of the BS2, a slightly larger bread board, six AA batteries, and slightly bigger servos. But it is compatible with BOEbot app mods, sensor, and programs. It's a fun bot to use, but Mike Davey stopped selling the kits because it was taking to much time.

As luck would have it I can't find my LFM to breadboard adapter. It's probably with my cold fusion powered S2 and it will be easier for me to build another one than to find it. Here's how to do it. This is the header that accepts the LFM cable:

G
n P P P P
d 1 3 5 7
O O O O O
O O O O O
B P P P P
a 0 2 4 6
t

What you want to do it take a piece of perfboard, and two rows of double height pin headers. These headers stick as far out of the bottom of the board as they do on the top. So this view is looking down at the perfboard, and you solder them through the perfboard as follows:

Perfboard front
O O O O O O O O O O
O O O O O
back

The top side of the perfboard with the double row (the left side) act as the LFM header. The long row on the underside of the perfboard acts as the breadboard pins. This means that the back row on the bottom is not needed, so you cut those pins. You don't need the tops of the right front pins. but they don't harm anything either. You should now have a single long row on the bottom. You'll then solder jumpers between the under side of the back row pins to the pins on the far left. The connections looks like this looking down from the top::

G         B
n P P P P a P P P P
d 1 3 5 7 t 0 2 4 6
O O O O O O O O O O
O O O O O

I used thin insulated copper wire so I could make the connection, go through a hole in the perfboard, and solder to a front row pin. At this point you can plug the adapter into the BOEbot breadboard, and put jumpers to the corresponding places on the home work board. The LFM has its own voltage regulator so you have to use Vbat, not the output of the voltage regulator.

Click on the picture below. You might be able to see the header adapter in this picuture:

That one is mirror image reversed from what I described, but the concept is identical.

the CBA line following

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