You’re probably reading this page because you’re interested in creating your own robot and don’t quite know where to start. This post is just to share with you some of my introductory research regarding robotics. Enjoy!
Before you start, you’ll need to decide on which microcontroller programming system you’re going to use. The two most popular are PICAXE and Arduino. The cheaper and easier to get started with of these two options is PICAXE. Here’s a versus article talking about the positives and negatives of each.
A good resource that I have found when you’re first getting started is: http://letsmakerobots.com/start
As far as buying supplies these are the vendors I have come across so far:
One of the most basic PICAXE programs. This program flashes an LED (connected to output 1) on and off every second:
main: 'make a label called 'main'
high 1 'switch on output 1
pause 1000 'wait 1 second (1000 ms)
low 1 'switch off output 1
pause 1000 'wait 1 second (1000 ms)
goto main 'jump back to the label
The short way of writing this code would be:
main: high 1
wait 1
low 1
wait 1
goto main
The above code is a basic starting point for the PICAXE-08 Safety Light project.
To get started in PICAXE programming, here is the basic kit that I’m looking to use. Note that with the $37.40 price, the actualy USB programming cable account for $22 of that – So future projects won’t be so expensive. With SolarBotics, if the order is under $75, then you’ll have to pay S&H, which for this order would be an extra $10 for me. I think I’ll work on getting my order over the $75 mark instead 
Other helpful electrical links:
- Capacitors
- Resistors
- http://www.technologystudent.com/pics/picdex1.htm
- Choosing the right resistor size: Ohm’s Law Video
- Electronics Club
- Controlling a Servo using a PICAXE-08