The smart ant's and flea's

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Kyro
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Kyro »

30x30 i think is still smaller than the esc and rx combo im currently using...

i may have to have a look at that model...

other than size and ability to take more load, its the same as the one you mentioned with 3 channels plus 1 ppm output and built in afhds2a receiver?

if so, what sort of price were you looking for for one of them for me to test out?
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Team RobotMad
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

i've considerd making the SmartBoard v2 inculde a dsmx reciver but couldnt find a good source of a chip with firmwere to do so. the board design for bluetooth is bassicly ready but softwere will need to be devloped hopefully to alow for lost of diffrent control methods such as phone apps or blutooth game controlers.

the spec has changed a little from the last time i explained it.
13.75x20mm vs the 13.5 i tried for, soo close.
stm32wb, that has a m4 cpu and a m0 that runs the bluetooth. adding other reccevers is easy as well.
2x 2A motor outputs. 2 easy to use servo output pads
3.4v all the way up to 18V input. motors run on this input voltage so dont put anything higher than the motors can handle. slighly higher lowest voltage now due to change to 3.3v logic thus no longer has level shifting for servo outputs as it can drive nearly all servos on 3.3v logic.

I can actualy get enough money to make a first load of 10 boards, so if i got a level of commitment for say 5 would get sold i'll progress with getting them made. I think it'll cost around £50 for me to make any profit, the more intrest there is the more i will get made, reducing the cost per board to £40 if i knew 15 would get sold.
While it does depart from normal controlers it can have a normal reciver plugged in to it. it is extreamly small and makes for very simple wiring in robots. While i have never used the motor driver chip for more than 2 n20's it can be done on 2A per channel.

Marks board looks very nice, i think you can easly make it smaller though. for example i can see a bit of spare space which usuly means the board can be made smaller with some creatlive wiring. also chip anttenas are smaller and have smaller keep out areas than in board wire antenas you do lose a litte rf performance but i dont think itll be an issue for ants

i think we almost need a new section for electronics devlopment rather than taking over sections meant for ant builds.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
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MarkR
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by MarkR »

Yeah sorry for hijacking the thread :)

The rf modules look like this:
Image

They have castellated edges, so I solder the module directly to the front of my board, and put the rest of the components on the back. The antenna area overhangs, and the pin-through-hole area needs to be clear of the rf module, so that wires can go through (I hate wires being soldered to pads, especially power)

Of course it's possible to make it smaller by using the rf chip directly instead of on the module, but the module makes things much easier as it includes all the rf gubbins like tiny inductors and specially made pcb traces.
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

Ah i haden't understood the rf was a difrent board, I see why your board is the way it is now. I agree that ossilator is massive theres got to be something smaller that would work.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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MarkR
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by MarkR »

Eventually I will buy a selection of similar crystals, and see if I can make any of them fit the board.

I don't really want to roll my own radio gubbins because the Application Circuit for the A7105 looks like this

Image

It has 22 discrete components including three different inductors, that is incredibly crazy.

Also to note, Amiccom do make a (probably compatible) chip with built-in 8051 microcontroller but I can't find any data sheets or where to buy them
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

AntFreeze 7
Great event, loved the ready buttons and fight control system. Main point on that was the voice it has was not very easy to understand most of the time. Would have been nice if the preveusly planned qualification system was used to see how that works out without using a full AWS to try it out, might have saved some time.

I think i broke my record for best results (12th), think UnorthodoX made it one or two rounds higher this time(6th?) need antlog results to be uploaded to check. Also SA5 also got to the top 16, making the first time i've had 2 in the top 16. and for this SA7 is the one tha'll be replaced.

UnorthodoX has turned out to be quite the robot. Honestly one of the best reactions i've seen was the croud "Whoh!" at the start of it's first fight :D
another fun moment was backflipping the wedges aross the arena into the pit. Beating both Valkrey and it's only a drill was suprising as it's never fought a spinner. think im gonn have to experiment with a solution to the 'walkers are easly pushed' problem that so far has been it's only downfall. Most of the time the opponent is upside down before that happens.

SmartAnt 5, pretty good showing, incuding beating why wight with the help of a lot of luck.this is my leat favout to drive suprisngly as it's the only robot with wheels in my team :lol: but it's because the wheels are right at the back and only running on 5 Volts making it very slow to turn. As much as i want to make a walker only team, SA5 keeps wnning so it stays in the team for now.

SmartAnt 7, while not doing badly it was the first one out in my team. Something about the middle mounted drive makes it a little odd to drive.

SA7 replacment is in the works, trying not to make a clone of UnorthodoX, though it is very tempting.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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Team RobotMad
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

New Website
www.robotmad.co.uk
check it out
I know it's still full of spelling mistakes.
when the NanoESC has been made and tested you will be able to buy them on that site.
I will avoid doing sales outside of this site as it traks stock automaticaly.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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Team RobotMad
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

unfotunatly due to the virus in china affecting manufaturing,
the NanoESC V1 will defintly not be ready before AWS61.

The SA7 replacment will have to use my older board instead. so meet:
AnomalY
sticking with the same theme as UnorthodoX
A large servo on a flipper that uses the full diaganal width of the cube and of course its a walker. This time with steel and alumium armour, and the low edge goes aound the front edge a little to hopefully incrase the effective edge length.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Sax7ANoXyMnjMkLU9
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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MarkR
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by MarkR »

Are you getting those boards assembled with components in China? Is it all closed down?

I got some parts from LCSC recently and waiting for some more parts (radio modules, Aliexpress seller) still.
Robots: Betsie - RaspberryPi controlled flipper bot with gyro stablisation - too clever for her own good?
Stacie - tidy flipper; 4wd driven by hair bands
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Re: The smart ant's and flea's

Post by Team RobotMad »

MarkR wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2020 1:50 pm Are you getting those boards assembled with components in China? Is it all closed down?
yes the PCB is made in china then components are sourced and assembled on the boards in china also. it's no longer all locked down its just as they were closed for a while, there is a large backlog of orders, thus things are taking longer than they would normaly. potentaly 2 months longer, but my order has had production start so hopefully it won't be that long, just definatly not in time for the AWS.
Lincoln Barnes
Maker of "SmartAnts", and other autonomous projects.
Electronic enginering student at Nottingham Trent University.
PM to order the RM NanoESC
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