Having half a mind on the challenge of half-size micromouse, I was looking at some information on the megabitty controller. As supplied, it may well have enough features to make a micromouse controller but that wasn’t what caught my eye. On the board are two full-bridge motor drivers. While looking for data on these, I came across the slightly more flexible Si9986, also by Vishay…
I use SPI on my micromouse both to talk to the Nokia graphical LCD and to talk to the LS7366 quadrature encoders. A large number of devices can be connected to the SPI data lines, MOSI and MISO. Each device needs its own select line. This all appear very simple and friendly. There is, however a potential problem due to the flexibility of the SPI configuration.
The wheels have given me so much trouble that it all has to be downhill from here. This is how they are put together.Good wheels are essential in a micromouse. We want something that is robust, reliable and capable of precision, repeatable movement. There should be no wobbling and shaking and their relationship to the body of the mouse must be constant, or at least predictable. Clearly, the grip of the tyre is essential for high performance. The wheel in a simple mouse will probably need to carry the final stage reduction gear. (more…)