Boe Bot: Missing Parts?? Green LED?

paulied67

My son and I just cracked open a Boe-Bot Robot Kit with USB and we were going to work through the activities in the "What's A Microcontroller v3.0" pdf. In "ACTIVITY #1: BUILDING AND TESTING THE LED CIRCUIT" it says to use a Green LED .. and nowhere in our box is a green LED. We have -- what we think -- are two different "clear" LEDs and -- what we think -- are two Red LED's but nowhere are there green ones.

Are there supposed to be green ones?

This is a major let-down considering how excited we were...

Electrodude

It doesn't really matter what color you use. Try them both. They're probably both green. Wire either of them up the way it says to wire up the green one. You could even use a red one if you wanted with no other changes to your circuit. It'll be red and not green, but nothing else will be different - it won't blow up or anything. If your clear LEDs aren't green, they'll still light up. You don't actually need to use a green led - any LED will do - they just said green so they have something to refer to. You could even use a purple one if you have one, and it would make no difference whatsoever (but your LED would be purple and not green). It never matters what color LED you use if you're just using it as an indicator for humans to see, even when the book specifies what color to use.

Different color LEDs theoretically need slightly different resistor values, but this doesn't matter for your kit. The only difference you might notice (and you probably won't notice and it doesn't really matter) is different color LEDs will be slightly darker or brighter than other colors.

electrodude

Duane Degn

Many of my green LEDs have a clear lens. As Electrodude says, it should still work even if it's the wrong color.

Make sure you use a resistor as shown in the instructions.

bomber

For the Boe-Bot, the clear LEDs are Infra-red LEDS and will appear not to work but they are emitting invisible (ir) light.

twm47099

In the parts list for the BOE-Bot (page 290 of the manual) http://www.parallax.com/sites/default/files/downloads/28125-Robotics-With-The-Boe-Bot-v3.0.pdf, it lists 2 Red Leds and 2 Infra Red Leds. The clear ones in your kit are most likely the IR Leds which will not have any color when they are on. They are used for experiments with the IR receivers.

Just substitute the Red Led instead of the green one.

There are other experiments in "What is a Microcontroller" that use parts that are not listed in the BOE-BOT kit. There is a package of parts for that book, but it shows out of stock until 30 April. You can find those parts at this link:
http://www.parallax.com/product/28122

Hope this helps
Tom

erco

bomber wrote: »

For the Boe-Bot, the clear LEDs are Infra-red LEDS and will appear not to work but they are emitting invisible (ir) light.

Very true. A common trick to "see" IR light from an LED is to look at it through your (phone's) camera. The image sensor sees IR even if your eyes can't.

Steph Lindsay

Hi paulied67,

The Boe-Bot Robot Kit has all of the parts required to do the activities in its tutorial "Robotics with the Boe-Bot." Here's a list of the electronic components in that kit (follow the link and click Details):
http://www.parallax.com/product/572-28132



The "What's a Microcontroller?" tutorial has its own baggie of parts. The book, parts, and a BASIC Stamp board are included in the "BASIC Stamp Activity Kit:
http://www.parallax.com/product/90005



Or, you can buy the parts separately from the BASIC Stamp board and book, if you like. Go to the link below and click Details to see what is in it:
http://www.parallax.com/product/28122



However, there are a lot of things you can do from "What's a Microcontroller?" using the parts from your Robotics kit, though you will need to substitute the red LED for other colors as you discovered. It is such a common request that I posted a list here:
http://learn.parallax.com/teach/wam-activites-boe-bot-parts


I hope this helps!