Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #03844



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Darrell Johnson wundoba@pacbell.net
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 20:46:40 -0700
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: PBS special- Poppers ( full time solar roller)


Jim, you need to get some of those BG Micro motors...

The bicore rover on my web page was built using Dennison's new bitbot
schematic... The entire brains for the bot is contained on one 240 chip,
with the only other IC being a 1381 voltage trigger.. Other than that,
the only components are resistors, diodes, and capacitors.. Would this
be considered a Unicore bot??
I haven't built all the sensors on it yet, but I should be able to get
by with only the one chip.. Right now all I have in it for sensors are
tactile feelers. I'm planning on adding light level triggered reversers,
which will make the bot reverse when the sensor goes into a shadow.. I
just have to wire it up.. (it's based on Wilf's PD comparitor)

Combining the Bicore with the SE and the BG Micro motors gives me an
interesting 'behaivior' that was totally unplanned.. Under full
sunlight, the bot will run continiously, without needing a pause to
recharge.. while running continiously, the voltage just barely stays
above the shut-off level. When a sensor trigger is tripped or a wheel
gets stuck on a small obstacle, the voltage drops and the SE turns off
to charge up to the full trigger voltage. Then when it fires, it has a
bigger burst of energy and is able to push it's way out of the
situation...

If you want to see the bot, it's at:

http://home.pacbell.net/wundoba

I don't have any schematics up yet, as I'm waiting until all the
additional sensors are hooked up and working.

Thanks to all the helpful people on this list!!! I've learned so much
from you guys....


-Darrell




JVernonM@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 5/27/99 7:07:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> dave@solarbotics.com writes:
>
> > In direct sunlight, they move
> > practically always. About 3 seconds on, 1/2 second off. VERY impressive.
> > Gotta love those small escap gearmotors Mark uses.
> >
> I love it! I've been playing around for 3 weeks off and on trying to do this
> very thing. No wonder progress was slow, I was dabbling in Mark's arena (like
> I could ever come close, right). I still haven't got it to work. I never
> thought of limiting the phases like that. I've been thinking, sleep a long
> time, move for a fair amount. Somewhat boring at times. This puts a whole new
> spin on it for me. I love this list!
> Jim

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