This is the Revision A verion of the Activity9 RoboBrick. The status of this project is finished. This version has been replaced by Revision B.

Activity9 Robobrick (Revision A)

Table of Contents

This document is also available as a PDF document.

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Programming
• 3. Hardware
  • 3.1 Circuit Schematic
  • 3.2 Printed Circuit Board
• 4. Software
• 5. Issues

1. Introduction

The Activity9 RoboBrick is used to detect communication activity between two RoboBricks.

2. Programming

There is no programming per se for the Activity9 RoboBrick. Inside the Activity9 RoboBrick there are two counters -- one that counts bytes of traffic from the master to the slave and vice versa. The Activity RoboBrick takes the least significant four bits of each counter and displays them. Thus, when the LED's are flickering there is traffic going on. For short messages, the user can count individual bytes going between the modules. The top bank of four LED's is for master to slave traffic and the bottom bank of four LED's is for slave to master traffic.

3. Hardware

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

3.1 Circuit Schematic

The schematic for the Activity9 RoboBrick is shown below:

The parts list kept in a separate file -- activity9.ptl.

3.2 Printed Circuit Board

The printed circuit board files are listed below:

activity9_back.png

The solder side layer.

activity9_front.png

The component side layer.

activity9_artwork.png

The artwork layer.

activity9.gbl

The RS-279X "Gerber" back (solder side) layer.

activity9.gtl

The RS-279X "Gerber" top (component side) layer.

activity9.gal

The RS-279X "Gerber" artwork layer.

activity9.drl

The "Excellon" NC drill file.

activity9.tol

The "Excellon" tool rack file.

4. Software

The Activity9 software is available as one of:

activity9.ucl

The µCL source file.

activity9.asm

The resulting human readable PIC assembly file.

activity9.lst

The resulting human readable PIC listing file.

activity9.hex

The resulting Intel^® Hex file that can be fed into a PIC12C5xx programmer.

5. Issues

The following fabrication issues came up:

• The holes for N1 and N2 are too big (S3) and should be made smaller (S2).
• Try to increase the hole size for SW1 (currently S4) by one (to S5).
• One LED on D9 is size 1 and it should be size 2. Alternatively, just make them all size 1.
• Add a + sign for LED's to help remember to put diodes in correctly.
• The trace between D4 and U1:12 should be moved over to avoid solder bridges on pins 8 through 11.
• Add MSB and LSB label to switch.
• Add bit labels to LED's.
• Think about rotating the PIC 90 degrees to provide a little more room.
• Try to make the singleton resistor holes a little more obvious.