jcm inventures (c) 2002lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/e-clec-tech/queenant.pdf · connect the other motor...

JCM InVentures (c) 2002

Construction Manual http://www.jcminventures.com

This is a fun-to-build, educational and entertaining kit where you create an expandable, evolveable, and exciting member of your robotic ecosystem! Experience robotic emergent behaviour as your QueenAnt drone explores its robotic environment. Build up an entire colony of robotic ants and other members of the CYBUG family of robotic lifeforms! QueenAnt Colour: RED BLACK



Check your kit! Before we begin assembly, it’s a good idea that you inspect the kit’s contents, and make sure you have the necessary tools and components to put this project together. This kit should take a novice about 2-3 hours to assemble.

Tools You will need the following tools not included in this kit...

Soldering iron with fine point tip ( electronics grade ) soldering pencil 35W, or solder station preferred. The better the iron, the easier the build. Needle nose pliers 9V Battery Side cutters Sharp knife ( such as Xacto ) Solder Clean work surface in bright well ventilated area. SAFETY GLASSES Nice to have: “Helping Hands”

Get Set... go!!


Parts list Carefully check your parts kit to ensure you have the following parts...

1 x Queen Ant Printed Circuit Board ( Red or Black ) 1 x Drone Brain Printed Circuit Board ( Red or Black ) 1 x TLC27L2 op-amp IC 1 x 7400 IC Nand gate 1 x 8 pin DIP socket 2 x 220uF Capacitor 1 x 78L05 voltage regulator ( 3 pin ) 1 x RED Led 12 x NPN transistors 2n3904 ( 3 pin ) 6 x 10K resistor ( brown, black, orange, gold ) 6 x 100K resistor ( brown, black, yellow, gold ) 4 x PNP transistors 2n3906 ( 3 pin ) 1 x 330 ohm resistor ( orange, orange, brown, gold ) 1 x 14 pin female strip header 1 x 27 pin male strip header 2 x CDS Photo Cells 4 x jumper plugs 1 x 9V Battery Clip 5 cm Foam Tape (Cut into four equal pieces) 2 x Mabuchi Motor 1 x Plastic Coated Paper Clip 16 cm steel spring wire 10 cm 22 ga Insulated Wire 1 x Motor Bracket 2 cm Heat Shrink Tubing 50K potentiometer Documentation manual

Assembly Notes Building an electronic project is enjoyable, but please resist the temptation to hurry ahead and omit instruction steps. Use the small check boxes by the instructions to keep track of your progress. • Read all instructions carefully • Read the entire step before you perform each operation. • Be careful when handling the soldering iron: Tip temperature approached 700o . • Make certain that you wear appropriate safety glasses at all times. • Work in well ventilated area and avoid breathing fumes. • When cutting wires, direct the cuttings to the table top or floor ( not eyes )


Soldering Soldering is the most important operation you will perform while constructing this kit. A good solder connection will ensure a solid electrical connection between the part and the circuit board. A bad solder joint can prevent an otherwise well assembled kit from functioning properly. It is simple to make a good solder connection if you follow a few simple rules: Use the right type of soldering iron. A 25 to 40 Watt pencil type iron intended for electronic work with a 1/8” pointed tip works best. Use a rosin-core solder on diameter approximately .0.081 mm and a 60/40 lead/tin ratio. Keep the soldering tip clean by wiping it frequently on a wet sponge or cloth: then apply solder to the tip to give the entire tip a wet look. ( Tinning the tip ) When solder tends to “ball” or does not stick to the tip, the tip needs to be cleaned and re-tinned. How to Solder

Install the component on the board, flaring the leads on bottom side slightly (so the part does not fall out when the board is flipped! ) Flip the board upside down.

Touch the freshly tinned solder to the point where the component wire meets the board. Hold for 1 second!

Touch the solder to the opposite side of the component wire/board junction and allow solder to melt and surround pad entirely.

