Data Sheet

96 : circuit 5b
NEW CONCEPTS
ASCII CHARACTERS: ASCII is
a standard for character encoding,
formalized in the 1960s, that assigns
numbers to characters. When typing on
a computer keyboard, each character
you type has a number associated with
it. This is what allows computers to know
whether you are typing a lowercase “a,”
an uppercase “A” or a random character
such as ampersand (&). In this experiment,
you will be sending characters to the Serial
Monitor to move your remote-controlled
robot. When you send a character, the
microcontroller is interpreting that as a
specific number. ASCII tables available
online (http://sfe.io/ASCII) make it easier
to know which character is represented by
which number.
CONVERTING STRINGS TO
INTEGERS: String variables hold words
like “dog” or “Robert Smith” that are made
up of multiple characters. Arduino has a
set of special built-in methods for string
variables that you can call by putting a
period after the variable name, as follows:
string_variable_name.toInt();
The .toInt() method converts the string
to a number, and there are a dozen other
methods that can do things like tell you
the length of a word or change all of the
characters in a string to uppercase or
lowercase.
ASSEMBLY
Before you build this circuit, you’ll
need to make a few modifications to the
breadboard baseplate to make it more
robot-like!
1. Cut and attach
two short pieces
of Dual Lock
tape to the very
corners of the
baseplate on the
side located under
the breadboard.
Circuit 5B:
Remote-
Controlled
Robot
In this circuit, you’ll control two motors
and build your own remote-controlled
roving robot! You will also learn how to
read information from a serial command
so that you can use the Serial Monitor to
tell the robot in what direction to move
and how far to move.
2 WHEELS DUAL LOCK TAPE BINDER CLIP SCISSORS
YOU
NEED
VM
VCC
GND
A01
A02
B02
B01
GND
PWMA
A12
A11
ST
BY
B11
B12
PWMB
GND
M
O
T
OR
DRIVER
H8106
MOTOR DRIVER 2 GEAR MOTORS SWITCH 16 JUMPER WIRES
(NOT INCLUDED)