mBot for Makers: Conceive, Construct, and Code Your Own Robots at Home or in the Classroom

by Andrew Carle, Rick Schertle

Overview

The mBot robotics platform is a hugely popular kit because of the quality of components and price. With hundreds of thousands of these kits out there in homes, schools and makerspaces, there is much untapped potential. Getting Started with mBots is for non-technical parents, kids and teachers who want to start with a robust robotics platform and then take it to the next level. The heart of the mBot, the mCore is a powerful Arduino based microcontroller that can do many things without soldering or breadboarding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680452921
Publisher:	Make Community, LLC
Publication date:	11/27/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	310
File size:	143 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Started his first Makers program in 2010 while teaching programming and math at Flint Hill School in Northern Virginia. Blogged about that process steadily at tieandjeans.com, and launched the first #makered chat on Twitter with Laura Blankenship.

In 2014, he moved to Korea to expand Chadwick International’s school-wide Making & Design program. On this journey he has presented at MakerFaires and with MakerEd.Org, NAIS, VSTE and ISTE, and been named a Senior FabLearn Fellow for Stanford’s Teaching & Learning Technologies Lab.

Rick Schertle is a master at the craft of teaching middle school in San Jose and a novice maker at home. His diverse interests include backyard chickens, adventure travel, veggie oil-fueled cars and geocaching - all made more fun with the enthusiastic support of his wife and the crazy antics of his young son and daughter.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

About the Authors viii

Introduction ix

1 Kit to Classroom 1

Out-of-the-Box Kit 1

Installing the Motors and Wheels on the Chassis 3

Installing the Sensor 12

Adding the Battery Holder 15

Installing the mCore and Battery 16

Wiring the mBot 19

Communicating with Your mBot 20

Test the mCore for Correct Connections 23

Test Your mBot Remote 23

What to Do with Your mBox Right out of the Box 25

Projects 26

To Classroom 28

Onboard Components 28

Powering Up Your mBot 31

Tour of the mCore and Onboard Sensors 34

Storing Components 37

Storing Projects 37

Protecting the mCore 42

Using a LEGO Technic Frame 43

Adding a Cover 51

Making Cables 53

Updating the mBot 58

Where We're Heading from Here 61

2 mBot Software Sensors 63

Default Program Options 63

Makeblock App 64

Tour of the Project Gallery 65

Navigating Blocks on a Mobile Device 68

Balloon Tag 72

mBlock 75

Connecting to mBlock 77

Traffic Light Classroom Volume Meter 85

Working with Sensors in mBlock 93

Sensor Recipes 95

Traffic Light Classroom Volume Meter, Revisited 103

Upload to Arduino 106

Independent Traffic Light Classroom Volume Meter 108

Reinstall the Default Program 113

Where We're Heading from Here 114

3 Animatronics 119

Puppet Movement without Sensors 121

Puppet Movement with Sensors 144

4 Measurement Devices 169

Monitoring Sensors in mBlock 182

Door Monitor 194

5 Robot Navigation 203

Robot Navigation Using Keyboard Commands 203

Robotic Game Challenges 204

6 Building Big and Small with mCore 245

Harnessing DC Power 245

Building Small 251

Building Big 274

Index 289