New User and a grandson

Mugs

Years ago I won a Basic Stamp II setup and did some playing with it - my Manual is Version 1.8. I did purchase a LCD Serial Backpack from Scott Edwards Electronics and had it working.

As far as background, almost all the radios I have for HAM use I've built myself so it appears I can at least follow instructions and solder.

Now for my question -

My 9 year old grandson asked me if we could build a robot. I started asking him what he wanted and he wanted to take my computer and put it in a robot and get it to do things. I remembered my Stamp and now I need to know where to go from here - as inexpensively as possible - this could turn out to be a one or two weekend thing or he could end up building rovers for Jupiter someday.

Suggestions? Used robot kits available? Donations?

Thanks

doggiedoc

The BS2 is a great starting point for learning Robotics! You can control servo's to turn wheels with it and still have power to read sensors for navigating and much more. There's some great texts available free online on the Parallax main site that would be a great start. The Robotics with the BOE-Bot might be the best place for ideas.

Hope this gets you pointed in the right direction!

Paul

PS : Welcome to the forums!

Mugs

doggiedoc,

Thanks, just what I needed 800+ pages of reading . Actually, I do find I read a lot of this and it does help.....Not sure the grandson will be wanting to play with robots over girls by the time I get this done, again 8^)

It's a great starting place and the BOE-bot looks great. As I already have a Stamp II does this bot come w/o the Stamp?

And again, any place to pick up lightly used bots?

Matt Gilliland

Hi Mugs (and grandson) -

I'll join Doggiedoc in welcoming you guys to the Forums!

Years ago I won a Basic Stamp II setup

What exactly does your "setup" include? A Basic Stamp2, and what else?
-MattG

Mugs

Thanks for the Welcome Matt.

I don't remember what all I won but this is what I have.

Basic Stamp Manual version 1.8
BS 2
BS Carrier Board
LCD Backpack - BKP-216T by Scott Edwards

Thats about it.

I've had some fun with the display and lighting LED's. but it would be fun to make something alive with my grandson and I really like the options on the BOE-bot... I believe you have me hooked...

walkin79

that is exactly the project i have been working on in my spare time for the last 5 or 6 years, i have spent alot of hours searching on the internet and chasing ideas, im using the basic stamp 2 and an old mini pc i bought that runs on 12v, i got an old wheelchair battery and a couple of speed controllers from parallax hooked up to some drill motors connected to rollerblade wheels. anyway the basic stamp controlls the motion and right now im working with the voice activation, the best place to start is with the boebot. thats how i got into it. you can get the kit from parallax.

LoopyByteloose

At 9-years old, a child is really motivated by play. So feeding a rather active desire to play and imagine is very important.

So what I am discussing here is really 'Robot Pre-school' and not the normal point of entry for learners that are a bit older.

I don't think that a lot of talk about bytes, binary numbers, and loops is going to achieve much.

And what a child enjoys doing on a computer is not really what a mature user would do. They like to poke keys and see things happen. Angry Birds is wonderful, the BasicStamp IDE is a bit tiresome. After all, it will be years before he might even realize there is an operating system or that computers use languages of an exotic code.

Don't be too quick to use that LCD unless it is just for fun graphics.

If you started high up, it is never too late to backtrack and review the basics in this fashion.

If you want to get started with a robot, just a BasicStamp Homework board is adequate or a BasicStamp. Added to that a Tamiya two motor setup and a good L298 H-bridge can have you spinning motors from the BasicStamp in no time.

But you have to start at an even lower level with just a toy motor and battery to get a good beginning.

Just DPDT switch might put the child in awe and he might spend a week reverse motors with a DPDT switch.

Then with six transistors, build an h-bridge to reverse control or even better just use DPDT relays. Transistors can be daunting in the beginning and the h-bridge might be too advanced without first learning switching and relays.

I do admit this avoids immediate introduction the BOE bot and PWM control of servo motors. But my own feeling are that those concepts are a bit much for a 9 year old. He needs to fool with the bits and pieces in an empowering way.

What I did is to begin with one salvaged motor and then a Tilden h-bridge (tiny 5V relays might be easier) and a battery to demonstrate that motors could change direction without moving the battery wires.

Only After we played with that, I then did a post-mortem of the motor by taking it a part and showing him pictures of motor internals with names for parts. We even unwound the rather long coils of copper wire and removed the magnets to play with.

Tamiya sells other components to make a complete robot - 4 wheels, spare axles, and a plastic board with holes in it. About all you have to suppliment is the battery holder - a 4x AA cell one. The child gets to assemble gear boxes that are very informative and explore wheel configuratins (4 wheels do not turn well, 3 wheels tricycle arrangements are better)

At first, don''t even use the BasicStamp, but run a tethered robot that is controlled by wire. I used 8 wire LAN cable and made a little 4 button board from scratch. The idea here is to present the child with the idea that switching is really the source of contro and that at least 4 buttons are required to get the robot to move left, right, forward, and back. Also, that buttons are pushed in pairs to achieve straight running and tight turns.

After the child tires of that (it won't be long), you can add the BasicStamp with an IRsensor and IR remote control to have a wireless robot that roams freely. This is really where the question of what computers will do for a robot begins.

You can have the robot free roaming with collision avoidance, you can have an ultrasonic sensor placed straight up that causes the robot to flee when anyone approaches it, you can have it make noises to contribute to effect or blink lights.

Later you can move over to the BOEbot for a second robot and have a better integrated robot for additions. You will also have texts that cover activities. But this is only if you stay with it for the long-haul. I figure the 10 year old boy that I started wtih won't really know much until he gets into his teens.

You can't force feel electronics to a young child, you only can empower them to dream and want to know more.

By starting so low, the child will appreciate far more what the BasicStamp does to automate the processes and to allow wireless control. So I personally think when these steps are skipped, the child often just looses interest in robots and everything is put in a shoebox to be forgotten.

Oh, I nearly forgot. It woudn't hurt to dissect a relay as well and to show him it too has an electomagnet and neat little switches. After he grasps switches, transistors as 'solid-state switches' will make a heck of a lot more sense. Take this slow, maybe 10 weeks to get all fo this done right.

doggiedoc

Mugs wrote: »

...Welcome Matt....

welcome mat - LOL

Mugs

Loopy, thanks for all the information. We'll work on that stuff. I've got boxes of electrionic parts (HAM radio operator and I've built a lot of stuff). Taking things apart is fun and I forgot all about it....

Diggiedoc - really? VERY FUNNY