The Internet is a grand repository of circuits ideas and plans that you can use to construct your robot. This sec-tion details a number of useful circuits (typically in schematic form) that are well suited to robotics, includ-ing usinclud-ing comparator ICs, constructinclud-ing interfaces to PC-compatible computers, and building your own microcontrollers.
SEE ALSO:
Internet-Informational: More sharing of electronics ideas
Internet-Plans & Guides: Step-by-step tutorials for electronics/robotics construction
Kits-Electronic: Ready-made electronic kits you put together
Robots-Kit & Hobby: Robots in kit form; assem-bly required
Al's Robotics 203718
http://alsrobotics.botic.com/
Gallery of Al's 'bots, including EVO (BEAM robot), Psycho Mantis, and KTX1, a small PIC-based mobile robot. The site also includes a number of useful begin-ner tutorials on robotics and electronics:
• Tutorial for hacking/modifying servos for continu-ous motion
• General information on sensors
• LM339 Comparator IC
AVR-based Robot Hardware 204115 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/seanellis/
avrrobot_hw.htm
Circuit and construction details on:
• Processor module
• Eyes
• Motor driver
• RS232 buffer
• Programming
• Laying out strip board with Eagle
BasicElectronics.com 203787 http://www.basicelectronics.com/
Information, tutorials, circuit examples, FAQ, and online calculators on various electronics topics.
Calculators include:
• 555 timer calculator (astable or monostable)
• Resistor color calculator (written by my friend and fellow author Danny Goodman)
• Ohm calculator
Most of the calculators require a browser capable of running JavaScript.
One of many tutorials at BasicElectronics.com
Bill's Homemade Electronics
Emporium 202047
http://www.mnsi.net/~boucher/emporium.htm
Copyright 2003 by Gordon McComb. Click Here for Terms of Use.
“Information for making your own electronic projects at home.” The basics, building your lab, using tools, cre-ating printed circuit boards, project photos.
Bob Blick Technical Reference 202077 http://www.bobblick.com/
Home page of hardware designer Bob Blick, including a free “tech reference” section containing numerous circuits of interest to the robot builder. For example, the H-bridge page describes a circuit (with schematic) for a DC motor H-bridge of about 100 watts. Also:
• Servo pulse to PWM
• Servo pulse to dual H-bridge
• PIC programmer
• DTMF tone decoder
• LCD serial terminal
• 555 timer as an A/D converter
Boondog Automation 202212 c/o Paul Oh
3500 Powelton Ave.
Ste. B-402
Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
paul@cs.columbia.edu http://www.boondog.comProducts and tutorials centering on using the PC as a host for various automation tasks. Be sure to check out the following tutorials, written by Professor Paul Y. Oh:
• 8255 PC Interface Card (PCB artwork available)
• TRIPOD: Template for Real-Time Image Processing Development
• Controlling Devices over the Internet
• Wireless FM Transmitter
• Parallel Port Interface Box
• ADC/DAC PC Interface Card
• Quadrature Encoder Card
• Using IRQs: Hardware Interrupt Interfacing
• PC-based DC motor speed control
• 8254 Timer/Counter Card
• Infrared Emitter and Detector
• Long-Range Infrared Emitter and Detector
• Visual Basic (DLLs) and PC Interfacing
• DTMF Touch-Tone Generator and Decoder
• Hacking a Mouse for Encoders
x V
Google Searches for Circuit Examples
You can use Google.com to find thousands of schematics that have been posted online.
Some circuit examples even come with printed circuit board layouts. Of course, you can never be sure if the examples you find on some Web page have been tested. If in doubt, contact the author to determine if there are any known issues with the schematic
The basic search phrase is schematic; by placing it first in the search string, Google will base its returned hits with the highest relevancy to schematic diagrams. Here are some examples:
schematic motor h-bridge
schematic mosfet transistor h-bridge schematic "infrared sensor"
schematic "dc-dc converter"
schematic adxl202
Also, don't forget to check the Web sites of semiconductor manufacturers. Many pro-vide application notes with working schematics. See Manufacturer-Semiconductors for a list of several makers of semiconductors popular in robotics.
