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Unread 03-10-2010, 23:23
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dtengineering dtengineering is offline
Teaching Teachers to Teach Tech
AKA: Jason Brett
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Re: Materials for a robotics class of 30

Quote:
Originally Posted by sanddrag View Post
...One of my primary goals right now is keeping the costs of class materials as low as possible. ...
Been there, done that! Believe me, I know where you are coming from.

To breadboard our mini-sumos, I cut breadboards in half on the bandsaw... it got them down under 10cm long (to meet mini-sumo size requirements) and it is cheaper to buy one standard breadboard than two little ones!

I've posted some more ideas over the past couple years to my blog... here's a couple links:

Programming PIC Assembly Language Code using PICBots

This uses MPASM, Microchip's free assembler, and MPLAB... familiar to us all from pre-NI controller days... and a neat little shareware program that I can only assume is now freeware since the authors are no longer to be found.

There are about 40 pages of handouts that I've attached as pdfs to the bottom of the post that take you all the way through to using BASIC to read the Sony IR protocol. Feel free to use any or all of them, or just take the ideas you like.

And a link to a cool "gears simulator"

Using Lego to teach iso/ortho drawing.

I really like doing PIC based projects... not just for robotics, but the 16f627a and 16f628a are just classic, cheap controllers that are good for a tonne of things (even if they aren't quite as "tough" as their 16f84 predecessors). Right now I'm looking at upgrading my projects to the 16f88, or something with an A/D convertor, and bootloader compatibility. I hope to have had some experience with that prior to January (and to have a fair bit written about it) as I will be teaching PIC programming and Mini-sumo construction to my classes at BCIT in the new year.

Other cool things to do with the PIC... steal a stepper motor from an old floppy drive and use an L293d chip to drive it... see if the students can make it spin. Hook them up to some cheap LCD displays, or just use an old serial mouse cable to hook them up to a PC using Hyperterminal.

Have fun... but watch out... we started down this path a decade ago at David Thompson Secondary... and ended up entering FRC, FLL, FTC and VRC as a result. (Eventually, I even got a new job out of it all!) It is amazing how things happen when you have happy, motivated students who are learning important concepts... kits might make it easier, but they don't make it better!

Jason
 


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