Hi Ken
Just looked at the video. Remarkably, this is very similar to what I did and described in my earlier post. Some similarities/differences...I used a larger RC truck platform with 4WD (a junker from Radio Shack), I also ripped all the electronics out and replace the old steering motor with a real servo, I ripped out the RX and motor controller, but kept the H Bridge to be used under PIC control. They put in a new H Bridge, but looks like it was on or off, mine had variable speed control determined by the TX input. They were purely autonomous GPS (only works outdoors). I used a Spektrum DX-7 TX/RX RC system so I could have both RC and Auto control. They used an Arduino board from Sparkfun, I used the MicroChip PIC and my own proto board.
So you see there are many ways to go.
I looked up the VEX system. This is pretty much a lot of plug and play modules that you can buy to do robotics. I think you may still need to buy a TX/RX to have RC control...can get pricey. But you will have to choose.
I am not that acquainted with the various kits that Microchip sells...perhaps others can comment.
I went entirely from the ground up. ICD2 programmer (there are others you can use), I started in assembly but then bought PICBasic Pro (also easy to convert a lot of my old Basic Stamp programs), some 16F88 and 16F627A PIC chips, some proto boards, and supporting electronics (voltage regulator, caps, resistors, jumper wires, header pins,,,,) and built up the hardware and software to make it all work. Most of the sensors from Sparkfun or Parallax will work off a PIC, but you have to read the spec sheets. You will need the usual lab stuff, soldering station, with general electronic parts, batteries, power supplies, and I found the Parallax USB oscilloscope to be absolutely essential in debugging the code. Plus I already had the DX-7 TX/RX. Starting from scratch, this is also pretty pricey way to go. But I had a lot of the stuff and I wanted to be able to modify the control systems at the PIC level for all my projects.
I don't know what you have nor your skill level in this area. You can get some help here on the Forum, but if you go with a plug and play system, it is more turn key and probably forums for those as well. Looks like the Tech Junkie website will have all the code and schematics for what they did, but you would have to go with the Arduino boards which use Atmega chips, not PICs.
Take a look at the DIYDrone website and the ArduPilot system there. this is a great site for autonomous systems, and it is all freeware with most of the parts from Sparkfun. They have lots of stuff you might be able to use and a forum to get a lot of answers....and it is all as cheap as you can get. check this out:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-main-page
I have a blog there on using a dsPIC IMU system for model helicopters, still PIC based but use C code and microcode C compiler.
You will have to decide the route you take, but it can be a lot of fun.
Good luck
John
Oh...your question on switching from manual to auto...the switch is on the TX. It sends either a short PWM or long PWM to the RX and the PIC reads this to decide if it passes TX signals directly to the servos (manual) or is in control of the truck (auto)....not DTDT switches. And I also use Windows.
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