This is the Revision A verion of the Harness RoboBrick. The status of this project is it has been replaced by the Revision B version.

Harness Robobrick (Revision A)

Table of Contents

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1. Introduction

The Harness RoboBrick is used to test a RoboBrick network. It is built using a PIC16F84 microcontroller from MicroChip. The PIC16F84 is used so that the software can easily be changed for testing purposes. Either a dumb terminal or a terminal emulator is connected to the Harness RoboBrick via a Tether RoboBrick. Communication occurs at 2400 baud. A picture of a Harness-A RoboBrick is shown below:

Harness-A Picture

2. Programming

The Harness commands are summarized as follows:

Ns
Send N (where N is an octal number) to the RoboBrick with the high order two bits set. Do not wait for any reply bytes.
Nw
Send N (where N is an octal number) to the RoboBrick with the two high order bits set to '10'. The program waits for response bytes until one of the bytes comes back with the high order bit set. All returned bytes are printed as 3-digit octal numbers.
i
Interrogate the RoboBrick to find out its identification information.

3. Hardware

The hardware consists of a circuit schematic and a printed circuit board.

3.1 Circuit Schematic

The schematic for the Harness RoboBrick is shown below:

Harness Schematic

The parts list kept in a separate file -- Harness.ptl.

3.2 Printed Circuit Board

The printed circuit board files are listed below:

harness_back.png
The solder side layer.
harness_front.png
The component side layer.
harness_artwork.png
The artwork layer.
harness.gbl
The RS-274X "Gerber" back (solder side) layer.
harness.gtl
The RS-274X "Gerber" top (component side) layer.
harness.gal
The RS-274X "Gerber" artwork layer.
harness.drl
The "Excellon" NC drill file.
harness.tol
The "Excellon" NC drill rack file.

4. Software

The Harness software is available as one of:

harness.ucl
The µCL source file.
harness.asm
The resulting human readable PIC assembly file.
harness.lst
The resulting human readable PIC listing file.
harness.hex
The resulting Intel® Hex file that can be fed into a PIC12C5xx programmer.

5. Issues

The revision A Harness RoboBrick has the following issues:


Copyright (c) 2000-2002 by Wayne C. Gramlich. All rights reserved.