Welcome to the TI Microcontroller projects page! Feel free to share your latest and greatest projects and designs based on TI microcontrollers. Or if you’re not quite ready to contribute, please browse around and rate the your favorite projects! This is a great place to get new design ideas, resources & inspiration.
MSP430G2553TBRCB Features:
$19.95 fully assembled with MSP430G2553IN20 in socket
The EMGRobotics MSP430G2553TB Robot Controller Board (RCB) is based on the powerful TI MSP430G2553 16bit microcontroller. The MSP430G2553 has 16K of flash and 512 bytes of RAM, more than enough to build some very interesting robots. The MSP430G 10bit A/D converter and analog comparator really set this TI microcontroller apart from the others. These analog capabilities make the MSP430G the perfect heart of a high tech robot controller. The robot controller has a built-in regulator and works with voltages from 3.2 to 6 volts. The regulator allows you to control RC servos or 6 volts motors using only one power supply.
The EMGRobotics MSP430G2553 Robot Controller Board (RCB) can individually and bidirectionally control two 400ma DC motors. 3 volt DC motors are perfect for small desktop robots, and this robot controller can control two of them simultaneously. Each motor can be run forward, backward, or stopped independently. This makes it easy to build any desktop two wheeled robot.
The MSP430G2553TBRCB uses the popular TB6612 dual bidirectional motor driver. This driver lets you control 2 motors up to approximately 1 amp each (continuous), 3 amps peak. It is possible to control motors up to 12 volts by simply removing a jumper on the board and using a separate power supply for the motors (the onboard regulator can only handle 6.5 volts max so s separate logic power supply would be required.
A robot needs a sensor to interact with its environment. The EMGRobotics MSP430G2553 Robot Controller Board (RCB) ships with a built-in Infra Red (IR) range sensor. The IR LED sends out pulses of light that is reflected off objects and detected by the IR transistor. Using the high performance 10 bit A/D in the MSP430G2553 the range of the object can be estimated. The IR range sensor provides a range measurement from 50 to 1000 depending on a object distance of 1 inch to approximately 12 inches.
Advanced robots need to communicate. The user expansion connector on the MSP430G2553TBRCB bring out the serial and I2C signals from the MSP430. These 3v level signals can be used (with external circuitry) to communicate with a PC, another microcontroller (Like a Chumby, Beagleboard, Beaglebone, or Rasberry PI). I2C can be used to communicate with smart multicolored LED's, accelerometers, compasses, GPS,.....
The EMGRobotics MSP430G2553RCB is designed to be used with the TI Launchpad debugger/programmer. The TI Launchpad is a $4.30 ( that is not a typo ) full featured professional debugger and programmer. The TI Launchpad can be ordered directly from TI here:
http://e2e.ti.com/group/msp430launchpad/w/default.aspx
The TI Launchpad is an amazing device for the price. With the include C compiler and debugger ( Code Composer Studio ) you can be up and programming in minutes. These are easy to use professional tools that let you program the chip, and debug your program using breakpoints and single stepping. If you are new to embedded programming TI provides a series of tutorials to help you get started.
The EMGRobotics MSP430G2553RCB is supported by www.buildsmartrobots.com, where you can find projects based on the board, example code, and answers to questions. Our goal is to help you build smarter robots.
You can order your MSP430G2553TBRCB at EMGRobotics (www.emgrobotics.com)