STEAM Train STEAMbot V1.0 User manual

STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

Introduction

Welcome to the world of STEAMbot robots! We at The STEAM Train want to thank you for

getting a STEAMbot robot kit. We believe that any child that wants a robot should be able to

aﬀord one. This kit will help you learn more about Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and

Math (STEAM). We hope you will have lots of fun putting your robot together and learning how

to program it. Your eﬀorts will be rewarded and give you opportunities for a better future."

This guide has the following chapters:"

1. Assembly of Your STEAMbot – covers how to assemble your STEAMbot robot."

2. STEAMbot Controller – provides a description of the STEAMbot Controller, the heart of you

robot."

3. Software Installation – tells you how to install the required software so you can program

your STEAMbot robot."

Warning

Although the STEAMbot has been carefully designed and manufactured, the STEAMbot has

fragile components. Dropping it or pushing on the Ultrasonic Sensor Bracket may cause it to

crack or break. In addition, the header pins of the STEAMbot Controller can pierce your skin if

you are not careful. The pins are also easy to bend. So please handle your STEAMbot with

care."

Assembly of Your STEAMbot

Parts

Figure 1 shows you all the parts that should be in your kit. If any part is missing, please email

us at [email protected]."

2017 © Copyright The STEAM Train

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STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

The following table has the parts and quantities."

Table 1, List of Parts

Part

Quantity

STEAMbot Chassis

STEAMbot Controller

Controller Mount

DC Motor and Wheel

Battery Holder

Foam Tape

Ball Caster

Phillips Screwdriver

#4 1 inch screw

#4 3/8 inch screw

2017 © Copyright The STEAM Train

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Figure 1: STEAMbot Kit Parts

STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

Parts Not Included

The following parts are needed but not supplied in the kit:"

•Four AA batteries – see the section on batteries on page 11."

•A smart phone with Bluetooth LE support."

•A small ﬂat screwdriver."

•A Windows or MacOS computer. Needed only if you want to program the STEAMbot."

Assembly Steps

Please do not add the batteries to the battery

holder until after you have assembled the

STEAMbot. To assemble your STEAMbot,

perform the following steps:"

1. Place the chassis ﬂat on a table, with the

motor mounts farthest to you and the ball

caster mount closest to you, see Figure 2."

2. Remove the wheel from one of the DC

motors. Keep track of which wheel belongs

to which motor."

3. Take one 1" screw and attach the DC motor

to the left motor mount on the Chassis.

Ensure that the wires point to the left. Make

sure you tighten the screw so the motor

does not wiggle left and right1."

4. Remove the wheel from the remaining DC

motor, remembering to keep track of the

wheel."

5. Take the remaining 1" screw and attach the

DC motor to the right motor mount on the

Chassis. Ensure that the wires point to the

right. Make sure you tighten the screw so

the motor does not wiggle."

6. Take one 3/8" screw and attach one side of

the ball caster to the ball caster mount of

the Chassis."

Ultrasonic Sensor and Wire

Ultrasonic Sensor Bracket

USB Cable

Part

Quantity

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Figure 2, STEAMbot Chassis

STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

7. Take one 3/8" screw and attach the other

side of the ball caster to the mount. Make

sure you tighten both screws so the ball

caster does not wiggle."

8. At this point, your robot should look similar

to Figure 3."

9. Take the left wheel and push it onto the

axle of the left motor. If you look closely,

you'll see that the wheel has an oblong

shape that aligns with the shape of the

axle."

10. Take the right wheel and push it onto the

axle of the right motor."

11. Push the wires from both motors through

the opening in the Chassis."

12. Flip the Chassis over and it should be fairly

level on the two wheels and the ball caster."

13. Take the controller mount and align it over

the four holes on the backside of the

Chassis. It should similar to Figure 4."

14. Place the STEAMbot Controller over the

controller mount and make sure all the

holes align."

15. Take four 3/8" screws and screw down the

STEAMbot Controller to the Chassis."

16. Push the wire from the left motor onto the

JST connector labeled “MTRA”."

17. Push the wire from the right motor onto the

JST connector labeled “MTRB”."

18. Your robot should look similar to Figure 5."

19. Using the two remaining 3/8" screws,

attach the ultrasonic sensor bracket to the

front of the chassis as shown in Figure 6."