Remove solder and soldering iron by dragging iron up the component wire. Clip off excess component wire

Soldering Techniques Checking your work


How do you know when you made a good connection? Too Much Solder? Solder will ball up like an igloo. Too Little Solder? Solder will lie flat like a pancake. Just the right amount? Solder will look like a volcano!

Always be on the watch for solder splashes or sloppy connections which can short against it’s neighbor. These will certainly effect the operation of your kit


Don’t hurry Have Fun!

Let’s get started on your new kit! Please follow the instructions carefully, and in sequence. Remember, the soldering iron is HOT! Work in a well ventilated area and avoid breathing the fumes. Wear Safety Glasses at all times to avoid eye injury by flying clippings or solder spashes. Take you time and have FUN! Once built, your Cybug QueenAnt will last for years!

Install Resistors Install 100K Resistors R3,R4,R5,R6,R7, & R8 (Color coded Brown, Black, Yellow, Gold) Install 10K Resistors R9, R10, R11, R12 ,R13, & R14 (Color coded Brown, Black, Orange, Gold)

Using needle-nose pliers, gentley bent the leads of the resistors 90 degree’s so they drop into the donut pads on the circuit boards. (There is no polarity) Solder and clip off excess lead. Save the cut ends of the resistors for later!

Note: Resistors R1 and R2 are not used unless you are rigging the QueenAnt for optional Solar Power!


Install Transistors Caution: Polarity Sensitive Device Be careful here... these transistors look a lot alike BUT they will not work if you put them in the wrong places!!

Insert the 4 PNP-type transistors marked 2n3906 in the area silkscreened Q2, Q4, Q8, & Q10 on the PCB ( highlighted in picture ). Leave about 5mm of lead length between the bottom of the transistors and the printed circuit board. Solder and clip off excess leads from underside of board. Make sure the flat side of the transistor is aligned with the flat side of the silkscreen.

Repeat the process for the 12 NPN-type 2n3904 transistors at locations Q1, Q5, Q12, Q9, Q7, Q11, Q3, Q6, Q15, Q16, Q13, Q14.

If you prefer, you can fan-out the transistors a little to fill out it’s abdomen a bit! Well done! You have just finished the part of the circuit which drives the two motors forward and reverse! This circuit is called an H-bridge, which we will discuss later in this manual!

Install Voltage Regulator: Caution: Polarity Sensitive Device

Insert the 78L05 Voltage Regulator at the location marked VR2 at the back of the QueenAnt. Remember to align the flat side with the silkscreen.

This component steps the 9 volt battery voltage down to 5 volts for your robots circuitry to use.


Install Op-Amp: ( Polarity Sensitive! )

Install the 8-pin socket at U1 on the front of the PCB. If the socket has a small .notch on it’s top, it should be aligned with the notch on the top of the silkscreen. Solder all eight pins.

Press the TS27L2 into the socket so the notch at the top of that chip aligns with the notch on the silkscreen.

The Op-Amp ( Operational Amplifier ) monitors the voltage at your ants light sensors, telling the robots brain which side is brighter. Cool, eh?

Install the Light Sensor CDS Cells:

Pull 3cm of insulation ( 4 pieces total ) off the 22 ga solid wire and slip the insulation onto the leads of the two CdS photocells. This will serve to ensure the leads to not short together. Install the Light Sensors at CdS1 and CdS2, the polarity isn’t a concern with these devices. Leave the leads as long as possible above the circuit board. Solder and clip off excess leads from the bottom of the board.

These “eyes” can be re-directed in any direction you want: straight down for line following, pointing left and right for phototropic ( light following ) behaviour. This is why the lead length is so long.

These light sensors are Cadmium Sulfide Cells . They produce a variable resistance depending on the amount of light. More light = Lower Resistance.

Using the 10K resistor connected to +5 V we create a voltage divider that produces a voltage that varies with light! The 8 pin chip is an operational amplifier called a comparator. It’ll decide which Sensor is brighter!

