Good day, comrades!
Today I want to tell you finally what I got in the end. This article leads to the logical conclusion of my project. Why to the conclusion, you'll know about this later.
Now my robot looks like this:
Currently following features are implemented, the robot can:
- move along a given route;
- speak;
- sing (well, you know already about this)
- take all the necessary information from SD-Card.
Thus, the original idea (which I had in mind engaging myself into this contest) was fully implemented!
I bring to your attention the video of the robot in operation:
All week my robot had troubles, however, the latter almost killed my new friend....
- All the speakers I intended to use for the robot were broken! And the one that was delivered with "Parallax Robot Platform" turned out to be too low. As a result, I had to use a speaker from an old mobile phone, installed on a coffee cup (so it was better to be heard).
- The OpAmp of "Sound Card" went out of order. It was for the first time that I had problem with a chip from Texas Instruments...
- At last: the DAC of Arduino Due board burned due to unknown reasons. It was responsible for the reproduction of voice.
The death of DAC remains for me a full puzzle, I did not do anything wrong to it, did not connect it to GND or VCC and certainly did not feed it with + 5v. At the official website of Arduino, I found mentions of holders of this card with similar symptoms It seems to me that I got the SAM MCU from an unsuccessful lot. The only way to fix the DAC was to replace the microcontroller against knowingly good one, or purchase a new Arduino Due. Unfortunately I'm afraid it will be impossible to find a new chip and moreover a Due board in my town.
In general, I liked this board very much, it's functionality is quite exceptional, I especially appreciated the opportunity to implement multitasking applications. The fact that SAM kernel works at a voltage of 3.3v for me turned out to be a plus, it allowed me to connect the SD card directly to the MCU!
So, comrades, let us make a brief summary:
- My [survey] about what you would like to see in my project has been completed. The idea with RTC won. If I'm a success with recovering Arduino Due I will get around to do it.
- The [competition] for the best melody for the robot I also find completed - the overture by Tchaikovsky won. Here it is performed by my robot: [link].
- Although the project as a whole can be considered completed (albeit for a few minor note), in the future I will continue to please you with my articles. I'm sure, "Shedule & Homework Robot" - Is not my last project at Element14.
Good luck, friends! See you!
UPD: Guys! I'm a little patched robot and I ordered the RTC on Ebay so, as soon as I get it - I'll report.