Adding an XBee Receiver
to the Telebot
To turn the ArdBot into the Telebot, you only
need to add an XBee module to receive the signals
from the remote control unit. To save space on the
breadboard atop the robot, I’ve elected to use a
SIP-style XBee carrier — also available from Parallax
and shown in Figure 8. This particular carrier board
lacks mounting holes, but it can be attached using
a cable tie threaded through two holes.
Electrical connection requires merely four wires
(see Figure 9): two for power and one each for
data receive and transmit.
As noted, when using two Series 1 XBee
radios, you can keep the default factory settings
and the two radios in your link will automatically
know how to communicate with one another.
Transfer speed is 9600 baud, which is plenty fast
enough for the kind of simple data used for the
Telebot. A speed of 9600 baud is over 900 bytes
per second, and the most data sent from the
remote is five bytes at a time.
Sources
Budget Robotics
ArdBot chassis kit
www.budgetrobotics.com
Parallax
XBee and XBee adapter boards, continuous
rotation servos, five-position switch
www.parallax.com
Pololu
Arduino Uno, continuous rotation servos
www.pololu.com
SparkFun
Arduino Uno, continuous rotation servos,
XBee modules
www.sparkfun.com
FIGURE 8. The XBee radio on the Telebot is mounted
on a SIP adapter, and is secured to the base of the
robot using an ordinary cable wrap.
FIGURE 9. Connection
diagram for the XBee radio
(mounted on a 5V SIP
carrier) to Telebot Arduino.
Gordon McComb is the author of Robot Builder’s Bonanza, now in its fourth edition.
Greatly expanded and updated, this best selling book covers the latest trends in
amateur robotics, and comes with 10 all new robot construction projects, plus
more ideas for building robots from found parts. Look for Robot Builder’s Bonanza,
4th Ed in the SERVO Webstore at http://store.servomagazine.com.
Gordon may be reached at rbb@robotoid.com.
54 SERVO 11.2012
