Welcome to SERVO Magazine’s Tankbot
kit series. We have put together a
unique beginner robotic platform that
will continue to grow and expand with you
as you move from newbie to novice to
seasoned pro. We will also have regular
editorial coverage to challenge you through
your learning process with projects and
experiments. To purchase the kit, go to
the SERVO Webstore and place your order.
If you’re ready, let’s get started.
The “brain” in the Brain
Alpha printed circuit board
(PCB) is a PICAXE-14M
microcontroller (see Figure
1). It’s easily programmed
in a dialect of Basic that
includes many powerful
commands that are well-suited for robot control.
The “servo” command, for
example, allows us to
control the speed and
direction of the TankBot’s
two servo motors without
requiring any additional circuitry whatsoever. As a result,
the TankBot is a fully functional robot that can be
programed to maneuver in various ways without any
additional investment of time or money. On the other hand,
when you are ready to move on to more advanced projects,
the Brain Alpha’s ample prototyping area will allow you to
add a considerable amount of circuitry so that the TankBot
can carry out a variety of
sophisticated I/O functions. ■ FIGURE 1
The Brain Alpha board
can be assembled in two
different configurations. If
you look again at Figure 1,
you can see that the large
prototyping area matches
the layout of a standard
400-hole breadboard. Figure
2 is a photo of a completed
TankBot kit with a breadboard mounted directly on
top of the prototyping area.
This configuration allows for
considerable flexibility and
experimentation since I/O
circuitry can be easily
installed, modified, and/or
removed as you develop your
design over time. If you prefer
the additional reliability of
hard-wired circuitry, you can
simply omit the breadboard
and solder parts directly
onto the Brain Alpha PCB.
Assembling the
Brain Alpha Board
Building the TankBot base itself is relatively straightforward – just follow the detailed directions in the TankBot
manual that comes with the kit. In this article, we’ll focus
on assembling the Brain Alpha PCB. Figure 3 gives the
complete parts list for the board. Before you begin, make
sure that you have everything listed. I’m assuming you
already have some soldering experience. If not, there are a
couple of good soldering
■ FIGURE 2 tutorials on my website
( www.JRHackett.net/
projects) and a Google
search for “how to solder”
will yield thousands of
other links.
The following discussion
will be somewhat detailed
in order to assist beginners.
If you are more experienced
in PCB assembly, you can
probably skip it and get right
to work! Figure 4 is a slightly
modified version of the PCB
layout file that was used to
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