Here’s how to control an iDOG directly from a microcontroller, Botmaker writes –
I got myself a Sega I-dog, the Japanese version, not the Hasbro one that is sold in the US. You can get one from Ebay for about $20. The Japanese version has a lot more features. It makes a nice desktop companion with all the flashing lights, but can be very annoying with tunes playing and gears moving.
So I wanted to tame that Doggie! You can carefully take it apart and connect switches for the motor and speaker. I use a Picaxe to activate the nose switch every few minutes to keep it from sleeping. The Picaxe (M08) also uses a light sensor (CDS) to detect darkness to allow the idog to go to sleep.
The board connected to the proto board in the above photo is a special Picaxe Trainer board I invented. One of these days I will make it available. You can connect a Picaxe and a few compenents on a prefboard, if you perfer, to make the controller. At the bottom of the page is a schematic and the Picaxe program. – Thanks Simon! Link.
Related:
- Picaxe Microprocessors – Link.
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