Micromouse Online

The Allegro SLA7062M stepper driver is a excellent choice for a versatile and robust stepper motor driver.

The Sanyo Denki 103H546 is a completely standard stepper motor in a size 17 frame. The mounting face is tapped with four conveniently located holes tapped for M3 screws. 

For general ease of construction and simplicity for the new mouse builder, stepper motors are hard to beat. They are also generally large and heavy. A bit of a search soon turns up a variety of possible motors for Primus.

The maze has dimensions fixed by the competition rules. Further, the mouse is limited to a maximum size of 250mm x 250mm. When the competition was devised, this was a fairly significant constraint. in these days of tiny processors with everything on board and handy, small, batteries, it makes sense, even for the beginner, to start with a mouse compact enough to perform reasonably well even running the diagonals of the maze.

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 a modular layout allowing the sensors and motor drivers to be readily changed. A pair of relatively small, but powerful,  stepper motors are mounted to the base using a length of cheap aluminium angle available from your local B&Q hardware shop. Some railway of model shops may have similar material.

The processor will be the Microchip dsPIC which has a free set of development tools for both assembler and C programming. It is easily programmed using the economical programmer made by Microchip. A standard LCD display can be added to provide feedback to the use. This could be removed to save weight during a run.

Battery power for the starter mouse can come from readily available rechargeable NiMH cells such are used in a variety of wireless telephones and the like.

It is not the intention to provide the builder with a hot-rod competition mouse. Rather this will be the basis for a more sophisticated beast that can be upgraded as the builder progresses. As most mouse builders will tell you, getting started is the really hard part. Hopefully, Primus will sort that little problem out for you.  

Some information will be posted here but look out for more complete information in the 'articles' section.

The wall follower competition is a popular component of the schools micromouse competition and an excellent starting point for budding robot builders of all ages.

This design, by Duncan Louttit of Swallow Systems, is easy to build, uses readily available materials and is a proven performer. Make one today.

Read on for full instructions...