Once it’s finished, I’ll be offering kits (in many fashions, more on that later), and hopefully all custom electronics from Adam. Making our own to save cost, and be more awesome.

Adam’s driver uses an L298, and is based off a solarbotics schematic, and works quite well. With 5v going in, these steppers have an awesome amount of torque.

Keith from FUBARLabs also showed us how to turn ports on at the same time using Port Registers. That might not be necessary to get the job done, but we like it. See the code and an amusing video after the break.

Here’s the code to get the steppers moving. stepDelay can be changed to increase or decrease speed.

int step1 =  10;
int step2 =  11;
int step3 =  12;
int step4 =  13;
int stepDelay = 1;
int stepDir = 0;
int stepCount = 0;

void setup()
{
    pinMode(step1, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(step2, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(step3, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(step4, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
PORTB = B0101000;
delay(stepDelay);
PORTB = B0100100;
delay(stepDelay);
PORTB = B0010100;
delay(stepDelay);
PORTB = B0011000;
delay(stepDelay);
}

And here’s the video of it in action:

Hello Lady Ada! Love your site, your blogs, and all your cool gear. My first project with equipment from your store was this… We launched an arduino from you guys into space from Vulcan, Alberta. I’m not much of a video guy but we built a quick video here and plenty of photos here and here. We’re doing another launch this fall. Primary objectives will be loading up the arduino with sensors and taking video instead of photos.

I don’t think it made it space, technically, but 99% above Earth’s atmosphere is close enough. That’s about 1/7 of the way to the ISS

Check out the video after the cut, it’s pretty cool.

Spaceduino via Adafruit Blog

So far, I’m happy with the board. I need to play with it more to say you should buy one too, but they’re not expensive at any rate.
The only thing I”ve noticed thus far is a brightness issue, but I’m pretty sure that’s my code.

You can check out the code after the break.

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()

{
selectLineOne();
delay(100);
Serial.print(“Obscurereality”);
selectLineTwo();
delay(100);
Serial.print(“Arduino Robots”);
}
void selectLineOne(){
Serial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
Serial.print(128, BYTE);
}

void selectLineTwo(){
Serial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
Serial.print(192, BYTE);
}

More photos after the cut.

There’s more info, including a Fritzing diagram and some code on his website.

Here’s the head he built:

I plan on having B166ER do some light tracking when it’s batteries get low. It would also be interesting to see this done with ultrasonic or some IR sensors.

I shot this video with my iPhone (2G), so it’s not awesome.

There’s a lot of work to be done, but I suspect it will be navigating on it’s own again in the next week or two.
I hope to have him solo svoiding obstacles again without tether by the end of the weekend.

Click on Mr. Flex’s photo below to see more information, and a lot of videos showing off how awesome it is.

From Hackaday:
The latest generation of Arduino hardware has been released. The Arduino Duemilanove (2009 in Italian) has the same form factor as previous generations. The specs are essentially identical to the Diecimila, but there have been a few changes to the hardware. The power source is no longer chosen using a jumper. A MOSFET and dual OPAMP have been added to the board to automatically selected between USB power and the external plug. Automatic hardware resets are optional now. Next to the USB port are two solder pads labeled RESET-EN. Cut the trace between them to kill the reset. If you ever want it back, just bridge the pads. The hardware was updated to correspond with the release of Arduino cofounder [Massimo Banzi]’s new book.

I really need to take mine out of the cigarette box I store it in and finish the 20 projects I’ve got in queue.
Otherwise, enjoy the lack of jumper.

I didn’t anticipate that this would take away from B1-66ERs personality.. I kind of liked the look of all the chaos, and it’s leaving a lot of blank space on the top. Once I find some decent solar cells, that should fix the issue.

Overall, I’m pleased with how it’s going. At least I’ll be able to take the Arduino off without creating a lot of extra work.

I think I’m going to relocate the PIR Sensor to the head unit,  but am reluctant due to it looking like a silly hat.

More to follow, I hope to get some updated video soon.

I should have my proto shield pretty soon from the Make: Store. I’ll be glad to get rid of this nest of wires.

If you want to check out the current sketch on B1-66ER, do so here
Should be the one with the highest number ; )

More videos and images coming soon.