Need Kit or parts Suggestions for New Builder/Programmer.

[LIONS*LEADER]

Hello everyone, I'm new to robotics and after going through posts and looking at robotics websites for what is surely a total of far more than 100 hours I'm not any closer to deciding what to start building. so i decided id go ahead and ask for some advice on where to start. here are my priorities.



1. i want it to be simple enough for me to build successfully.

2. i want it to be programmable in a language where the knowledge i gain from all the time spent learning how to program it will be transferable to much larger more complex projects.

3. i want it to be very expandable in terms of adding many sensors to gather information as well as in terms of additional functionality (such as adding arms with hands)

4. i wanted to be able to wirelessly communicate with and control my robot via my PC. as well as possibly in the future use my PC wirelessly as part of the robots memory storage & problem solving CPU power and

5. (optional) the ability to record, remotely controlled actions into code.


so i was thinking, should i delve into building a very structurally solid 4 wheel mobile robot with a suitably powerful motor that i can use as a base for my later weighty upgrades?

are the any types of kits like this? or should i buy a much less sturdy kit so that i can have an idea of how to build a very strong mobile robot base by myself via parts i picked out myself?


So my MAIN QUESTION IS do you have any recommendations that fit my 4 main priorities?





i was also considering getting a humanoid ( or spider ) type of programmable robot for some variety in addition to my previously mentioned robot project.

any suggestions here that fit my want for sensors and programmability? (and in this case lots of dexterity in the movement)


there are no real budget expectations, since i don't know what good prices for parts are, nor do i know what parts i need. but if you need an idea of my budget, i would say purchases of no more than 500$ at a time per working project step to acquire functional progress. (obviously id like to save my money for the really cool projects. so the cheaper the better while not sacrificing recommended quality standards.)


thanks for your consideration guys!

 

[3v0]

You did not tell us anything about your existing programming or electronic skills. If they are none or nearly so this is not a realistic project.

We all had to start somewhere and in general that would be blinking LEDs.

3v0

 

[LIONS*LEADER]

thanks for the quick reply,

I have no specific coding language under my belt, but my grasp of programming is very strong. enough to have coded a “button press” activated macro for casting all my healing, curing and empowering spells to be cast on both myself and my group of 5 others in world of warcraft. each time i would press the button it would go through my exact decision making logic by analyzing all the information on the screen that a person would process in order to make intelligent decisions and select exactly the spell i would have selected out of 20+ spells and cast it on the appropriate person. as well as another one for all my attacks.

(which is why i am interested in having lots of sensors that i can take information from to analyze with and apply logic processes to.)

that was before WoW took that feature away for that reason.


I've also taken some classes in OOP C++ and normal C++ and programmable logic controllers(though i was forced by circumstances to stop the classes halfway through.)

so in that sense, i have a strong grasp of programming logic in any language in the sense that i am able to understand competently coded and commented examples of code, and take pieces i need from them to assemble my own code.

in electronics, i have no experience i can think of other than the programmable logic controllers class. and that i assemble computers (which is kinda off topic)

thank you for your clarifying questions. i appreciate the time you took to read my post. i hope this information gives you a better idea of the kits/parts i should start out with.

 

[SMUGangsta]

There are chips in the PIC18F range that are optimized for 'c' programming, sorry i cant be more specific, but almost all my experience of pics has been with 16F pics, they are fast, reliable, lots of info available. They can have loads of inputs (into the hundreds if needed), and can be interfaced to almost anything. They have varying levels of memory etc to suit your project and wireless wouldn't be to hard to add.

Nigels PIC tutorials are a good place to get a grounding in PICs in general.

 

[nickelflippr]

Hello everyone, I'm new to robotics and after going through posts and looking at robotics websites for what is surely a total of far more than 100 hours I'm not any closer to deciding what to start building. so i decided id go ahead and ask for some advice on where to start. here are my priorities.



1. i want it to be simple enough for me to build successfully.

**broken link removed** has a couple of nice platforms that could make a good start.

2. i want it to be programmable in a language where the knowledge i gain from all the time spent learning how to program it will be transferable to much larger more complex projects.

You might find the most help with PICS here. A good start in that direction would be blueroomelectronics kit which is a PicKit 2 clone programmer/debugger and 18F1320 tutor kit. After learning the ropes, you could substitute a larger protoboard with more I/O.