20. Using a small ﬂat screwdriver, loosen both

screws on the Battery Terminal Block

(labeled BATT)."

21. Take the battery holder and attach the

black wire to the screw labeled with a "-" of

the BATT terminal block."

22. Attach the red wire of the battery holder to

the screw labeled "+" of the BATT terminal

block."

23. Peel oﬀthe backing of one side of the

foam tape. Place the foam tape in the

center of the battery holder."

24. Peel the reminder backing of the foam tape

and carefully place the battery holder on

the front of the Chassis (over the motors),

with the wires facing the STEAMbot

Controller and centered as best possible. Your robot should look similar to Figure 7."

25. Make sure the power switch is in the OFF position (towards the ball caster)."

26. Insert four AA batteries1 in the battery holder, ensuring the correct polarity."

2017 © Copyright The STEAM Train

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Figure 3, Chassis, Motors and Ball Castor

Figure 4, Top Chassis with Controller Mount

STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

27. Take the ultrasonic sensor (with the

attached four conductor wire), align it

with the holes on the ultrasonic sensor

bracket and press ﬁt the sensor into the

bracket. The wire goes to the top."

28. Take the other end of the wire from the

ultrasonic sensor and plug each

conductor into the pins labeled “P5”.

Note that the colors of the four

conductor wire diﬀer between kits. The

important thing to remember is to keep

them in the same order on the sensor as

on the pins of P5. Your robot should look

similar to Figure 8."

29. Push the power switch to the ON

position (towards the wheels). A red LED

near the speaker on the STEAMbot

controller will turn red. The LED near the

RESET button will will blink green for

about 1 second. You will hear a beep,

the LED will turn several colors and then

stay blue."

30. Push the RUN button and you should

hear a beep."

31. Congratulations, your STEAMbot is

ready to be controlled via a smart

phone (iPhone or Android) or to be

programmed by you! If you don’t have a

smart phone, see below for the diﬀerent

modes. Now go have some fun with

your STEAMbot robot!"

2017 © Copyright The STEAM Train

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Figure 5, Chassis with Controller

Figure 6, Ultrasonic Sensor Bracket

STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

Where Is The Front Of The STEAMbot?

If you correctly followed the assembly steps above, the front of your STEAMbot is where the

wheels are and the rear is where the ball caster is. However, if you wish to ﬂip this conﬁguration

so that the ball caster is the front and the wheels are the rear, just swap to which motor

terminal blocks the wires from the motors are connected. If you write your own programs you

will have to adjust what forward means."

2017 © Copyright The STEAM Train

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Figure 7, Battery Holder

Figure 8, Completed STEAMbot

STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

Batteries

The STEAMbot robot has been tested with alkaline batteries and with Ni-Zn rechargeable

batteries. The STEAMbot does NOT support Ni-Cd or Ni-MH rechargeable batteries. These

batteries only provide 1.2 volts each as compared to the 1.5 volts produced by alkaline

batteries or the 1.6 volts provided by Ni-Zn batteries. Four Ni-Cd or Ni-MH provide only 4.8

volts which is not enough to reliably power the STEAMbot."

Modes

The default program that comes with the STEAMbot robot provides the following two modes:"

1. Bluetooth mode – in this mode, the STEAMbot is controlled by a smartphone using the

builtin Bluetooth LE module. When ﬁrst powered on or after a reset, this is the mode the

STEAMbot is in."

2. Cat mode – in this mode, the STEAMbot acts similar to a cat. Put an object in front of the

STEAMbot (your hand, your shoe, a broom or something similar). At a certain distance, the

STEAMbot will follow the object. However, if the STEAMbot gets too close to the object, it

will back away from the object."

To change modes, push the STOP button. You will hear a single beep when transitioning from

Cat mode to Bluetooth mode. You will hear a beep and then a higher pitched beep when

transitioning from Bluetooth mode to Cat mode."

