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Unread 22-05-2012, 17:49
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dtengineering dtengineering is offline
Teaching Teachers to Teach Tech
AKA: Jason Brett
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Re: Building Smaller Robots

If you are planning to use CIMs, then you are likely using an FRC battery... so your robot is likely going to weigh more than 50 pounds. It is also likely to be able to move pretty quickly, and its frame will likely be able to inflict damage on whatever it hits.

I'm pointing this out because the commercial robot kits, such as the VEX controller, have failsafe systems where the robot will stop if it loses a signal from its controller.

I really like PICs, Arduinos and all the other low cost options, but there are some good reasons to pay for the layer of engineering that wraps a commercial robot control solution.... particularly if you aren't 100% sure how to program a safe, reliable, control system on your own.

Just a thought. The old VEX PIC controller works great on one of our old FRC robots.

Jason