Project: Dim Sum Robot #1

We are rebooting the Dim Sum Robot project with a new head-master

Today, we start by exploring the basic design and core functions of our Dim Sum Robot, in order to take a decision on the hardware to use for this project.

 

Basic Design

Dim Sum Robot basic design

 

CPU

Looking at CPU available and their characteristics to allow us to choose a good fit for the project.

PIC ATMEGA STM32 EFM32 Orange Pi Zero Raspberry Pi 2B ESP8266 ESP32
 Architecture PIC Atmega ARM ARM ARM/Linux ARM/Linux  Tensilica  Tensilica
Price <5 USD 2 USD 2 USD ~2 USD +NRE <15 USD  40 USD 4 USD 8 USD
Programming   Very expensive/custom custom SWD  SWD SDCard  SDCard bootloader bootloader
Power  18 ma 20 ma 18 ma  << 100ma 220ma  100 ma  150 ma
 I/O pins 20 20 20  20  ~20  ~26  12  ~20
ADC  Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes
Wifi / Bluetooth  –  –  – W  W  W  W, BT
OS  – Linux  Linux  –  –

 

Programming language

We look at the difference between:

  • Python
  • Arduino IDE
  • C++
  • C
  • LUA
  • ASM
  • Node
  • Basic
  • C 89

to figure out which one was available on the different CPU, which one was accessible to noob (such as a few of us), which one was well documented, and whether we needed to install extra software such as a compiler to be able to place the software onto the chosen CPU

 

Homework for next week

  • Figure out the process and software required to install MicroPython onto the ESP32

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