I teach introductory programming classes at a local community college
and I’m always looking for an involving project for my students. One of the
problems with entry-level programming classes is that many students find the
example programs they construct boring and somewhat removed from the real world. It’s hard for
anyone — myself included — to get too excited about coding a bubble sort, for instance.
I’ve tried various simple control
projects before and sometimes
the devices themselves were not
spectacularly successful. A disastrously
blind line-following robot that
challenged both my mechanical skills
and my patience comes to mind. Still,
my students found these projects
interesting and motivating, much
more so than the usual static sort of
class project.
When I ran across Velleman’s
K8055 USB Experiment Interface Board
kit, I realized it could form the basis of
a simple, PC-based control system. I
had used various embedded microcontrollers before, but the USB/PC
combination had some definite
advantages. We wouldn’t need a cross-compiler, there were no serial links to
(mis)configure, and we could use the
FIGURE 1. RoboCooler Block Diagram. This
shows the major components of the cooling
and heating system, including the PC, the K8055
controller, the interface board, the sensor, and
the output devices. Devices shown within the
large rectangle are integral to the K8055 board;
all other components are externally connected.
SERVO 02.2008 31