Bowden's Hobby Circuits 202932 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/
Bill_Bowden/
Site includes over 100 circuit diagrams, as well as links to related sites, commercial kits and projects, news-groups, and educational areas.
Connecting a PC Keyboard to the BS2 203069
http://www.emf-design.com/bs2/reader.htm
Instructional article on how to connect a PS/2 key-board to a Basic Stamp. Programming code included.
DesignNotes.com 202193
82 Walker Ln.
Newtown, PA 18940 USA
(215) 860-6867 (215) 860-8085 info@designnotes.com http://www.designnotes.comFree interactive site aimed at electronics design engi-neers, programmers, and anyone interested in elec-tronics. Features include:
• Designing for Dollars contest
• Design Notes Archives
• Design Forum
• Peer Review
• Designer's School
• Designer's Store (Design, Development, and Test Equipment-software, hardware)
Droid Maker's Workshop 202130 http://www.geocities.com/droidmakr/
From robot enthusiast Clifford Boerema, robot-build-ing help, especially for first timers (but some electron-ics skill or knowledge is handy). Some very nice semi-technical articles, including schematics.
FC's Solar Circuits 202043 http://www.solorb.com/elect/solarcirc/
Plans, circuit diagram, and description for a variety of solar energy projects, including an AA-size battery solar charger. Additional nonsolar projects include:
• Battery low-voltage beeper
• PWM DC motor speed control
• Seven-component-regulated LED lamp
Hans Wedemeyer's Projects,
Code, and More 203705
http://hans-w.com/
Hans shows us various electronics projects, many of them with schematics and building details. Several are ideally suited to robotics:
• Seven-port RS-232 multiplexer
• Eight-channel 12-bit serial ADC
• Dial-up remote monitoring using serial ADC
• DC motor speed control
• Single-channel 24-bit USB ADC
• Bar code reader connection
• Humidity-measuring project
• CNC stepper motor driver
HMBOTS 203433
http://www.hmbots.homestead.com/
BEAM 'bots spoken here. The site provides a number ofBEAM-ish circuits and BEAM robot construction ideas. There's also a very well illustrated guide-with closeup color pictures-to modifying an R/C servo for continuous rotation. One ofthe better guides I've seen.
DesignNotes.com Web site.
How to Control a HD44780-based
Character LCD 202156
http://home.iae.nl/users/pouweha/lcd/lcd.shtml How to control an industry-standard character LCD panel. General info and code examples (for 8051 and PIC controllers).
Laurier's Handy Dandy
Little Circuits 203049
http://members.shaw.ca/roma/
Includes projects like DC power supply and electronic train whistle, and also schematics for a countdown timer, signal function generator, motor controls, bat-tery charger, and more.
Lud's Open Source Corner 204056 http://drolez.com/hardware/
How-to articles with code and programming examples on:
• Atmel AVR-Open Source Software: PWM/servo con-trollers with GPIO and serial interface
• Palm Cybot-Control a cybot from your PalmOS-based device and SmallBASIC
Mobot Building Info Pages 202214 http://www.mobots.com/makingMobots/
From Mobots.com; a small handful of useful tutorials on motor drive and motion control topics:
• PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) DC Motor Speed Control with 555 Timer
• Stepper Motor Tester Using the AVR AT90S1200
• MCUs or Controller Boards?
• Quadrature Decoding Demo
Products and Information for the Student and Hobbyist in
Electronics and Robotics 202930 http://www.hawkeselectronics.com/page_4.htm Among the hands-on projects (descriptions, circuit examples, code examples), you'll find:
• 8051 microcontroller-based projects and software featuring The Zip 51 project board
• Robotics (including DTMF and remote control)
• Wireless
• PIC projects
RC Electronics Projects of Ken Hewitt 203392
http://www.welwyn.demon.co.uk/
Reprints from Ken's articles in the U.K. magazine Radio Control Models and Electronics, such as a motor speed controller V-tail mixer. Parts for some projects available for sale.
