DAGU MR. Tidy User manual

Mr. Tidy is a unique and versatile robotic platform ideal for students and hobbyist alike. The 2DOF arm and
array of sensors make this robot capable of so much more than just line followin and object avoidance. An
open framework makes experimentation and expansion quick and easy.

Contents:
Main board features
Assembly
Installin the software
Understandin the sample software
How it works
Trouble shootin
Usin the dia nostic software
Specifications
3
4
9
10
13
15
16
21
2

Main board Features
3

Assembly Instructions
STEP 1: The robot arm comes in two parts that must be joined to ether before the arm is attached to the
base. Start by removin the nuts and sprin washers shown in the photo bellow. Do not completely remove
the screws. This will allow you to use a screwdriver to join the two sections.
STEP 2: Join the two parts as shown below and then replace the washers and nuts removed in STEP 1.
4

STEP 3: Undo the 3 brass spacers and remove the main board.
STEP 4: Insert 6x “AA” (UM3) NiMh batteries. Do not use alkaline batteries as they cannot supply enou h
power for the robot and cannot be rechar ed. Note how the battery cable is run.
5

STEP 5: Re-install the main board bein careful to ensure the encoder PCB for the wheels plu s in correctly.
Make sure the battery cable is behind the mountin post so it cannot jam in the ears.
STEP 6: Mount the arm onto the base with 3x8mm screws as shown. The screwdriver oes between the
ears from above. It may be easier to use pliers to hold the nut while startin the thread. A spanner can then
be used to ti hten the nuts.
6

STEP : Now that the arm is mounted we need to tie the wires to the frame and connect all the wires to the
main board. Pay careful attention to the orientation of the plu s.
7

STEP 8: Attach the IR receiver to the robot. Pay careful attention to how the cable plu s into the processor
board. Incorrect connection may dama e the receiver.
STEP 9: Check your connections carefully before turnin the robot on. When you turn it on it should start by
playin a simple tune. The robot will then open its ripper, lower the arm until the lower limit switch is hit and
then raise it’s ripper. The robot will now search for objects to pick up.
8

STEP 10: optional sensor ali nment rin s can be fitted to help maintain sensor ali nment when the robot
bumps into somethin . These rin s may reduce the sensitivity of the sensors sli htly but can improve
reliability.
Installing the software
This robot can be pro rammed usin a free Inte rated Development Environments (IDE) from the internet.
Dependin on your pro rammin skills there are several choices. Many advanced pro rammers would
choose an IDE such as AVR Studio and use the ISP socket to pro ram this robot.
To make this robot as easy as possible to pro ram we have chosen to make it compatible with the Arduino
IDE and have included a USB interface. This manual assumes that the Arduino IDE (version 18 or later) is
bein used. Althou h the robot comes with the Arduino bootloader and sample software already installed you
will need the Arduino IDE for loadin the dia nostic software and writin your own code.
At the time this manual was written the Arduino IDE was available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux 32bit. It
can be downloaded from here: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
Once you have the Arduino IDE installed on your computer you can then open the pro ram
“Mr_Tidy_Sample_Code.pde” which is supplied with the robot or can be downloaded from our website at
http://arexx.com.cn/en/DownList.asp
9

Understanding the sample software
The sample software supplied with the robot instructs the robot to locate objects and sort them based on
colour. This is only a simple demonstration pro ram but it contains sample code for all the motors and
sensors. The sample code has been written usin the Arduino pro rammin environment, as this is easier for
be inners.
You will see several tabs at the top, these tabs help or anise the pro ram makin it easier to use. The first
tab shows you the main pro ram. You can edit the pro ram here.
The second tab defines the robots IO pins. The Atme a1280 has 70 IO pins of which more than 40 are used
for sensors and motor control. If you add additional circuitry then you can define the new IO pins here. The
contents of this tab are like a map of the robot.
10