[mowbot] mowbot brains

Terry (cefpearson nospam at accs.net)
Sun, 02 May 1999 09:49:57 -0500

Im happy to see that the group is still hanging in there for the 3rd
year. 2 years ago I finishished my "prototype and was happy with the "bump
and turn" guidance system. Tho I'm not sure how even the grass will end up
cut after an entire area is covered, because I never got to the point of
perfecting the limit switches, but thats a minor issue, waiting for
improvement when I rebuild my mobot in its finished form. A picture of my
mobot is in the mobot home page.
What I have not seen in this group is the "brains" of a bump and turn
mobot. I hear a lot about microprocesors but my education is more of the
analog type so I used 555 timer chips. Also the only cheap way I could find
in switching polarity to the drive motors were mechanicl relays (very
little voltage drop and still supply the full 12 volts to the motors).
I do have a schematic of my mobot brain in .JPG format nospam at 102kb, and if
anyone would like to see it i would be glad to email it as an attachment.
Its not the best thing to use as a mobot brain but it does work. Maybe
somone will offer a shematic of a microprocessor as a brain and I could
learn in the comparison in difficutlies and cost.