While it was very good of ST to make the fantastically inexpensive and versatile STM32F4Discovery board, they have made things a little difficult in the choice of peripherals in places. I use the board as a test bed for my micromouse code. All the micromouse peripherals are wired up to…
Most commonly, the speed and direction of the motors in a micromouse or other small robot will be read from quadrature encoders connected to the drive train. One of the great things about the STM32F4 processor is that it can read these directly. Quadrature Encoder Signals A quadrature encoder generates…
An essential part of setting up a new mouse is the proper alignment of the sensors. You micromouse sensors must have the emitters pointing exactly where you want them to and the detectors have to be aligned to get the best possible response. A simple paper target and an Infra Red camera can help get this right. (more…)
Micromouse sensors need shielding to work at their best. Here we are going to show you how to make a simple, flexible light shield for your micromouse sensors that will cut down the effect of ambient light and reduce leakage from the emitter. The problem with micromouse sensors The common…
Designing electronic circuits takes knowledge and experience. Sooner or later, you have to put your idea to the test. Generally, this means building a prototype. Even with the best circuit simulator software, you ended up with unfriendly or expensive products. Or both. Now you can do a good job with…
If you are taking the DIY approach to coding for the ARM processors, you probably use the GCC ARM embedded toolset. This is available from a number of places. I just came across another distribution of this ARM toolset. One immediate benefit is that they provide pre-compiled binaries for Windows,…
You almost ceratainly have ceramic capacitors in your micromouse or other project. Are you sure you have them properly specified? Are they actually providing the value that you think they should be? This tutorial from Maxim Integrated gives an excellent guide to the ways that you can make sure that…
Maxim Integrated have a bunch of really good tutorial information on their website. This one, on PCB grounding in mixed signal designs caught my eye. Concerns over the performance of the ADC in my new micromouse, D4, have made me look again at all aspects of the design. It is…
A while ago, I posted a way to calculate the position of the centre of mass of your micromouse. One or two people wondered why I might care so much. A couple of calculations with Decimus 4 illustrated why it might be important. (more…)
Good, free running wheels are an essential part of the drive train on your micromouse. Not only is there little point in wasting power driving inefficient wheels but it is important to make both sides as similar as possible to avoid any natural tendency to wander off to one side.…