one Preface-- Arduous geeks' favorite

evaluating Vortex programming robot has to say Arduino. Arduino is a convenient, flexible and easy to use open source electronic prototype platform. At present, Arduino has developed many IoT products. This time, Vortex development company is making Arduino improved products. I bought their Mega2560, and the overall materials and workmanship are much better than those on Taobao. This time I was lucky to be able to try DFrobot's product. At first, I thought that this product might be just to add sensors on the basis of Arduino to simply realize a mobile robot, but when I got it, I couldn't wait to disassemble it to see how it was inside. After seeing it, it was far from simple as I thought. In order to give some background knowledge to friends who do not know Arduino, here is a brief introduction of Baidu Encyclopedia:

Arduino can sense the environment through various sensors, and feedback and influence the environment by controlling lights, motors and other devices. The microcontroller on the board can be programmed through Arduino programming language, compiled into binary files, and burned into the microcontroller. Arduino programming is realized by using Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino based projects can include only Arduino, or Arduino and other software running on PC, and they can communicate with each other (such as Flash, Processing, MaxMSP) to achieve this.

two Video experience-- Unpacking, function experience, disassembly

first Let's give you some practical experience. Let's experience the product first and then evaluate it. One person shooting, the shooting effect is not very good, please forgive me.

three Appearance-- Good texture and workmanship

Vortex feels cute and cute when it gets hold of it. At the same time, through practical experience, the workmanship of this programming robot is more exquisite than that of ordinary toys, and the materials are also sufficient. Through the video, you can see that little V can have various expressions, cute, angry, happy, and so on.

back There is a logo with a small V, and there are tracking sensors in the transparent area on the back. Six infrared sensors can be seen in the transparent area, as well as a gray-scale sensor on the head. Since there is no gyroscope sensor, the balance of the trolley must rely on two steel balls to keep balance. There is a horn in the middle. I don't know why the horn will generate the sound of current when my hand is placed on the infrared sensor. Maybe the manufacturer didn't do a good job in anti-interference.

four Features-- Interactive games

at present Small V has a game built in. When the phone is connected, it can move according to the corresponding action. It is demonstrated in the previous video. It is also good if the manufacturer can update some new games in real time. Now let's take a look at the five built-in games

After the game is started, the mobile phone's gravity sensor is used to control the small V to move forward and backward, turn left and turn right. Due to the daytime conditions, it is not easy to distinguish the front of the small V and determine the front.

You need two players to play this one. There is only one player here. I just measured the action, and there are various voices. It's very interesting.

This is controlled by pressing the button. One of the characteristics is the Shot button. When the button is pressed, the shot action will appear. It is to step back and accelerate the push.

This is the attached square sticker. When V rotates, wave the phone and let V go to the sticker.

This game is that as long as you shake, V will change a music and different actions. It's fun. If you program, you can also design different dances.

Arduino IDE

After opening the upper cover of the small V, there is a screw that can be removed. Please be careful if you only have 90 days of warranty after removing it. At the same time, it should be noted that if you want to use Arduino's IDE for program burning, you should first turn the toggle switch next to the MiniUSB (the current universal mobile phone data cable interface) to the Process side, as shown in the disassembly drawing below.

I use IDE to test the rotation of the motor. Because I have been playing Arduino, I can get started quickly. The specific test code can be found in the appendix later in this article.

Scratch2 programming

At the same time, Scratch can also be used for programming, but the problem is that the software installation is complex. So you can use these two kinds of programs, but I haven't found the original program, so I dare not burn the program randomly.

WhenDO programming

When programming with WhenDo, I don't know why. At first, several times, WhenDo showed that the writing was successful, but the original program of Little V was still in use, and the new program could not be executed. After I tried about 5 times, it was OK, and I don't know why. By the way, the Bluetooth pairing password is DFRobot.

This is the first program written. The problem is that some icons are inconsistent with the tutorial. Please pay attention.

This is the interface when the upload is successful.

In the figure above, click Restore Factory Settings and then click Upload to restore the original program to the small V.

five Disassembly-- Different Arduino

according to According to the previous understanding before application, DFROBOT has a board for selling Arduino, so I think this robot is just a simple module addition based on Arduino, but after being disassembled, it is far from what I thought, which may be the simple idea of amateur geeks like me.

