Some questions about the Boe-Bot
Greetings, 
I have some questions about my Boe-Bot that I hope someone could help me with:
- Sometimes my Boe-Bot gets stuck against some obstacle and I can hear the motors working hard, but with the wheels not spinning, or only spinning slowly. I am wondering if it is possible for the Boe-Bot to measure the current going into the motors, so that it knows when it is stuck. (I am thinking that the current draw would go up when the Boe-Bot is struggling against some obstacle.)
- Is there a way for the Boe-Bot to write a "datalog" to it's memory? The eventual goal would be for the Boe-Bot to build an internal map about it's surroundings by exploring and "remembering" the locations of obstacles. (I am guessing that I would also need something like wheel-encoders and/or an electronic compass.)
- I would like to connect some dual-color, 2-pin LED's to the breadboard that would indicate some internal state of the Boe-Bot. For example, the LED would be green when going forward, and would switch to red when backing-up. From the examples in the Boe-Bot manual I see how to send a "high" signal to a regular LED. But how do I reverse the current to make the dual-color (2-pin) LED change color?
Since I am new to microcontrollers, I am kind of clueless.
Any help or input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
I have some questions about my Boe-Bot that I hope someone could help me with:
- Sometimes my Boe-Bot gets stuck against some obstacle and I can hear the motors working hard, but with the wheels not spinning, or only spinning slowly. I am wondering if it is possible for the Boe-Bot to measure the current going into the motors, so that it knows when it is stuck. (I am thinking that the current draw would go up when the Boe-Bot is struggling against some obstacle.)
- Is there a way for the Boe-Bot to write a "datalog" to it's memory? The eventual goal would be for the Boe-Bot to build an internal map about it's surroundings by exploring and "remembering" the locations of obstacles. (I am guessing that I would also need something like wheel-encoders and/or an electronic compass.)
- I would like to connect some dual-color, 2-pin LED's to the breadboard that would indicate some internal state of the Boe-Bot. For example, the LED would be green when going forward, and would switch to red when backing-up. From the examples in the Boe-Bot manual I see how to send a "high" signal to a regular LED. But how do I reverse the current to make the dual-color (2-pin) LED change color?
Since I am new to microcontrollers, I am kind of clueless.
Any help or input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Comments
There's a bi-color LED intro in Chapter·2, Activity #5 in What's a Microcontroller? Parts Kit and Text (v2-2).· Follow the link to·find the PDF download.·
You·can program your Boe-Bot to datalog with·various combinations of the DATA, WRITE, and READ commands.· There are datalogging examples all over the place, but since you'll already have What's a Microcontroller on-hand, check Chapter 7, Activity #3 for a simple datalogging example.
Yes, an encoder is pretty much necessary, here's a link to one.· Boe-Bot Digital Encoder Kit
Good luck!
I'll give it a try.