What are

these fo

r??


Attach battery clip: ( Polarity Sensitive! )

Clip the red and black leads of the battery clip to a length of 8cm and remove 0.5cm of insulation. Pass the wires through the two large donuts on the back edges of the QueenAnt and solder the ends into the pads marked “Red” and “Black”.

Keep the discarded red and black wire for the motor installation!

Install Male Header Pins:

Carefully break off two sets of 2 pins from the male header strip. Insert and solder the headers at locations J1 and J2 on the top of the PCB with the long pins up.

Carefully break off a 3-pin set from the male header strip and insert it at the location marked J3 on the bottom of the PCB, long pins facing down. (If you place this part on the TOP of the PCB you will find it difficult to attach the optional programming cable) Solder.

The rest of the Male Header Strip is used later in the assembly:


Attach Miscellaneous Jumpers:

Using a small scrap piece of wire cut from one of the resistors, make a connection between the outside two pads on Q17. Solder and cut excess leads from bottom of PCB.

Using another small piece of wire, connect the pads marked Vdd, Sol, and RES’ on the QueenAnt head ( as shown ).

PCB Top

Install the 14 pin Female Header and 50K potentiometer:

Install the 14 pin FEMALE header on the top of the PCB and solder. Install the 50K potentiometer to the three pads immediately in front of IC U1 and bend the potentiometer to face forward as shown.


Attach the motors : ( Polarity Sensitive! )

Using a 1x2cm piece of sticky foam tape, attach the motor bracket to the bottom of the printed circuit board below the large hole in the middle of the QueenAnts thorax ( middle section ).

Using a pair of 1x2cm pieces of sticky foam tape, attach the motors to the top of the motor bracket as shown.

Using the discarded pieces of the red and black battery clip wire, connect the positive terminal of the left motor (with the red dot) to the square pad marked M1. Connect the other motor lead to the round pad marked M1.

Repeat for the right motor, but attach the wires to M2.

Place a 1cm piece of heat-shrink tubing over the end of each motor shaft and gently heat with a lighter flame until the heat shrink wraps tightly around the shaft and around the end. Shape the rolling end nice and round with a sharp knife.


Create Feeler Assembly:

Insert a 2cm length of wire into the left pad and solder in place. Bend the wire so it is pointing straight forward (as shown). Using needle-nose pliers, create a loop at the end of the wire at 90 degrees to it’s length ( see illustration ) This loop should be about 1cm from the soldered connection to the PCB. ( You have created the “sensor loop” )

Cut a 6cm length of stiff guitar-string wire and make a small 90 degree bend at one end as shown in the scale drawing of the feeler wire ( see scale drawing below ).

Pass the 90 degree bend through the sensor loop created above and solder into the small pad marked FL on the left side of the QueenAnts head. The length of the stiff wire passes through the “sensor loop” .

Create a gentle bend in the steel wire toward the left.

Adjust the feeler wire so it passes directly through the center of the sensor loop without touching it.

Repeat for right feeler using the small right pad and the pad labelled “FR”.

This sensitive feeler detects an object by touching the “guitar-string “ to the sensor loop. When there is no object, the guitar-string must pass directly though the loop!

Here’s how the feelers should look when completed!


Add the 9V Battery: ( Not included... sorry! )

Using a 1x2cm piece of sticky foam tape, afix the battery to the bottom of the QueenAnts motor support bracket with the battery terminals facing toward the rear.

You can also use a small elastic band looped around each motor to sling the battery under the QueenAnt circuit board if you wish! Be careful to place the battery in a location where the robot balances nicely (front to back) around the motor bracket!

Install front and rear support rods:

Cut the top of the paper clip off to create two J-shaped rods. Strip 0.5cm of plastic coating off each end and solder onto one of the two large pads at the front of the robot and at the back.

Take care to ensure the robot wheels touch the ground and are not lifted off the ground by the pads!

