Controlling a ROBOT

You can build a small circuit (interface) and use the PC parallel port to communicate with the robot.
You can find very useful information on using the parallel port in the following URL's:

http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/par/
http://www.senet.com.au/~cpeacock/parallel.htm
http://et.nmsu.edu/~etti/fall96/computer/printer/printer.html

For any questions, please leave me a comment.
Regards

You can also use the serial ports (COM1, COM2) or the computer user ports (on the ISA bus) but using the parallel port is more easy and I personally prefer it.
If you need information on these I can help you.

You said you have built a robot (have), so it depend on what kind of robot you have...
What kinds of I/O you need and how many? You you have any thing embeded in your robot or you are dealing with raw signals?
Need any ADC? Analog output?

Give a little more details with regards to what is going back and forth between the computer and the robot...
Regards  

tell u something - Real Robots should have a CPU and all fucken
motherboard inside them, and all you have to do is activating
a program on thier HardDrive by a Remote Control.
That's the way, and not the other way around.

Robot .... can you be more specific.......... ???
OK .... I would control it with a parallel port too....
1. What kind of gear is on the robot..
2. Controlling motors is generally accomplished with ICs... TRY BA6229 used in VCRs..not sure of current capacity... or a bridged transistor arrangement
3. I have circuits for stepper motors....
4. It is easy to build a PC servo motor controller.... I can help you with that too
5. ADC I would use a TLC542C  ....... I have some data on that too....

When you have the interface OK ... then work on the program...
  I saw a DLL written by Vincent Himpe..... for windows 95 I/O but I'd suggest writing a C++ DLL for the exact 'protocol' for the interface......

Another Idea.... use a "Basic Stamp" controller ... then use the Serial interface on the Stamp......



I think you need to be more specific with your requirements rather than 'pick the best one'

kamall:
Thank you very much for the great info I found in the URLs. Now I know how to do it and I have already started building the interface for the parallel port as you suggested. Also, thanks for your fast response. Please come in and answer the question and I will give you the points.
I may also need your help in the programming issue later on if possible. Thanks.

Dalin:
The robot is a college project which is a simple arm that moves left, right, up and down and has another two functions, catch and leave the object. What I wanted is only to send a logic signal that will do one of the functions. Thanks.

Ayal:
"fucken motherboard...???", please be more polite!
Note that the robot is just an arm and not a moving object. So there is no need to have a CPU, etc.

MAVERICK:
Thank you for the nice info. The robot was already built and is complete. What I wanted is to control it from the PC. Thank you very much.

If your robot uses servo motors..... I have found an article on the controller..... Very simple (prebuilt!!) to build..... Uses serial port... (Silicon chip DEC'97) ... I have the article...
It has up/down, left/right, gripper servo's.... Software available but it may be alot easier to use with VB as it has a serial interface...
 

kamall,
Thank you very much for the help.
As I said before, I may require your help in the programming issue if you don't mind.
Thanks again.