Simple microcontroller, UK?

Posted by on September 5, 2006, 6:20 pm

Hi,

I want to get started in building a simple robot, mainly to help get my
kids interested in science, programming etc. Also because it is kind of
a childhood dream of my own :)

I am a programmer, with a somewhat rusty background in electronics. I
think I can find the bits to do the mechanics, but I don't know what to
use for the controller.

Ideally I would like a little board with built in IO, and programable
in some reasonable language via serial (or USB?).

Any recomendations?

Dom

Posted by YoghiTheBear on September 5, 2006, 6:57 pm

> Any recomendations?
>
>

http://www.parallax.com/ ?????

to start........

enjoy

Paolo

Posted by Jon Sutton on September 6, 2006, 5:12 am

domblack@umpire.com wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I want to get started in building a simple robot, mainly to help get my
> kids interested in science, programming etc. Also because it is kind of
> a childhood dream of my own :)
>
> I am a programmer, with a somewhat rusty background in electronics. I
> think I can find the bits to do the mechanics, but I don't know what to
> use for the controller.
>
> Ideally I would like a little board with built in IO, and programable
> in some reasonable language via serial (or USB?).
>
> Any recomendations?
>
> Dom
>

For UK suppliers you could try:
http://www.milinst.com
Have a range of Stamp hybrid ICs and development kits that can be
programmed in Basic or Java

http://www.robot-electronics.co.uk/shop/index.htm
Stock the Brain stem modules that are programmed in a C variant. and
have a couple of output modules available to plug straight in.

http://www.active-robots.com/products/controllr/
have a broad range of single board controllers including the Handy board.

I've bought stamps from Milford instruments before and found them fairly
easy to play with. If a little lacking in hardware facilities and speed
for anything but the most basic applications.

Hope this helps.
Jon.

Posted by ian dobson on September 6, 2006, 1:27 pm

Hi,

Have a look at an Atmel AVR experiment board (go you you next Ebay and have
a look around) or this:- http://www.chipenable.co.uk/products.htm.

Simple boards with a Mega8 or 32 can be picked up for a good price. And to
program them have a look at Bascom AVR, the demo version has a limitation
that it only compiles 4Kb code but that's alot for AVR's (my webcam
controller base only requires about 3.5Kb including the NE2000 network
driver).

Regards
Ian Dobson

Home of the Atmel based UDP mobile web cam http://www.planet-ian.com
All mails scanned with av-filter.pl (F-Prot / perl)

> Hi,
> I want to get started in building a simple robot, mainly to help get my
> kids interested in science, programming etc. Also because it is kind of
> a childhood dream of my own :)
> I am a programmer, with a somewhat rusty background in electronics. I
> think I can find the bits to do the mechanics, but I don't know what to
> use for the controller.
> Ideally I would like a little board with built in IO, and programable
> in some reasonable language via serial (or USB?).
> Any recomendations?
> Dom
>

Posted by KenLem on September 6, 2006, 2:08 pm

> > Ideally I would like a little board with built in IO, and programable
> > in some reasonable language via serial (or USB?).

www.parallax.com has a wide range of controllers from the Basic Stamp 1
to the newly introduced Propeller. They also produce excellant quality
documentation that explain everything in great details.

I would start with the Basic Stamp 2 - What's a Microcontroller
package. It's a great value for the money.

Ken
http://www.speechchips.com

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