What Makes Us Different

There are a lot of product on the market today for STEM education. Where does Robot In A Can fit in? When dealing with STEM education in the classroom there are a lot of factors to consider. Our product focuses on delivering a Do It Yourself experience from raw materials to functioning prototype as fast as possible. Our kit is designed specifically for workshop settings where time and resources are limited. The objective of our design is to ensure that everyone that uses our kit can have a full design experience, even if this is the first time they use a microcontroller.

 

Over years of using other kits we have carefully designed our kit experience to be a well balanced mix of what others provide. The kit must be easy to use for first timers, provide full wiring of the circuitry, fully programmable, can make projects that peek students interest, be challenging to expert users, and be affordable.

 

Goals & Learning Outcomes

We use our kit to promote authentic learning experiences. Authentic learning emphasizes using open-ended problems in which students can ‘learn how to learn’ through collaborative inquiry within a community. We design lessons through a student-centered approach to empower and encourage the students to direct their own learning experience.

We believe that learning is an individual experience, and therefore the education process should begin with the student’s current ability, offer multiple pathways for solution generation through multiple instructional approaches, and finally encourage students to reflect on their decisions and take ownership of both the positive and negative outcomes of the collaborative solutions.

 

Skill Building Curriculum Incorporates:

1. Computer Programming
2. Applied Math Principles
3. Design Thinking
4. Mechanical Design
5. Electronic Circuitry
6. Artistic Expression
7. Team Building Challenges
8. Innovative Problem Solving
9. Divergent Thinking
10. Rapid Prototyping

Technical Specs of Integrated Microcontroller

The ESP8266 processor from Espressif is an 80 MHz microcontroller with a full WiFi front-end (both as client and access point) and TCP/IP stack with DNS support as well. The kit uses the ESP 8266-12F WiFi Module Microcontroller. The ESP8266’s maximum voltage is 3.6V, so the Thing has an onboard 3.3V regulator to deliver a safe, consistent voltage to the IC. That means the ESP8266’s I/O pins also run at 3.3V, you’ll need to level shift any 5V signals running into the IC. A 3.3V FTDI Basic is required to program the ESP8266, but other serial converters with 3.3V I/O levels should work just fine as well. The converter does need a DTR line in addition to the RX and TX pins.

• 802.11 b/g/n

• Integrated low power 32-bit MCU

• Integrated 10-bit ADC

• Integrated TCP/IP protocol stack

• Supports antenna diversity

• Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz, support WPA/WPA2

• Support STA/AP/STA+AP operation modes

• Support Smart Link Function for both Android and iOS devices

• SDIO 2.0, (H) SPI, UART, I2C, I2S, IRDA, PWM, GPIO • STBC, 1x1 MIMO, 2x1 MIMO

• A-MPDU & A-MSDU aggregation and 0.4s guard interval

• Wake up and transmit packets in < 2ms

• FCC, CE, and ROSH certified

For More technical specs on ESP8266 12F: https://www.led-genial.de/mediafiles/Sonstiges/AI-Thinker_ESP-12F.pdf

 

Software & Firmware

The software used to control the kit can vary. The firmware communicates using TCP websockets and a custom JSON communication protocol. This allows it to connect with many programming languages like python, C, or JavaScript. A JavaScript websocket enables the software to connect to the kit directly, and it can all be done in a portable HTML browser based system. Snap! Is the software we recommend to pair with the kit.

Snap! (formerly BYOB) is a visual, drag-and-drop programming language. It is an extended reimplementation of Scratch (a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab) that allows you to Build Your Own Blocks. It also features first class[1] lists, first class procedures, and continuations[2]. These added capabilities make it suitable for a serious introduction to computer science for high school or college students.

The EveBrain 1.4

Our wiring system allows beginners to use wires and patch connections to various components on the board. In addition to the onboard microcontroller there is a full motor driving circuit for two (2) precision 5v stepper motors, RGB LED, 4 button d-pad, and a light sensor also built in. The GPIO pins are designed with a colourful labeling system to identify pins easily. A small breadboard makes it easy to apply additional electronic components to your circuits. The kit is powered by 4xAAA batteries.

What’s Included

In the can you will find the brain — a wireless programmable microcomputer that connects to our cloud-based software (no installation required), a selection of sensors and actuators which give your robots all kinds of senses and movements, and cardboard templates to get you started folding and building our optional pre-designed robots.

 

What’s in the CAN?

Evelab Microcontroller

Robot Parts 2 x Stepper Motors 2 X Robot Cut Outs 3 X Robot Chassis 8 X Motor Holders 1 X Castor Wheel

Extras: 1 X Sound Sensor 1 X Distance Sensor 1 X Temp/Humidity Sensor 5 x LEDs 1 X Potentiometer 20 x Jumper Cables

Comic Manual & Activities

Packaging 1 X Can & Lid 4 X Stickers 1 X Packaging Inserts