another line follower

Introduction

This is my second robotics project. It is intended to be a small line following robot.

This project started when I bumped into Byron Jeff at Austin's electronics in Norcross. He introduced me to the Microchip PIC chips *free samples* and his build your own programmer (TLVP) A zillion mail order purchases and hundreds of dollars later, the project is starting to take shape!

Technical Specifications

Here is some preliminary documentation

Desired Size	3"x6"
Processor	Microchip PIC 16F876A
Language	C
Compiler	Hitech C Lite
Programmer	Homebrew TLVP + picprg + mods from Byron Jeff
Bootloader	tinybld
Drive	2 small Epson stepper motors
Sensors	5 IR detection diodes

Sources

I am new to this game, and so have spent a lot of time coming up to speed and acquiring "stuff." If you're new like me, I thought you might like these links. If you are an old pro, this list probably has some humor value. Places where I have acquired parts for this project:

• Austin Electronics (local electronics surplus store)
• Radio Shack
• Glitchbuster Cheap electronics components!
• All Electronics Stepper motors
• Digi-Key
• Jameco
• Microchip samples site microcontroller
• HMC Electronics (soldering iron supplies)
• Grizzly (metric drill bits)
• Lowe's (drill press)
• Local ACE Hardware (Aluminum)
• Home Depot (tap & die, other tools)
• Michael's craft store (wooden wheels, craft plywood)
• Member of AHRC (Ringo) who gave away old Hakko soldering station
• Garage sale - (old Lanier photocopier and a HP inkjet printer for gears, shafts, wheels)

Pictures, Schematic, Movies, etc.

• A schematic drawn in Eagle.
• A Quicktime movie of the circuit in action! (Install 'gmplayer' in Linux -it's great!)

My second attempt at a drive train up close and personal (let's not mention the first attempt.)



A picture of my homebrew pic programmer. On top is the programmer hooked up to the parallel port. On the bottom is a MAX-232A that converts the signals to 0-5V to talk to the circuit board through an RJ-11 jack.



This is a blurry picture of light cast by the LEDs as seen through my camera. The light is not visible to the naked eye, so I have been using my camera to debug this part of the circuit.



This is my setup for debugging the IR detection part of the circuit. That is an op amp wired on the breadboard, and I have connected everything up with test clips to see if it is my wiring at fault. At this point, I have just discovered that everything works great until you connect the output of the sensor to the processor pin.