Newbie

[Mega]

Hello,

Sorry for my English, but I don't want to expose you to my German writing, since it is really bad... :oops:

I have recently ordered the RP6 robot from Conrad. After following the I-Qbot series (http://www.iqbot.nl/) for almost a year, I now want to start building my own robot.
I've compared a number of robotics kits, like the Boe-Bot, the Asuro, Lego Mindstorms NXT and the RP6.
I decided to go for the RP6, since it seems to be highly extensible, it not too expensive and is programmable in C (which I am familiar with).
One of my future goals with the RP6 is to transform it into a football robot that is able to automatically locate a ball and kick it into a goal.

But of course I will first start with the basics. I hope to learn a lot from you guys, I already read a lot of interesting stuff on this forum to get me going!

I am interested in suggestions for sensors that are suitable for the RP6. I am looking for good ultrasonic sensors and I am looking for a good and not too expensive camera.
Also I would like to know your suggestions for a good online robotics shop in Europe. I have found http://www.robotshop.ca which seems quite good, but this shop is in Canada, so the shippings costs are quite high.

Thanks a lot!
Mega

[Dirk]

Hi Mega,

and welcome in this forum!

I think you will get a good support for your new RP6 here!

A good shop for robot parts in Germany is e.g.
http://www.robotikhardware.de
... or ...
http://www.roboter-teile.de

Greetings Dirk

[Mega]

Thanks for the information Dirk.
The shops look promising and I will definitely have a closer look at them.

Yesterday evening my Robby RP6 was delivered! I was positively surprised by the quality of the robot. It all looks and feels very solid and made to last. Thanks to the extensive manual it was quite easy to setup the basics. Within half an hour I had uploaded my first example program and could let the robot run through the living room, finding its own way by avoiding the furniture.
See my blog (http://megabotblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/robby-has-arrived.html) for some first pictures.

[Mega]

I made my first video (http://megabotblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/robby-moves.html) of my Robby RP6!
As a next step I plan to add some additional LEDs and some light sensors to the RP6. I can use these to get some hands-on with the electronics and programming.

Any other ideas for simple first experiments?
Another question: does anyone have a suggestion for a simple and cheap servo controller? I want to attach one or two servos to the RP6, but I don't want to use to microcontroller to generate the servo pulses.
This controller (http://www.robotshop.ca/home/products/robot-parts/servo-controllers/pololu-micro-serial-servo-controller.html) looks very interesting. Would this be suitable?

Thanks, Mega

[Dirk]

Hi Mega,

nice video of your RP6!

LEDs and light sensors are a good idea! It's an easy way to learn programming with some additional hardware.

... I don't want to use to microcontroller to generate the servo pulses.
Why not? If you only want to attach 1 or 2 servos, you could do this with the RP6 Control M32 board.
But if you want to do it seperately, a servo controller is a good alternative.

Greetings Dirk

[Mega]

Thanks Dirk!

In the end I would like to delegate the servo control to a separate module to keep the M32 available for the main control/behaviour.

Having said that, to get things started I would like to do some experiments with controlling a servo directly from the main RP6 microcontroller. Where can I find examples on how to connect the servo and how to program it?

Thanks, Mega

[Dirk]

Hi Mega,

if you look through this thread:
https://www.roboternetz.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=34407

... you'll find my 3 software examples for controlling servos with the RP6.

One is for the RP6 base, two are for the Control M32.

Greetings Dirk