How To Build the PARTS Mini-Sumo Robot Mark II

Spring 2001

"If you have all the parts, you should be able to complete this robot in a weekend."


PARTS Mini-Sumo Robot Mark II Kits are Sold Out

October 16, 2001

We have sold out of the kits for this year. Thanks to Warren Leach for selling the kits, Pete Skeggs for getting the parts, Daryl Sandberg for designing and hand-forming the chassis and wheels, Marvin Green for designing the low-cost sensor board, ECD / PCB Express for donating 63 free printed circuit boards, and many others for kitting them up.

Mini-Sumo Kit Construction Guide

The directions for building the Mark II kit have some mistakes, and there are differences between the HTML and PDF versions.

  • R6 is always needed on the main PCB; if omitted, the Stamp 1 will not reset properly
  • R2 and R3 are not needed when you use the sensor kit; they are needed when you use Sharp GP2D15 sensors
  • the object-detected outputs L and R of the sensor kit are inverted compared to the outputs from the Sharp GP2D15 sensors (which is by design), which means that the same program will not work for both the old and the new kit; the this year's example program is correct for use with the sensor kit; last year's program is correct for use with Sharp GP2D15s
  • when using the sensor kit:
    • on the sensor board, solder the green wire in -, red in +, black in L (unlabelled on some boards), and white in R
    • on the main board, solder the green wire to the - hole on IODR (the center hole), the red in the + hole of IODR, the black in the square hole of IODL, and the white in the square hole of IODR
    • the actual colors of the wires in the four conductor ribbon cable will vary from kit to kit; just use the color to keep the signals straight

Now available in Adobe Acrobat format:

http://www.bluesky.com/warren/minisumo.pdf

Contest Information

Last updated 10/16/2001