STEAMbot Controller

The STEAMbot is controlled by a controller board that provides all the required functions to

control the robot but also allows you to expand your robot by adding additional sensor and/or

actuators. It can easily be programmed by the Arduino IDE (see the next chapter). It has a 32-

bit STM32F103CBT6 ARM microcontroller with 128 KB FLASH memory (to store your

programs), 20 KB of RAM (used while running your program to store data that changes) and 17

general purpose inputs and outputs (GPIOs). There are two GPIO that are assigned to the

Ultrasonic Sensor that comes with the kit."

The following functionality is built into the controller:"

•An RGB LED that supports 8 diﬀerent colors."

•A speaker that can produce a variety of diﬀerent notes and beeps."

•Two H-bridge controllers for controlling 2 DC motors."

•A Bluetooth LE module for communications with external devices such as smart phones."

•Two pushbuttons that can be used by programs you write."

General Purpose Input and Outputs

All the GPIOs are available on male pin headers, grouped in diﬀerent connectors. Each

connector has power and ground to make it easy to connect sensors and actuators. The

following table lists the header and pins."

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STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

* The default STEAMbot program expects the Ultrasonic Sensor to be connected on P5. If you

write your own program and will not need the Ultrasonic Sensor, you can use the GPIO pins on

P5."

** Default PWR is 5V but can be changed to 3.3V by cutting trace of JP1 to 5V and soldering

wire to 3.3V (labeled “3V” on the board)."

JTAG

The Controller board also has a JTAG connector (P4) that is useful for low level debugging.

Very few persons will need to use this connector. The following table provides the pinouts."

This table is provided for completeness and can generally be ignored."

Table 2, Pin Headers

Header

Pin 1

Pin 2

Pin 3

Pin 4

Pin 5

Pin 6

P5*

+5V

PA14

PA13

GND

PB6 (SRV2)

+5V

GND

PB7 (SRV1)

+5V

GND

+5V

PB7

PB6

GND

PWR**

PB15/

MOSI2

PB14/

MISO2

PB13/SCK2

PB12/SS2

GND

P10

PWR**

PA10/RX1

PA9/TX1

GND

P11

PA8

PWR**

GND

P12

PB5

3.3V

GND

P13

3.3V

PA11/RX3

PB10/TX3

GND

P14

PB2

3.3V

GND

Table 3, JTAG

Signal

3.3V

PA13/JTMS

GND

PA14/JTCK

PB4/NJTRST

PB3/JTD0

GND

PA15/JTDI

GND

NRST

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STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

Software Installation

You can program your STEAMbot with the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

and some additional software and libraries. You must know C/C++ in order to program your

STEAMbot. In the near future, you will be able to program your STEAMbot with a drag-and-

drop programming environment such as Scratch or other similar environment."

Please follow the following steps to install all the required software:"

1. On Windows, install the software from the Microsoft Store. On a Mac, download the

Arduino IDE from https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software. Refer to the https://

www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage for the instructions on how to install the software."

2. Start the Arduino IDE. Open up the Preferences dialog. On Windows it’s under File →

Preferences."

3. In the text ﬁeld for Additional Boards Manager URLs enter “http://dan.drown.org/

stm32duino/package_STM32duino_index.json”. Click the OK button."

4. Click on Tools →Board →Boards Manager. When the Board Manager dialog box appears,

enter “maple” into the “Filter your search...” text box."

5. Select the “STM32Fxx/GD32F1xx boards by stm32duino” option and click “Install”."

6. The installation process may take several minutes. When completed, click “Close”."

7. Click on Sketch →Include Library →Manage Libraries..."

8. When the Library Manager dialog appears, enter "steambot" into the "Filter your search..."

text ﬁeld. Select the STEAMbot library and click install. It will take a few seconds to install

the library and you should see the following."

9. Click the Close button."

10. Click on Tools →Board: and select "Maple Mini"."

11. Click on Tools →Bootloader Version and select "Bootloader 2.0 (20k RAM, 120k Flash)"."

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STEAMbot V1.0 User Guide

12. On Windows, click on Tools →Port and select the COM port which has "(Maple Mini)" after

it."

13. You can now look at the diﬀerent examples we provide by selecting File →Examples →

STEAMbot, including the DefaultSTEAMbot example which is the default program running

when you ﬁrst get your STEAMbot and power it up."

14. You are now ready to create your very own programs your STEAMbot to do other things!

And please share them on our web site."

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Table of contents

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