Hello Alan,

        I agree Mobile Robots is a good book and Robot Builders Bonanza is good
book for mechanical ideas but many of the circuits have errors.  Sensors
for Mobile Robots by H.R. Everett is also an excellant book although it
definately is not a cookbook approach as some had wanted.

Alan G. Smith wrote:

>P.S.  Has  anyone used the SimmStick as a basis for robotics?

        Sure I have quite a bit.  I have a stepper motor controller sitting on m
y
work bench right now that is for a steerable front wheel for a tricycle
robot. The DT.001 programmer really made code changes easy since it allows
for in-circuit programming, this combined with an '84 works almost as well
as an emulator. The SimmStick boards work great because I can piece
together the hardware I need relatively quickly. The new DonTronics relay
boards are also a nice addition as it allows you to control larger loads,
its going into the power supply section of my 'bot for switching bateries
during charging.

        We are going to be releasing a series of DC motor and Stepper motor
controllers in the future that are going to be SimmStick compatable which
should make using SS for robotics even easier.

Ben


Ben Wirz                For PIC microcontroller development systems, Serial
mailto:ben@wirz.com     LCD Interface(SLI), as well as motor drivers,
Wirz Electronics        Polaroid sonar units, and more hobbyist robotic
                        & electronic supplies, visit: http://www.wirz.com/