Programming light sensors for robot

[DrDanger]

Hey guys I'm building a robot and just finished all the circuit work, and am now working on programming it. I got all the basic movement functions down, but am having trouble with a few things. How do you make it turn..fast? i can make it turn but its horrible. Also i have two light sensors put on it given to me by a professor at our robotics club, but he left for India for a month so he cannot help me. I guess my question is how do you program the light sensors? and what are some things they are capable of doing? the chip we are using is a pic16f6690 i think. thanks for all the help!

 

[berkeman]

Hey guys I'm building a robot and just finished all the circuit work, and am now working on programming it. I got all the basic movement functions down, but am having trouble with a few things. How do you make it turn..fast? i can make it turn but its horrible. Also i have two light sensors put on it given to me by a professor at our robotics club, but he left for India for a month so he cannot help me. I guess my question is how do you program the light sensors? and what are some things they are capable of doing? the chip we are using is a pic16f6690 i think. thanks for all the help!

Cool. Post some pictures!

As for fast turning, do you have some sort of speed control on it? How does it turn (what are the wheel arrangements)?

The light sensors would normally be used along with a LED light source in retroflective mode, like to track a white line on the ground or something. Or to find a candle in a dark room or something.

 

[DrDanger]

there are two wheels that have motors on them and then three little rolly type wheels in the front that move in any direction. for turning i simply stop one wheel and make the other go for a short amount of time then start them both going again..but obviously its not a "cool" looking turn and is slow. It is powered by 6 batteries ( 9 volts). I would like to make a program to follow a line then make another one later on to make it find a candle in a room or some other light source, but i know very little about programming. I am reading some c++ but haven't got very far. ill post pictures asap! thanks!

 

[berkeman]

Instead of stopping one wheel and running the other to turn, run the first wheel in reverse. Twice the turn rate, right? Have fun!