Tchibo Cleaner Robot Mod-chip

Today I managed to kill (what could definitely be.. sure…) the last bugs in the design of the Tchibo Cleaner Robot mod-chip. In fact, it is not only a chip.. it is a tiny PCB that slots in the place of the original ATmega8 controller. On this PCB an ATmega32, 16MHz crystal and Max3232 are placed, enabling serial control of all the robot’s functions. In the meantime we have bought 10 of these vacuum cleaners, and the first batch of 10 mod-chip boards has been delivered. Task two will be getting some additional brains on the robot. The quick-and-dirty is the now-very-mobile Asus eee-pc…

So, what does it do? It provides you with simple command line (using a terminal emulator, normal 9600 bps serial port) access to the robot. Typing ‘h’ will display a list of options. With simple commands like ‘b 100’ you can turn on the brush at speed 100 (of 255). Other commands include getting status from the sensors, encoders etc. Beeping the speaker and turning on LED’s and motors.

I put the sources for the PCB in this file: tchibo. The schematics and PCB design can be found tchiboprint
The schematic as PDF: tchibomodprint.

Cleaner robot open

Removing the old brain

new brain in place

Robot with EEE-PC