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.

Car - Turn

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

Motor - Set Speed

This block sets the speed of the selected motor.

Motor - Stop

This block stops the selected motor.

ColorLED - Set Color

This block sets the selected ColorLED to the chosen color.

Car - Color Trace

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

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.

Buzzer - Play Note

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

Buzzer - Play Song

This block controls the Buzzer to play the selected song.

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.