Well, I finally worked up the courage to flip the switch on my robot with everything connected. I quickly noticed problems on the logic analyzer. After figuring out some wires in the wrong spots, the robot still would not move. No indication of life except for a few LEDs. Ultimately, I dont think the output latch is getting addressed correclty, but it is 11:52 PM on the last day and I am done for tonight.
Unfortunately, I did not even get to work on the Halloween theme component which was intended to be some spooky sounds and a fan blowing a ghost on top.
The final mess of wires and logic probes balanced on a small robot chassis:
Lessons learned:
- The mechanicals of a small robot like this are very time consuming. I could not count how many times I took this thing apart and screwed it back together to mount and re-mount things.
- The output driver board was an unexpected success. I am glad I learned a bit more about medium power transistors.
- The MC14500 is a really fun and simple platform to set up and design with, but it is fairly expensive to source all of the support ICs.
- I think I had the most fun writing the NOT assembler and code for the robot. Finishing that part led to a lack of initiative to finish the hardware.
- Those little arduino sensor boards seem to be pretty decent for a project like this.
So, that's it. I give up for this month. Hopefully, I can get this finished soon.