I bought a robotic starter kit from RadioShack that could build one of two robots. Im just starting out with Arduino so i know the very basic.
I would like to know what shield came with the kit and the library is to use this shield. i just want to power two motors and go from there.....I'm at the point where I'm about to give up and buy a Arduino motor shield but i don't want to spend more money
There should be documentation with the kit that tells you what shield is being used. It could also be written directly on the board (known as silkscreen). Once you get the name, just google it to find the library you need with it.
i just checked the documentation and radioshack calls it a PCB...on the back of the shield it says Radio Shack CORE PCBA Made in taiwan....ive googled this many times and nothing......i want to know if there is a general library that i can use to just power up two motors that came with the kit
i attached photos..the kit used....the top of the shield and then the bottom.
It's a L293 motor drive, please check the playground for code.
electricviolin:
There should be documentation with the kit that tells you what shield is being used. It could also be written directly on the board (known as silkscreen). Once you get the name, just google it to find the library you need with it.
Except that Google could find nothing relevant.
The only page that looked like it may have the data gave a 404.
Radio Shack has deleted the documentation, code, etc. for the Makeit Robotics Starter kit from its main web site, but everything is still on line here at Github, including the schematics for the motor driver. Look at CorePCB_schematic.pdf. For some reason it has two L293 as pointed out by BillHo, but only one is used for the wheel motors.
There is also a microprocessor on board, so to use the robot, you either have to go through the microprocessor via the Arduino, or cut the PCB traces and connect the Arduino to the L293 directly.
By the way, the Arduino code for the robot is absolutely atrocious, with no comments.
my goal is to be write a program from scratch having the motors move a certain # of seconds and all that.....remember I'm very new to this......what are my steps.....upload the library that came with the github file or from another source.....im very excited and want to get this thing running my own way already.......i greatly appreciate any one willing to help me out step by step
is it better that i just buy another motor shield than to try and use this one to control a two motors the way i want?!
Have you looked at the library provided for the robot by Radio Shack? It has some simple functions you can call to run the motors forward and backward, turn the robot, etc.
If you don't understand how to use those, then look at example software for other motor driver boards.
Only you can decide which path is easier.
Make:it Robotics Starter Kit – Driver Board Familiarization