Robobix 203706
http://www.geocities.com/robobix/
Circuits include ultrasonic distance measurement, light reflection distance measurement, and simple infrared object detection.
Robot Projects 202066
http://www.robotprojects.com/
This site provides hands-on examples of a variety of interesting robotics projects, most of which revolve around using the OOPic microcontroller (the site is maintained by Scott Savage, the developer of the OOPic). Projects include:
• Racing Rover-Collision avoidance sensors on a high-speed robot
• Big-O-Trak-Retrofitting a Milton Bradley Big Trak with an OOPic
Retrofitting a Big Trak toy, one of many ideas at RobotProjects.com.
• WilbyWalker-CADD drawings and source code for a six-legged walker
• Contactless Angular Measurement-Measure the angle your robot is to a wall
• Recycling the sonar unit from a Polaroid camera
• Experiments with the SP0256 speech synthesizer
• Controlling 21 servos from your PC
Robotics Information
and Articles
204120http://www.leang.com/robotics/
Example 'bots and online articles (good ones) on such subjects as:
• Controlling servo motors with various microcon-trollers
• RF serial communication for the MIT Handy Board
• H-bridge motor driver circuit
• Infrared proximity sensor
For Kam Leang's past and current robot projects, see also:
http://www.leang.com/robotics/
Serial LCD Interface
Using AVR 90s2313 202155
http://members.tripod.com/Stelios_Cellar/AVR/
SerialLCD/serial_lcd_interface_using_avr.htm Tutorial and code examples (for the Atmel AVR con-troller) on interfacing the chip to an LCD panel using an Hitachi HD44780A LCD controller.
Small PC Board for the 68HC812A4 202253 http://www.rdrop.com/users/marvin/other/
otherprj.htm
Circuit schematic and PCB layout for a 68HC812A4-based microcontroller board.
Steve Curtis: Robotics Experiments 202254 http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/SteveGC/
index.htm
Steve Curtis shares his robot designs, with schematics and programming examples.
Tomi Engdahl: Main Page
202838 http://www.hut.fi/~then/Circuit examples, how-tos, tutorials, and more on many different aspects of electronics, with an emphasis on PC interfacing and architecture.
University of Alberta 202025 http://nyquist.ee.ualberta.ca/html/cookbook.html Gateway page to the University of Alberta Circuit Cookbook archive.
Wayne Gramlich's
Personal Projects
203792 http://gramlich.net/projects/index.htmlHere, we learn that Wayne has far too many interests for even one lifetime, but somehow he finds time to play with all sorts of interesting things, including electronics and robotics. What I like about Wayne's home page is that it's very much a work-in-progress, regularly updated, a mix of finished with half-finished ideas, and presented for no other reason than to share with others.
This is not the usual hardware hacker's page: Wayne doesn't just show a picture of his projects with a short description. Instead, he treats us (at least for the more completed projects) with circuit diagrams, board lay-outs, even Gerber and Excellon PCB manufacturing files, should we wish to produce our own prototypes.
Be sure to check out Wayne's “RoboBricks”—a concept like LEGO Mindstorms, but consisting of more sophisti-cated interconnecting modules.
Wenzel Associates, Inc.: Technical Library 203268
http://www.wenzel.com/documents/library.html Technical articles and tutorials. Including:
• Time and Frequency Circuits and Articles
• Crystal Oscillator Tutorial Articles
• Handy Spreadsheets-Calculate PLL response, phase noise under vibration
Wiresncode 202218
http://www.wiresncode.com/
Modular Ethernet interfaces for 8051 and HC11 con-trollers, LCD display module controller, Simmstick-compatible CS8900-based Ethernet interface.