You may have to bend the support rods or change the angle of the motor brackets to ensure a good balance!


Install Male Headers on Drone Board:

Break off and install two three-pin headers at locations J4 and J5. Solder away!

Install the 7400 controller: (Polarity Sensitive!)

Install the 14 pin socket at the spot d e s i g n a t e “ U 2 ” , ensuring that the dimple on the top of the package is in line with the dimple on the silkscreen! Solder.

Carefully press the 7400 into the socket making certain that the dimple lines up with the silkscreen dimple on the left side!

This chip controls the behaviour of the Drone QueenAnt. Be very careful not to install it backwards as it is difficult to remove!

Install Capacitors: (Polarity Sensitive!)

Install the two 220uF capacitors at locations C10 and C11 with the lead marked “-” and indicated with a white stripe inserted in the hole closest to the bottom of the board (the hole NOT

Install the 14 pin Male Header:

Install the 14 pin MALE header on the bottom of the PCB and solder.


Place Drone Board on Main Circuit Board:

Carefully press the drone board on the main QueenAnt motherboard.

Add Power Indicator LED:

Look for the flat camphor on the base of the red LED…. This indicates the negative pole of that part. If the led is put in backwards, it will not light.

Place the LED in the right pair of holes with the negative side toward the back/

Place the 330 ohm resistor in the left set of holes inside the “c1” circle… polarity is not important with the resistor!


Tuning your QueenAnt... Once powered up, you should tune your QueenAnt for maximum sensitivity to light. Holding the QueenAnt in an area with equal ambient light ( so one eye sees the same light intensity as the other ) and adjust the 50K Potentiometer until the QueenAnts motors are on the hairy edge of turning left or turning right. If both motors stop, you’re getting close: touch a feeler to wake up your QueenAnt. Covering the left or right eye with your finger should cause the robot to try to change direction.

Bring your QueenAnt Drone to life! If you’ve been careful and followed each step of the preceeding instructions carefully, your QueenAnt is moments away from life!

Drone behaviour setting... For phototropic behaviour, connect the plugs to the right pair of J4 and J5. ( light attracting ) For photophobic behaviour, connect two plugs to the left pair of J4 and J5.

QueenAnt Antics To get your Ant running, place the two jumpers on J4, J5 on the right side ( marked “To” on the circuit board silkscreen). Place the jumper on “Motor Enable” J2 to enable Photo-tropism ( attracted to light ) Jumpers J4,J5 on right side “To” • If you robots immediate response is to back up or spin backwards, check the

feeler wires to ensure they are passing through the middle of the sensor loops without touching them.

• If your robot spins around, it is looking for a bright light source but sees no light interesting enough to attract it. Try moving the light source or flashlight or “tuning” your QueenAnt.

• The natural behaviour of this robot is to apply power to the motor opposite the “eye” seeing the brightest light. When heading for the light, the robot should engage one motor, then the other in a zig-zag fashion. Once near an overhead light source, the Ant will then circle.

Jumpers!


Motor Enable... Connect this jumper when you want to allow power to flow to the motors. If this QueenAnt had a BASIC STAMP processor board, removing this jumper would disable the motors while the robot is being programmed!

Main Power... This jumper acts as an ON-OFF for the entire robot. Place this jumper on last and you should see the LED comes on and the robot wakes up!! Remove it, and she stops!

Photo-phobism ( repelled by light ) Jumpers J4, J5 on left side “From” • The Ants emergent behaviour is much like that of photo-tropism, but the motor

on the SAME side as the brightest light source will operate, turning the robot away from the light source. This Ant will now seek the safety of the dark Ant nest.

Touch sensor feelers • If the left feeler should touch an object the left motor will reverse

momentarily, causing the Ant to back away from the touched object. The right feeler causes the right motor to reverse momentarily. If these feelers should vibrate or shake too much, they may accidentally confuse the Ant into thinking its trapper, tricking it into doing backwards circles.

