Buggy Base (use with mDesigner)

The Buggy Base found in the Itty Bitty Buggy kit is a unique piece of hardware. It contains the following:

• Motor driver
• 2 Motors
• 2 Color Detectors
• 2 Color LEDs
• Buzzer

The above components are not controlled directly (i.e. via pins). Rather there is an embedded micro-controller which controls those components. The embedded micro-controller can be communicated via serial communication.

Buggy Base was developed to be a line-detecting vehicle base, but can be re-purposed for other uses such as a walking robot or climbing robot (as shown in the Itty Bitty Buggy projects).

Compatible Pins

The Buggy Base is controllable over serial communication. When using mDesigner, the serial pins used are Serial1, which are pins 2/3 on a mCenter+ (Core+) module.

Car - Move

This blocks controls the Buggy Base to move either forward or backwards at a certain speed for a specified duration.

• Direction - direction to move. Either forward or backward.

• Speed - rate of the motors when moving. A value between 0 and 255. 0 being off, 255 being full speed, and 127 being half speed.

• Duration - amount of time (in seconds) to move.

Car - Turn

This blocks controls the Buggy Base to turn either right or left at a certain speed for a specified duration.

• Turn Direction - direction to turn. Either left or right.

• Speed - rate of the motors when turning. A value between 0 and 255. 0 being off, 255 being full speed, and 127 being half speed.

Motor - Set Speed

This block sets the speed of the selected motor.

• Motor - select motor (either A, B, or AB (both)).

• Speed - rate to set the selected Motor. A value between 0 and 255. 0 being off, 255 being full speed, and 127 being half speed.

Motor - Stop

This block stops the selected motor.

• Motor - select motor to stop (either A, B, or AB (both)).

ColorLED - Set Color

This block sets the selected ColorLED to the chosen color.

• ColorLED - select ColorLED to set color for (either A or B).

• Color - color to set selected ColorLED to.

Car - Color Trace

This block control the Buggy Base to follow (trace) along the chosen color line.

• Color - color of the line to trace (either red, green, blue or black).

Car - Stop Trace

This block stops the Buggy Base following the line (tracing).

Color Detector - Detect Color

This block reads and returns either true or false if the selected color detector detects the selected test color.

• Sensor - select sensor for detection (either A or B).

• Color - color for the selected Sensor to match in order to return true. Otherwise, this block returns false.

Buzzer - Play Note

This block controls the Buzzer to play the selected note for the specified duration.

Note: If the duration (seconds) is set (not 0) this block is holding. Which means the note must complete playing before the program goes to the next block in the script.

Note: As of mDesigner v1.6: In "online mode" this block accepts whole and decimal numbers. In "offline mode" this block only accepts WHOLE numbers. Decimal numbers will be rounded down.

• Note - select note to play.

• Duration - time in seconds to play the selected note.

Buzzer - Play Song

This block controls the Buzzer to play the selected song.

• Song - selected song to play.

Buzzer - Off

This block controls the Buzzer to stop producing sound.

Color Detector - Read Color

This block reads and returns the raw value from the color detector while having the corresponding ColorLED set to a specific color.

• Sensor - sensor to read raw value from (either A or B).

• Color - turn on the corresponding ColorLED to the selected color (either red, green, blue or OFF).