Minimover 5

[Lumpy]

Hey There
I have been given a minimover 5 microbot robot, I am looking for a wireing diagram and a manual for it. I have called Questec the manufacture of the minimover and the microbot line but they no longer have any info on them as they have not manufactured the minimover in 18 years.
Thanks for any help you can give me Chris

[DrKahanamoku]

I was a Professor at "The University of Texas at Austin" in the ME department from 77-84 and used the MiniMover and the TeachMover to teach both a robotics course and a mechatronics course. As I recall the MiniMover has a single cable that could be used to directly plug into the motherboard of an Apple 2, which is how I interfaced with it. Maybe I had to make a circuit board to do that---it is hard to remember the details.

Anyway, that was one of the first mechatronics courses taught out of an ME department in the US. Some students would program the robot with Basic (GWBasic) while others would utilize Forth.

The TeachMover,also a nice teaching tool, utilized a serial interface and a set of simple move commands. THe machines have many common elements and I would suspect common aspects of the wiring diagrams.

My guess is that the manuals MIGHT still be housed within the Robotics Lab associated with the on campus component of their Mechancial Engineering Department.

Al motors are steppers and very rudimentary curcuits where used to drive them. Per control, all we needed to do was drop a rotating sequence of 0's and 1's into a memory location of the Apple (the one where the cable connected) in order to drive the MiniMover.

I am now at Lehigh University, you can contact me there if you need more information.

If you could provide me with a few pictures of the robot it would be greatly appreciated as I had a real lot of fun with the machine and it influenced my life greatly.