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Pictures of the 2p40 based Controller Board |
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This is a picture of
our controller PCB. Click
here for more technical detail. The front of the robot is to the left. The switch upper right is the Main Power Switch. The green LED lower left is the power indicator. The 2.1 mm DC power connector is middle right. Plus is the center pin. |
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Notice the heat sinks on the processor and servo regulators
in the center of the board. Both regulators are 1 Amp Low Drop Out (LDO) type. The small black square to the left and slightly above the DC Power Jack is the Basic Stamp® 2p40 chip. It has 48 leads on 0.020" (actually 0.5mm) centers. That is a real soldering challenge! Stamp 2p40 connections - Programming the 2p40 is through a 9 pin RS-232 connector in the lower right. The 20 pin connectors on the right edge are 2 of the 8 bit ports for the 2p40 processor. The one on top, just to the left of the power switch, is the third 2p40 port. A single 2p40 3 pin servo type port is hidden in this photo by the filter capacitor. The 3 pushbutton "mode" switches on the bottom and their corresponding LEDs just above them allow giving various inputs to and display from the 2p40. The black circle above left from the mode 2 switch is the beeper. It has a jumper that allows you to disconnect it and take the output to your own speaker/amplifier instead. The switch above and to the right of the Mode 0 switch is the 2p40 reset switch. The Co-Processor is the socketed 28 pin DIP package with the white label. It is pin compatible to the Microchip PIC® 16F87X family of processors so advanced users can replace the Co-Processor with their own PIC part and program it for their own functions. The connector just below it allows In-Circuit programming from an ICD module. Co-Processor connections - The 24 pin connector on the upper left is for the 8 Co-Processor servo channels. The wires shown connected are from the drive servos. The left edge has the 2 IR LEDs and sensor for the "vision" system. The 2 red LEDs farthest left can be used to indicate when the IRPD "sees" something right and left. (They share ports with 2 of the servo channels.) The red LEDs nearest the bumper screws show the status of the bumper inputs. The 10 pin connector to the right of the Co-Processor are the 4 of the analog inputs. The fifth A/D input is connected to the input power so you can monitor battery status. |
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This picture is of the
bottom of the controller board. Again, the front of the robot is to the
left. Except for a few traces, almost the whole bottom of the board is devoted to a massive ground plane under the solder mask. This gives excellent grounding for a rock stable board. |
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Click Here or on the Blue Bell Logo at
the top to return to Home. |
