Line follower kit?

General lounge
1

As I recall, a few years ago, someone at VHS created a line/light follower.

Am just wondering:

  • Any idea who did it, and are they still around?
  • How good was the kit?
  • Age group it was appropriate for?
  • Approximate pricing of the kit?

Also, any suggestions on the soldering irons?

Reason is that the Scouts are thinking of doing this at the Maker Faire this year. Would love to hear back.

Tony Mark at tmark.modas@gmail.com is the organizer, while I (Andrew Tuline atuline@gmailcom) am just a helper.

Thanks,

Andrew

2

Lawrence Harris built one with his nephew
If you need his contact I can forward that.

3

@JohnC can tell you more, iirc.

4

Also, any suggestions on the soldering irons?

Jon’s choose your own adventure guide to soldering station purchases!

It’s 2016, I wouldn’t buy non-temperature controlled soldering stations - so, two questions:

  1. are you willing to spend $75-$150 on each soldering station (yes or no)
  2. must it not have a base station (Yes or No)

If you answered YES to 1 and:

  • NO to 2: Buy Hakko 888d or Weller WES51 stations. (~140 CAD, cheaper if bought from the states))

  • If you can find a used Metcal for ~100-150, buy it for yourself or post it here on talk, don’t let it go to the scouts :wink:

  • YES to 2: buy imported Hakko FX-600 (cad) or FX-601 (usd) - neither are available domestically that I can find, total cost ~$75.

If you answered NO to 1 and:

  • NO to 2: buy the hobbyking special. <$20 USD. nothing comes close for the price. Or buy it from Lees for ~double the price. If you get genuine hakko replacement tips for it, it becomes quite competitive.
  • YES to 2: buy this thing from lees. ~25 CAD, Cheap, but the tips on the one I tried were poor and the tipping material degraded super quick.

If you answered YES to 2, you will probably want a stand/sponge, something along these lines.

Hopefully that gives you some sane options to start from?

2 Likes
5

Thanks guys. I’ll forward this onto Tony.

6

I had a kit for a good long while. two continuous servos, two photoresistors, an arduino, laser cut frame, and a 9v battery. some other small parts. $80 IIRC.

7

We still have a bunch of the printed circuit board kits for the line followers. They’re based off of a quad op-amp chip; two of the op amps work together to generate a triangle wave, and each of the other two op amps compare the triangle wave with the voltage from the photoresistors. The effect is a pulse-width modulated signal whose duty cycle is proportional to the light level at the sensor. Feed each of those PWM signals into transistors to drive your motors, and you get a little robot that can follow a line.

The most expensive parts in the kits were the motors. We saved some money by laser cutting our own wheels and then stretching rubber bands (cut up bicycle inner tube) over the edge of the wheel for the tires.

Our cost per kit came in under $10, although that was back when the dollar was stronger.

Let me know if you need more details; I’m happy to share the Eagle files for the PCB design too.

8

I would but a lot or bring my boy to a build night.

9

Thanks for the follow-up John.

I’ve passed this along to Tony Mark (tmark.modas@gmail.com) and Lawrence Harris who are spearheading that project and I’ve asked them to follow-up with you.j

As for myself, I’m assembling about 400 switchable LED throwie kits for the Beaver and Cub aged youth.

Already have 500 CR2032’s on order from ali.

Andrew Tuline

10

Are the circuit boards/instructions for this line follower kit still available please? If not the circuit boards then hopefully I can still build my own from the instructions and using veroboard instead.

Thanks in advance.
Ian

11

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.