3. i want it to be very expandable in terms of adding many sensors to gather information as well as in terms of additional functionality (such as adding arms with hands)

4. i wanted to be able to wirelessly communicate with and control my robot via my PC. as well as possibly in the future use my PC wirelessly as part of the robots memory storage & problem solving CPU power and

Here's a wi-fi controlled robot. You have to like the Fisher-Price power wheels. Using a Cubloc would not be my choice of controllers.

5. (optional) the ability to record, remotely controlled actions into code.


so i was thinking, should i delve into building a very structurally solid 4 wheel mobile robot with a suitably powerful motor that i can use as a base for my later weighty upgrades?

are the any types of kits like this? or should i buy a much less sturdy kit so that i can have an idea of how to build a very strong mobile robot base by myself via parts i picked out myself?


So my MAIN QUESTION IS do you have any recommendations that fit my 4 main priorities?





i was also considering getting a humanoid ( or spider ) type of programmable robot for some variety in addition to my previously mentioned robot project.

any suggestions here that fit my want for sensors and programmability? (and in this case lots of dexterity in the movement)


there are no real budget expectations, since i don't know what good prices for parts are, nor do i know what parts i need. but if you need an idea of my budget, i would say purchases of no more than 500$ at a time per working project step to acquire functional progress. (obviously id like to save my money for the really cool projects. so the cheaper the better while not sacrificing recommended quality standards.)


thanks for your consideration guys!

Good luck with your project and journey in robotics.

 

[LIONS*LEADER]

heya guys, thanks for your replies. and thanks for the link to that wifi controlled robot, that was very much like what i eventually wanted a to do as an intermediate advanced project.

from your replies i have gathered that i guess i wanted three things, the last of which i no longer want.


1. to learn the extreme basics like soldering and how everything interfaced and was put together so that i could have a more complete understanding of how things worked so that i could build things myself without a kit.

so perhaps the blueroom electronics is a good start for that, but as i look closer maybe not since i run vista 64 and its supported only by xp or an emulated xp. also, i browsed the site and didn't really understand what i would be building with the parts (i obviously need some basic experience).
maybe there are some alternatives that would support vista and give me the necessary experience?


2. i wanted a more LEGO type of kit ) that would allow for me to build something predesigned out of premade basic parts (parts that are functional pieces that plug into/connect to other parts in order to interact with them) that would give me a better basic experience/understanding level such that i could then take the same parts and build something different if i wanted and use the acquired programming and building experience to do so.

i was thinking something like this VEX kit for example. but i just wanted to make sure i got a basic kit that would allow for many/any sensor attachments i want as i upgrade.

**broken link removed**
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the programming software looked appropriate as well
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the LEGO Mindstorms also look appealing with thier seemingly reasonably priced base at 250$ and plethora of upgrades. the only thing i am concerned with there is the programming used.

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LEGO accessories
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MIT and Carnagie Mellon universities also have a FREE robotics course online for them here.

LEGO classes mellon
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LEGO class MIT
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Course index MIT
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Autonomous MIT
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i also thought both of these types of kits looked interesting and something along the lines i was looking for so i thought id mention it. while the first two look more appealing.

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3. i also wanted something that was less building a customized unique robot and more focused on programming the predesigned robots actions dependent on sensory input. (this was where i wanted something like a spider or a humanoid that was dexterous)

but the more i look at humanoid robots the less i am impressed with their functionality and the more i am put off by their high prices. so scratch them off the list. i will be focusing more on how to eventually build a robot i want vs getting a programmable toy that is incredibly expensive and not capable of what i want.


so what do you think of these which do you think would be right for me?

thanks for your time and consideration.

 

[nickelflippr]

Far be it for me to decide for you on which kit to get. I can only give thoughts from my perspective which might very well be different than yours.

One thing to like about the Vex kit it has one or two PIC 18f's in the controller. A thing to dislike is the $99 extra to buy the programming cable and software. On their website they mention that MPLAB integration is forthcoming, if that happens and its not extra, then that's a definite plus.

One question about the graphical languages, is how much does one really learn, and how transferable is that? Are you willing to pay $139 (or whatever) for that next project controller, so as to use the same software tools?

The idea behind building the Junebug is you can develop some soldering skills and make a very useful programmer/learning tool. Follow some of the member tutorials on assembly, C, or ? languages and you can apply that to the robot, or any project that may come down the road. The beauty of this approach is when the next project comes along it will be a fraction of the cost of a Vex or NXP controller.

Supposedly the **broken link removed** works with Vista 64. Maybe double check in the microcontroller forum if its of interest.

Sort of a bottom up approach, my two cents.