HEXBUG Spider Hacked for Serial Control
Eric Gregori wrote about his experience hacking a HEXBUG Spider for Serial Control with a TI Launchpad on the ‘Build Smart Robots’ blog.
With this project the TI Launchpad is connected to the four button signals on the transmitter. The transmitters microcontroller generates the IR signal that actually controls the robot…This project is about controlling the HEXBUG Spider with a serial port. I use the USB to serial adapter built into the TI Launchpad, and a software UART I wrote for the MSP430G2211 that does NOT require an external crystal.
October 13th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
I dont get it
October 24th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
@Matthew: The point is to be able to hack it so it can programed with a microcontroler
October 28th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Or better yet, use a microcontroller like the Basic Stamp, Propeller or the Arduino (or other chip) to control the spider. It doesn’t require any modification to the Spider or controller.
Step 1) Use the mirocontroller to read the IR codes (Forward, Back, Left & Right) for both channel A and B.
Step 2) Program the microcontroller (along with appropriate circuit) to control 2 spiders (or inchworms) at the same time!
Done it. Quite a fun project.