Let's Get Moving...

This is a video of my robot taking infrared commands from an IHome remote that I rummaged from a pile of my junk.  I programmed the little guy in C and the code can be seen below.  I had to calibrate the motors to run at the same speed and they often don't go perfectly together.  If I used encoders, I could calibrate them much better, but that is a project for another day.


I bought the IR receiver at RadioShack for a cool $4 and it worked great out of the box.  Here is a picture of what I bought:

The circuit I used for the receiver was super simple.  I put a 220 Ohm resistor to 3.3V, the ground pin directly to Ground and the Signal pin to digital I/O pin 2 on the Arduino.  The code for remote controlling the robot is here:

//IR receiver code translator for control of Motors
// for IHom IR codes (ignores 2nd and 3rd signal repeat)
// http://tronixstuff.com/tutorials > chapter 32
// based on code by Ken Shirriff - http://arcfn.com
#include <IRremote.h> // use the library for IR
int receiver = 2; // pin 1 of IR receiver to Arduino digital pin 11
IRrecv irrecv(receiver); // create instance of 'irrecv'
decode_results results;
int E1 = 5;     //M1 Speed Control
int E2 = 6;     //M2 Speed Control
int M1 = 4;    //M1 Direction Control
int M2 = 7;    //M1 Direction Control
int M1Speed = 250;
int M2Speed = 243;
int M1bspeed = 251;
int M2bspeed = 241;
void setup()
{
  int i;
  for(i=4;i<=7;i++)
    pinMode(i, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);          // initialize the Serial
  irrecv.enableIRIn(); // Start the receiver
}
void stop(void)                    //Stop
{
  digitalWrite(E1,LOW);
  analogWrite(M1, 0);
  digitalWrite(E2,LOW);
  analogWrite(M2, 0);
}
void advance (char a,char b)          //Move forward
{
  analogWrite (E1,a);      //PWM Speed Control
  digitalWrite(M1,HIGH);  
  analogWrite (E2,b);  
  digitalWrite(M2,LOW);
}
void backward(char a,char b)          //Move backward
{
  analogWrite (E1,a);
  digitalWrite(M1,LOW);
  analogWrite (E2,b);  
  digitalWrite(M2,HIGH);
}
void left_90(char a,char b)             //Turn Left
{
  analogWrite (E1,a);
  digitalWrite(M1,HIGH);  
  analogWrite (E2,b);  
  digitalWrite(M2,HIGH);
}
void right_90(char a,char b)             //Turn Right
{
  analogWrite (E1,a);
  digitalWrite(M1,LOW);  
  analogWrite (E2,b);  
  digitalWrite(M2,LOW);
}
void translateIR() // takes action based on IR code received
// describing Sony IR codes on Serial module
{
  switch(results.value)
  {
    case 0x77E15026:
      Serial.println("Forward");
      advance(M1Speed, M2Speed);
      break;
    case 0x77E13026:
      Serial.println("Reverse");
      backward(M1bspeed, M2bspeed);
      break;
    case 0x77E16026:
      Serial.println("Right");
      right_90(180, 180);
      break;
    case 0x77E19026:
      Serial.println("Left");
      left_90(180, 180);
      break;
    case 0x77E1A026:
      Serial.println("Stop");
      stop();
      break;
    case 0x77E1C026:
      Serial.println("Menu");
      break;
    default: Serial.println("None");
  }
  delay(50);
}
void loop()
{
  if (irrecv.decode(&results)) // have we received an IR signal?
  {
    translateIR();
    for (int z=0; z<2; z++) // ignore 2nd and 3rd signal repeat
    {
      irrecv.resume(); // receive the next value
    }
  }
}

The IR functions were taken from Tronixstuff Tutorial on Infrared Control, and the motor controls are basic servo controls.  Enjoy!