In this section I present a selection of circuits which I have designed which may be useful for building your robot. I have avoided circuits which need a microcontroller since this makes building the circuits so much harder - you then need a programmer, and development tools etc. These circuits are all based on off-the-shelf components available from any electronics distributor such as Maplin, RS, or Farnell (for a list of distributors, see the links section.
Each circuit is described in detail, with not only a circuit description, but also a complete tutorial in the circuit development process, why decisions were made, and alternatives. This is to give readers an insight into the electronic design process, as well as a useful circuit at the end.
The circuits have been tested to a variety of levels. The level of testing is indicated in the document describing each circuit, and may be:
Most have been simulated using Orcad PSpice release 9, or LTSpice V2.10.There is a chapter all about SPICE and its models here if you are interested.
There are two classes of circuit, building blocks, and full projects. The building blocks are useful sub-circuits which may be used in the full projects. The full projects are complete circuits that will need no other circuits to work (apart from standard items such as speed controllers, or radio control receivers).
Click on the link in the contents pane on the left to see each circuit. If you experience any problems with these circuits, or would like to request a new circuit, feel free to email me at talulah@ntlworld.com