Sleepy feeling • On occasions, the QueenAnt Drone might just stop. Don’t worry... it’s either so

confused it’s frozen in panic, or it just fell asleep. Just touch one his feelers to wake your QueenAnt up. Usually it will awake on it’s own. If this behaviour per-sists, it might be time to change the batteries.


Emergent Behaviour Ants go marching...

Queen Ant Drone Cybug robotic lifeforms emulate simple insectoid life by creating a robot whose behaviour emulates the instincts of bugs. The QueenAnt with the Drone board patterns itself after ANT or BEE colonies, where robots work together for a common goal. The Drone board is the simplest add-on board for the QueenAnt and allows the robot to perform simple hive tasks such as locating food (energy) and bringing it back to the hive. Build a walled tabletop for your Ants domain and place a bright light on one end to represent the bright sunny spot where the food may be found. At the other end, create a dark box with a large opening to represent the hive. If you make your QueenAnt photo-tropic your ant will leave the nest and move to the food gathering location. Once at the bright area, reverse the J5 and J6 jumpers to make your robot photo-phobic ( afraid of light ) and watch how the robot eventually moves to the darkest part of the ants-nest box. Place several QueenAnt drones in the same area and watch them compete and battle for the brightest spot in the colony when set for photo-tropism . Place a small felt pen on the end of the QueenAnt and let your robot create works of eco-art on a large sheet of newsprint as it traces its path! Set up an maze for your robot ants using a bright light source at one end and a series of small mirrors to reflect that light through the maze and see how long it takes your QueenAnt to find its way through the tunnel to the light! Place a clear plastic bubble ( like those found in hobby shops ) and watch as the QueenAnts seem to play with the bubble. These behaviours, although not programmed, are called “emergent behaviours” and create very lifelike attitudes in creatures of very simple brain!


Programmable Brain Solar Powered

QueenAnt Programmable Your Cybug QueenAnt has been designed to accept the powerful little BASIC STAMP 1 programmable module from PARALLAX ( http://www.parallaxinc.com ) or HWV Technologies (http://www.hvwtech.com). With this module in place you can connect your robot to your computers parallel printer port and send programs to the small three pin header located on the bottom of your QueenAnts head. Your robot can then be instructed to perform some very sophisticated behavior using this easy to write programming language to attack, defend, locate food, and communicate with you using BEE-DANCE motions, letting you know what its requirements are. We suggest you solder a 14 pin male header strip onto the leads of the basic stamp so the pins connect more firmly to the QueenAnts expansion slot. Programming and using the BASIC STAMP 1 is simple, but the opportunities are so huge that it cannot be covered in detail in this small manual. Please visit our website at http://www.jcminventures.com for lots of information on how to program the QueenAnt and lots of sample programs to download and experiment with!


Cybug Robotic Lifeforms http://www.jcminventures.com

Whats in this bag? This kit contains detailed instructions with photographs, all components (over 55 parts! ), quality double-sided printed circuit boards, and theory of operation . You’ll need a 9V battery, electronics grade soldering pencil, 9V battery and some basic handtools to complete this project.

For questions or support please contact: JCM Inventures (aka JCM Electronic Services ) (403) 284-2876 http://www.jcminventures.com email: [email protected]

Evolving your QueenAnt... The CYBUG QueenAnt is designed with open architecture and is easly expanded to be fully solar powered ( with our QueenAnt SolarWings add-on kit ) or programmable by adding an optional BASIC programmable microprocessor. Visit our website for lots of activities and resources for your new QueenAnt. Other Cybug Kits...

Your QueenAnt will enjoy the company of the other robotic Cybug robotic lifeforms including the Scarab predator and herbivore, Solarfly, and the food source Sunflower Powerplant! ( Each sold seperately)

Made in Canada

jcm inventures (c) 2002lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/e-clec-tech/queenant.pdf · connect the other motor...

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