This is the circuit diagram I found on the official forum. As I analyzed, the location of the master chip and the Bluetooth chip are both correct.

• Gray sensor: 6 gray sensors adopt analog input

• Bluetooth circuit: CC2540f256 chip control

• N20 motor: composed of N20 motor and 1:75 reduction gearbox

• Motor drive circuit: double H-bridge drive circuit

• Barrier sensor: 38KHz infrared receiver

• Emoticon interface: used to control the Emoticon and drive two infrared emission tubes

• Power circuit: adaptive voltage rise and fall circuit

• Top plate interface: 1.27mm interface

• Encoder: 2-way encoding sensor, used to detect wheel speed

• Power interface: DC interface, input power voltage range 3.5~6V

• Barrier sensor: 2-way infrared emission tube, used for left and right barriers

• Emoticon: 5 * 5RGB dot matrix

• Connector: connected to the mainboard

open Then I eagerly looked for the shadow similar to Arduino, and found that the motherboard was completely redesigned, and the shape of the motherboard was the same as the bottom. When I learned about the product information before receiving the goods, I noticed that this product has the shadow of Arduino, so it must be there. Finally, I found that the chip it uses is the same as the ATMEL mega328p of Arduino UNO, which also verified my idea. On the right side of the control chip, I guess that the Bluetooth chip of Texas Instruments is used. I remember that the same chip was used for the Yunmai Haoqing mini before disassembly. However, the VORTEX has also designed an antenna on this motherboard, so that the Bluetooth signal will be more stable.

below Then look at the motor and shaft. You can see that the gears in the shaft and gearbox are made of metal copper rather than plastic, which can be seen to be very durable. Therefore, the VORTEX is not a cheap toy. At the same time, if you look carefully, you can see that the motherboard has a sensor at the wheel. I think it may be a sensor to calculate the wheel rotation angle (I'm guessing here, not qualitative).

front The two matrix LED modules, namely the small V eyes, can show different shapes through different settings. The LED lights on both sides should be infrared sensors. What sensors are reserved by the manufacturer in the middle? Three pins can be connected to a temperature and humidity sensor (personal recommendation).

a main board There are six infrared sensors on the back. These six sensors are mainly for the purpose of tracking, that is, if there is a black line on the ground, small V will walk along the black line, and the appearance of the sensors should be of good quality.

Housing There is a loudspeaker on the protective shell below. If you disassemble it, be careful not to break the cable. At the same time, you can find that there is a magnet on the small V battery cover, which can be pulled together with the host protective case through the magnet.

meanwhile There is also a board, which has a miniUSB interface and multiple RGB LED lights. Because the USB interface can be programmed using the Arduino IDE, it is still difficult to program because it is not clear which pin of the chip is used by the sensor.

six Summary-- If you are a geek dad, you are willing to buy

Disadvantages:

      1. Now the graphical programming intelligence uses the iPad for programming, which is not supported by other devices. According to my query of the forum manufacturer, Android client is being developed. Another complication is to use the PC terminal DF4Scratch Programming can be found in the appendix.

2. If you do not use the built-in rechargeable battery, you must purchase four No. 5 batteries.

3. The factory program of Arduino version is unavailable (I haven't found it at present)

4. The problem of updating firmware and failing to update it will occur when connecting small V with Android program. However, the firmware is the latest version.

It's up to me. After experiencing the functions, I found that the software produced by DFRobot is quite sophisticated. As long as we can update different forms of small games in the future, it is still a good choice. At the same time, for such a programming robot, it is very attractive to children. At the same time, it can exercise children's logic ability. I always thought that if I had such a toy when I was young, I already know what major I will choose when I graduate from high school. With such a toy, children can also understand that the knowledge they have learned can be applied to practice. When children gradually master, they can play development boards and invent new things. As an aside, the reason why Americans are so creative is that children start from an early age. It has its own laboratory. Therefore, if you are a geek father, this product can never be wrong for enlightenment.

Appendix: In order to save you from searching for relevant knowledge, I found the relevant instructions for you, so that I can take pictures and scan the instructions again.

Vortex programming instructions:

Vortex description:

Vortex computer programmer: