I was using an Atmega32 based Arduino clone for the low level hardware control of my personal robot Chippu. But soon ran into problems as the code size increased and the inbuilt RAM of 2kb overflowed often, and it caused the ROS node running on Arduino to go out of sync. Also I needed to drive about 16 servo motors , and my Arduino permitted only a maximum of 12. So the only alternative was to go for a powerful Arduino Mega 2560.
Wiring Board V1.0
Grippers are an important part of robots. Often they are used in gripping and taking objects and play the most important role in robotic arms. Most of the grippers cost much money and may not be easily affordable by hobbyists. Then the best option is to build your own gripper.When it is from the so called ‘useless junk parts’, it becomes more interesting. So let us dive into more details.
My first prototype
I got a pair of old robot controller boards based on 8051. It could drive four DC motors through its two L293 H-Bridge drivers, a 16×2 character LCD, an RS232 port and plenty of IO pins.But it was based on an old 8051, and that could be the reason that someone discarded this board in a junkyard.
Robot Controller Board
Missing a serial port (RS232) on your brand new power-packed laptop?, or just want to add an extra serial port to your pc for experimentation, due to the fear of burning the motherboard by sending wrong signals to the inbuilt serial port?. Here is the cheapest solution I have found out accidentally.
My home-made USB to Serial converter
