For science fair me and my partner are going to build an arduino robot tank and we want to know how we can do that. We are going to include an ir sensor and a Nerf dart gun.
we want to know how we can do that.
Start by listing your requirements. What is the tank to do? Just sit there and look lumpy doesn't require much in the way of sensors or intelligence.
If you want it to do more than that, you need to define what it is you want to do.
You can look at the reference page and playground for ideas about the coding, and the steps you need to take to build up a working sketch.
This science fair isn't this month, is it? Plan on taking plenty of time to get the tank built and programmed correctly.
You can get some ideas here:
http://letsmakerobots.com/node/24029
http://letsmakerobots.com/node/24027 < uses an IR sensor
as well as help and discussion about robots in general at the site.
well for one we want to be able to make the robot move on its own. The ir sensor is going to be used so that if the robot gets too close to a wall it will back up and turn around. Also what if it we wanted to control it with a xbees and a laptop how could we do that. The nerf gun is not going to be used we changed the idea
You need a couple of xBees and a USB Explorer for the PC. I got mine at SparkFun. After you download a sketch, if you click on the Serial Monitor, it opens a terminal to the COM port you downloaded to. On the Arduinouse Serial.available to look for input and then Serial.read to read it. For keyboard remote control I use q, w, e, a, s and d for bear left, go straight, bear right, turn left, stop and turn right in that order. Look where they are on the keyboard and you will see why. Anyway, you can develop initialy with USB and once you have it operating, plug in the xBees and it will work just the same.
there are a lot of xBee how tos, code and what not out at letmakerobots also.
I could use an ftdi cable instead of the usb explorer.
I could use an ftdi cable instead of the usb explorer.
If you say so. You're the expert.
I could use an ftdi cable instead of the usb explorer.
You would still need a regulated Explorer to get the FTDI pins broken out and to supply the xBee with 3.3v and you would need to swap Tx and Rx. The SparkFun regulated Explorer is made so that it mates up with the micro-controller side of an FTDI.
Ok I'll go with the usb explorer