John asked a question about how to control motors from an MSP430, so I thought I’d make a post about it. This is a post-in-progress, since I’m at home looking after my baby boy and he won’t let me write much continuously. If you have suggestions to where it should be improved, let me know and I’ll add stuff.
Quick overview
First choose motor type. If you use modified servos, you can just connect them to your microcontroller (MCU) and upload the right code. If you use plain DC motors you need a motor driver chip or board, such as the L298. You probably want geared DC motors, since they aren’t as fast as non-geared ones. Connect the driver to your MCU and upload the right code. The speed of the motors is controlled using pulse-width-modulation.
Software-wise you can either choose Arduino (or the MSP430-equivalent called Energia) or go for the C-approach. C is more difficult, but maybe more powerful. Arduino/Energia works great for many robots and I used this for several years before I moved to C as a programming platform.
Read on if you’re interested. More details and instructions below.
