PIC and Pathes

Hi All,

i'm trying nowadays to build my first Robot so if you please i need some help ....... now i have two questions.

1- can i learn PIC programming from a book?

i have two choices to learn PIC programming .....using a book or private course.
but as for the private course will be so expensive.. so what's your opinion ..... BOOK is enough or COURSE?

2- i have an idea for my robot but i don't know whether it's possible or not.
i need to build a robot able to move according to a specific path recived from my computer directly.
that's mean for example., i connect my robot to my computer and then i draw lines and circuits on Autocad or any painting application then my robot receives this lines as a pathes.........is it possible!!

Thanks for your time

1. Learn by doing. There are many great online tutorials to get you started on the PIC programming. Try the microcontrollers section of this forum for any questions on the PIC.

Do you know what language do you want to program in? Have you done any kind of programming before?


2. I don't think that autocad or paint can control the robot directly. Now a possibility is to draw a path in paint (or autocad) save it as a bitmap and then do image processing (Java or C++) to detect the direction and magnitude of the lines drawn. The image processing could get complex real fast .
Once again, there are tutorials for simpler image processing on the web.

Anyway my suggestion is to first build a simpler robot (if you have never built one) and interface it with your PC (control via cursor keys trhough hyperterminal). This would provide you with many design skills necessary for your proposed projects.

At first i'd like to thank you for your reply..... as for me i had built a simple robot before....and i'm tendeing to build another small one.....but reallly i have a friend who programmed the PIC for me.

but now i'd like to learn PIC programming......i use Visual BAsic very well and Autolisp...and little with C language.

but it's so nice to know that i can control my robot with a drawing ....image processing.....and i hope that i can find another solution using Autolisp.

Where will the image processing logic live? On the PC or on the robot? Regardless, my suggestion would be to start by determining what the output of this logic will be. Next build a robot that can navigate using that data stream. Once that is working, then work on the image processing logic.

Hi!

If you want to learn about PIC-programming take a look at Nigel's place : www.winpicprog.co.uk . He begins from scratsh and has lots of tutorials to begin with, every time with lots of programmingcode with good explenation. There's a forum with a good support and where he answers in a few days or faster.

Greetzz and good luck

from a student who's building too with PIC (still starting to learn)