A little bit of test code

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007

Once the main board is assembled, it can be tested without waiting for the sensor or motor driver boards to be ready. In time honoured fashion, we start with a little program to flash the LEDs. With any new microcontroller project, it is a good idea to start with some simple ...

A new mouse is born

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

I finally have a primus mouse built and ready to test. All the bits are there and the processor runs up and can be programmed. Here are a few pictures to get you in the mood. By placing the components on three separate boards, each is relatively simple to build and ...

Primus pin functions

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

The Primus micromouse will use the dsPIC30F4011 processor from microchip. It has plenty of power and resources for just about any micromouse and is relatively easy to get and use. Here is a list of the proposed functions for each processor pin on the controller board dsPIC30F4011 Pin Functions for ...

Primus Chassis

Saturday, August 4th, 2007

Now the motors are here and the brackets cut, it is time to assemble the bare boards to see what the mouse will look like. Primus is intentionally simple and consequently a bit chunky. Two large and two small boards are needed. These are conveniently cut from pieces of perforated ...

Sensor test

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007

The simple sensor circuit described by Ng Beng Kiat seems to give the best results. On his web site (http://www.np.edu.sg/alpha/nbk/) Beng Kiat describes Min4, one of his recent mice. In there is a PDF with schematics for the mouse. The sensor circuit for Primus is essentially the same except for ...

Primus - a starter mouse

Monday, July 9th, 2007

Some time ago, I described a simple stepper based micromouse chassis that was to form the basis for an open design for the beginner. Well, After a long gestation period, I think I am about ready to start on that. The chassis will be pretty much as described at Minos06 with ...