Radio Shack Mobile Robot Using Other Controllers, Using ARobot’s controller as a coprocessor

Using Other Controllers

ARobot’s controller board is designed to accept the Basic Stamp II controller chip made by Parallax (www.parallaxinc.com). Parallax makes other Basic Stamp II compatible controllers which offer more memory and greater speed. Other manufacturers also make controllers that are compatible with the Ba- sic Stamp II and most of them should work fine with ARobot©s controller board.

It is possible to remove the Basic Stamp II and use a different type of high-level controller board. In- stead of removing ARobot’s entire controller board, leave it to make use of the DC motor drivers, pow- erful output, encoder sensor circuit, RC servo motor drivers, speaker, LEDs, switches, and power regula- tion that is available there. Simply make a cable between the two controllers.

Cabling between ARobot’s controller and another controller

You have two cabling choices: #1 Cable from the Basic Stamp II socket to the new controller, #2 Cable from the expansion port to the new controller. See the expansion port connector pinout and the Basic Stamp II pinout in the schematic for pin numbers and signal usage. Cabling to the Basic Stamp II socket will allow access to the RS-232 connector, raw DC voltage, and the reset button. These signals could also be wired to unused pins on the expansion connector if needed. Signals that go directly from the Ba- sic Stamp II socket to the Expansion connector and are not used anywhere else can be ignored. The ones you’re interested in are the signals that go to the coprocessor, whiskers, LEDs, speaker and other devices you wish to utilize. See the coprocessor command structure section of this manual to learn how to control the DC drive motor, RC servo motors, and powerful output through the coprocessor.

Using ARobot’s controller as a coprocessor

Another option is to use ARobot©s existing controller with a Basic Stamp II installed as a coprocessor which receives commands from a master controller. Communication between these two controllers could be accomplished using the serial port. A program could be written on the Basic Stamp II that would respond to commands as needed. This arrangement would offload motor control and other tasks such whisker reflexes to the coprocessor and free up the master processor.

Using ARobot’s controller as a coproces-

MASTER

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