How do I give a radio control car autonomous control

[mackrackit]

A 5 volt regulator has been suggested. I need to know the power requirement.

I have looked but not found the Microchip spec of the current consumption for the PICkit 2 or for the 16F887 chip itself.

Do you guys know where to look or know the value off hand?

Ken

I am not sure if there is any one answer. It would depend on the work being done by the chip. ~~How many things and at what current is the PIC driving? LEDs for example.

But saying that..... 1 amp should do for the regulator specs.

[Kenjones1935]

The undisturbed connection between my Fatuba receiver and my ESC box has three wires, black, red, and blue. The black is GND (reference), the red is Vcc (hopefully a regulated 5volts), the third is the signal from the receiver to the ESC telling it which direction and how fast to spin the wheels (what voltage and which polarity to feed the DC motor.)

This is pulse width modulation. How is this information encoded?

My guess is that a square wave (50% Vcc 50% reference) tells the ESC to not power the motor at all. A larger than square wave pulse stream says to feed the motor positive voltage proportional to the area under the pulses. A smaller than square wave pulse indicates to reverse the voltage polarity and feed power inversely proportional to the area under the pulses.

Am I close enough for government work?

Ken

[Kenjones1935]

I bought a Radio Shack 2 1/8 inch IC breadboard socket kit. It looks just like one in your picture.

I am confused on how to use it. I have some dtdp switches that are dual twelve pin packages. They snap into the breadboard just fine, but not over the channel. Hence (if I understand which pins are connected to which correctly) the opposite pins are shorted to each other.

I have a dual inline socket into which the dpdt switch fits fine. It fits bridging the channel of the breadboard. That is what I expected. However, the pins do not snap into place. They are not allowed to become fixed. Could they be too big? I thought everything was standardized.

Our Radio Shack stores are down in inventory and the sales folks know nothing about these pieces.

Ken

[mackrackit]

I do not know anything about the Fatuba, maybe Alan knows...

Unfortunately not everything is standard, most are and the one that are not can be adapted in some way. Might have to make an adapter.

In my picture there are a couple surface mounts, a SD card socket, a 68 pin PLCC, and a part that has the pins at 1 mm.

So I guess I do get the soldering iron out before the project is completely proto-typed.

[Kenjones1935]

I do not see the value of the lower third of the PICkit2 printed circuit board. It looks like I am supposed to use it to breadboard, but there are no holes. Am I supposed to have the skill to solder to the individual PC pads?

I have purchased two different Radio Shack breadboard cards that require soldering. Do I place the components on the side that does not have the PC copper with their legs extending through the holes then solder on the side with the copper? This seems to work fine with the inline dip sockets (as opposed to their uselessness on the solderless board. The problem with that technology is that the legs of the inline dip sockets are not round. They do not snuggle into the springs.)

For drawing a circuit diagram I am using Photoshop. It is not obvious how to draw straight lines with that application, but I have a book....

Ken

[Kenjones1935]

The inline DIP sockets that Radio Shack sells are intended for surface mounting. Their legs are tiny rectangles in cross section (not circles as with wire). If I go to Do It Yourself Electronics they will have DIP sockets intended for solderless breadboarding.

Does that sound correct?

Ken

[Byte_Butcher]

The inline DIP sockets that Radio Shack sells are intended for surface mounting. Their legs are tiny rectangles in cross section (not circles as with wire). If I go to Do It Yourself Electronics they will have DIP sockets intended for solderless breadboarding.

Does that sound correct?

Ken

Not quite sure what you're asking here. For the solderless breadboard, why would you use a socket? I always used to just stick the IC into the board...

[Byte_Butcher]

You mean the 44-pin demo board? Yep, it's place to put parts... Plenty of room for 1 or more IC's in SOIC packages, several places to put parts in SOT23 packages, and lots of pads for resistors and caps in 0603 or 0805 packages.

And yes, it's possible to solder them by hand with a good strong magnifying glass, lots of light, and a very fine tipped iron. It's easier with a bit of solder paste and a hot air station with a fine nozzle.

Welcome to the world of surface mount devices.


Yes, typically on the breadboard, parts are inserted on the non-coppered side and soldered on the copper side. I always have used plain "unclad" breadboard, and don't have much experience with the copper coated stuff.