Re: Looking for Robotic Arm STuff

[Erick Wagner <wagnere@concentric.net>]

Rubywand wrote:
> Evidently, all or most of the robot kits come with a PC diskette
> with control programs in Parallax BASIC. So, if you can convert the
> programs for Apple II or use the programs as a guide for new Apple II
> programs, you should be in business.

Jim Frye of Lynxmotion provides some sample applications/info to help
people get going with their kits. In the early days, he sold the
kits in various forms depending on your needs/skills. However, as
business picked up, he found that too many newbies were getting
themselves
into trouble and changed the kits to includes most everything you would
need. He packages his kits with a small microcontroller board called
the Counterfeit (a kit that is a Basic Stamp I clone). The Counterfeit
features a preprogrammed Microchip/PIC microcontroller that is
configured to run Parallax's PBASIC interpreter. A small on-board serial
EEPROM allows for storage of a tokenized BASIC program. Unfortunately,
PBASIC is proprietary and the only tools I'm aware of are for the PC;
the BASIC stamps (from Parallax) are typically hooked up (as needed) to
the PC parallel port for programming.

If someone wanted to use one of the Lynxmotion robot arm kits with the
Apple II, the Counterfeit board would be unnecessary since it is only
practical to use with the PC development tools.

At KFest 96 (I think), I demo'd the [Scott Edwards Electronics] Mini SSC
(serial servo controller -- a kit that costs $29) with an Apple IIc+.
I wrote a small 6502 assembler program to send simple commands
(identification
of board/servo and servo position) to the MiniSSC through serial port 2.
It was an interesting challenge to prove that it would work -- I had to
build
the correct cable for the IIc+ and I had to figure out how to control
the
ACIA chip (I used 7-8 reference books that seemed to have conflicting
info).
It was a joy when it began to work :)  Although the MiniSSC can control
up
to 8 hobby R/C servos, I had only two connnected.

If you use the MiniSSC, you'll have to rig up a small wiring board or
cable to
power and interface the 3-conductor servo connectors to the 2-conductor
(per
servo) connector on the MiniSSC.

Scott now offers the MiniSSC II (I think that's what it is called) which
provides 3-conductor connectors that are better suited for interfacing
with
the servo motors. It is advised that the MiniSSC be powered from a
different
power source than is used for the servo motors.