As on every current version, you must get some printed parts and some non printed parts to build your Brivoi audacius. If you are familiar with electronics and microcontrollers, you may change some of the things we use, maybe you even find a better option! If so, don't forget to tell us on the mailing list... we're an Open Source Project!

WARNING Currently, we do not sell or have any commercial agreement with anybody, every link posted aims only to help you find the items, we do not recommend or guarantee any of the listed shops.

For the escornabot

Keypad:

Printed Parts (these should change in a bit)

How much does this cost?

Well... it depends! We think it can get really cheap, but it will depend on where you buy the components and on if you have a 3D printer on your own or you have to buy the printed parts. Anyway, it's a highly affordable robot, as it should be! :)

So, as we told you before, to be a true audacius robot-maker, you will have to mount and solder your own keypad. We will explain how to do it as detailed as possible, assuming no familiarity with this kind of things. If you have some basic electronics and soldering skills, we guess that taking a look at the schematics will be enough for you.

So... let's get started!

Is it the first time you will solder?

Even if you have never soldered before, this is not so difficult. It is just putting a drop of solder in each hole that a component is placed, making sure they get a electrical connection with the board and that they also get a mechanical connection that avoids them from falling. We recommend you to take a look at this fantastic comic, it will take you 15 minutes and you will know everything you need to know.

Check stuff

This is what you should have in your desk to start with the keypad:

Cut the stripboard

You probably won't find a stripboard that is precisely the size we ask for. It's not a problem, you just have to cut it, and it's very easy!

We recommend you to see this video , put some gloves on, and proceed!

Cut the lines on a stripboard

With some sharp knife or xacto, you have to make two cuts on the lines of the stripboard. Very carefully, you have to strip off a bit of the copper on the places marked in red, so that there is no electric connection between the holes on the sides.

Drill holes

Take a drill with a 3 mm. bit and make four holes, exactly over the stripboard's holes that we mark in green.

Place components

The placement is fully explained on the wiki. Switches stay in place quite well, but resistors and wires tend to fall when you turn the board down, you should bend their terminals forming an angle so they don't sweep through the holes so easily. This is the final placement of every component.

NOTE: Do you see the two black squares pointed with a pink arrow? Those are the two optional header pins that we told you. You only need to put them in case you want to work with 3-wire configuration on your keypad. Escornabot's firmware comes set by default to a two-wire keypad, so, if you are not sure what to do, just don't put this component.

Solder components

Well... you've read THE COMIC, haven't you? So, you know how to do it... Go! :)

If your escornabot doesn't work right away after you've uploaded the code and connected the keypad, you should check the values that the Arduino is reading. As you've seen, the keypad consists of a bunch of resistors and buttons connected to the Arduino. Depending on the button you press, more or less resistors will get in the way of the current, and the analog pin will read a different voltage.

2-Wire Keypad (standard)

Connection

We are going to connect the keypad to the Arduino, as shown below:

As you can see, bottom pin of the connector remains unused, central pin goes to Arduino's A4 pin and top pin goes to Arduino's GND.

Reading the readings

Open Arduino IDE, copy & paste this sketch and upload it.

 #define KEYBOARD_PIN A4  
    #define KEYBOARD_WIRES 2 // change to 3 in old buttonsets with 3 wires

    void setup() {
      pinMode(KEYBOARD_PIN, KEYBOARD_WIRES == 2 ? INPUT_PULLUP : INPUT);
      Serial.begin(9600);
    }

    void loop() {
      Serial.println(analogRead(KEYBOARD_PIN));
      delay(200);
    }

Can you see the magnifying glass on the top right corner of the Arduino IDE? If you press it, a window should open showing numbers close to 1024. Every time you push a button, this number should change. Write down the values of each button pressed, each value will be assigned to a particular behaviour of the escornabot.

Modifying escornabot's firmware

Now that you know the values that your keypad gives, we have to put them on our firmware so that the escornabot acts accordingly to each button pressed. We assume you have downloaded the code, open it and look for the folllowing lines in the Configuration.h tab:

 // input values for each key pressed
    #define BS_ANALOG_VALUE_UP 471
    #define BS_ANALOG_VALUE_RIGHT 299
    #define BS_ANALOG_VALUE_DOWN 211
    #define BS_ANALOG_VALUE_LEFT 118
    #define BS_ANALOG_VALUE_GO 158
    #define BS_ANALOG_VALUE_RESET 82   

Those are the values that come set by default, so, if they are different to the values you have previously written down, you must change them. For example, if you read 167 when pressing "GO" button, you must put that number instead of "158".

As you can see, firmware is ready for a six button keypad, but you only have 5. You must put BS_ANALOG_VALUE_RESET to "0", as long as you don't have that button.

Now, your escornabot should follow your orders right away!

Three-wire Keypad (Custom)

--ToDo--

4ºMount chassis

http://escornabot.org/wiki/index.php?title=Gu%C3%ADa_de_montaje_(Brivoi)

5º Wire connections