Hey, that's great news, CrossRoads.  I was afraid I had blown $25 (incl. shipping) at Digi-Key on the wrong cable.  I'm looking for it to arrive tomorrow.  A tip of the hat to you, sir.

Uh-oh -- now I gots the heebie-jeebies about connecting the TTL-232R 3V3 to my Pro Mini.  I also have an FTDI Basic Breakout board that does provide 3.3V, but I'd sure like to use the FTDI cable instead.  Not at the cost of frying my little Pro Mini, however.

Necropost!  

I've been puzzling over the voltage question also, since I plan to use a TTL-232R 3V3 with a Pro Mini 328 3.3V, so I was glad to find this thread.  Oddly, a few suppliers of the FTDI 3V3 cable indicated the VCC supplies 3.3V instead of 5V, which greatly confused this hardware-challenged programmer.  Would plugging the cable's 6-pin connector directly and cleanly into the Pro Mini (using a 6-pin male pin header) connect it VCC to VCC?  If so, how would I split off the VCC line individually and route it to the Pro Mini's RAW input?  Also, I wonder why SparkFun doesn't carry the TTL-232R 3V3?

Making progress.  Picked up the IR LED, resistors, and wire today, and I just ordered the Maxbotix LV-EZ1 range finder from SparkFun.  Maybe I can start hooking up the power and IR this evening.

Glad you still check in now and again.  Make that relieved -- I wasn't looking forward to bumbling forward without your input.  If you don't mind a hardware neophyte-type question, what values of IR LED and resistor did you use?

And how did you connect stuff up? Where on the robot did you connect the power wire to the Pro Mini?  And how did you securely position the IR LED?  My goal is minimal modification of the robot chassis itself, which precludes drilling holes, cutting, filing, or otherwise trimming stuff, unless I absolutely have to.

You mentioned sonar.  I'd sure like Shorty to have sonar, after I get the Pro Mini talking to him.  I'm approaching this project one stumble at a time.

As for my modest progress to this point, my laptop is talking to the Pro Mini via an FTDI USB cable.  (I also have the FTDI USB to TTL serial board available to use as an alternative to the cable, after I pick up an A to B USB cable.)  I've fiddled with some of the IDE's example sketches, and compiled and uploaded your code (library version) to the Pro Mini, and it didn't complain.  Everything seems to be working correctly so far.

You incorporated a shield, but I think I'm just going to use the bare Pro Mini itself, and wire everything directly to it.  I'll attach it vertically, with two-sided foam tape, since those two flat, handle-like structures will serve nicely as standoffs.

I appreciate the response.

Drat!  Looks like knuckles 904 bit the dust.  I was hoping to get a wiring diagram to help me connect my Pro Mini to the i-Sobot just like he did.  Pretty tough to infer from the photos of the perf board.  Can anyone shed some light for this hardware-challenged programmer?

knuckles904, are you still around?  I'm going to attempt to Arduinoize Shorty, my i-Sobot, like you did with yours.  To that end, I've obtained a Pro Mini 328 3.3V and FTDI Basic Breakout board, as well as an FTDI TTL 232R 3V3 cable.  I'll probably be thrashing around a lot, since I have minimal hardware experience, aside from assembling a Netronics Elf kit (http://www.qwkslva.com/Museum/Netronics_Elf/elf2b.jpg), but I'm working through some basic electronics tutorials, including Getting Started With Arduino at http://tronixstuff.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/getting-started-with-arduino-chapter....  I have over sixteen years' programming experience, however, and I hope to use your code as a starting point.  Have you refined it further, and did you succeed in controlling the servos individually?  Hope you haven't abandoned the project.