Digital Media Project

I finally received the WiShield couple of days ago. I have been trying to get it working with everything, i.e. the Arduino and the Motors/Motorshield with not much luck. The way the WiShield works is, it needs to be connected onto the Arduino, Pins 09, 10, 11, 12 and 13 to be precise. Comparing this to the MotorShield, I was able to discover that it requires several of the same pins also required for the WiShield, and because of this, pin conflict occurs on the Arduino.

I have researched into this issue, and have discovered that there isn't really any way of solving it other than getting rid of one of the components causing the conflict. I did find another device called 'Extender Shield', which gave me some hope for a little while, as it was adverticed that it would allow multiple shields to be connected to the Arduino. I found from the makers blog, that all it does is replicate the pins on the Arduino, and does not really solve conflicting pins, which is strange and contradicts what they advertise.

In the end I decided to discard of the MotorShield, which meant that I would be unable to use my current DC motor wheels as they draw too much current if connected to the Arduino without using a MotorShield. It is reported that doing this might cause severe damage to the Arduino controller. As a result, I decided to use Servo motors instead, which are pretty much no different to the DC motors. I also had to change the robot base because the Servo and the wheels that came with the Motors require a bigger space to be fitted. This is the Base/chassis that I am using now -----------

As you can see it comes with a Breadboard, which is needed to build the circuit connecting the Servos and the battery to the Arduino controller. Here is the Circuit required-- ----

For powering everything, the Arduino can only generate 5v of power, which isn't enough for two Servo motors. Therefore to power the Servos I am using 4, 1.5v AAA batteries, which in total give 6v of current needed for two Servos.

and the Arduino can either be powered using an external wired powersupply, a USB cable connected to a PC or a 9v battery. I will be using a 9v battery as I don't want to restrict the robots mobility. The 9v battery can be connected to the Arduino using a 2.1mm DC plug with a 9v battery clip.