Assembling ARPS

Get ready to assemble your ARPS

Gather all of the required tools and equipment before assembling your ARPS. We recommend:

  • a soldering iron with a fine tip for soldering all of the through-hole parts

  • electronic solder with a no-clean, or water soluble flux

  • diagonal cutters or low-profile shear cutters to trim component leads after soldering

  • the ARPS schematic diagram for reference, and to help you decide which configuration to build

Step 1 – Choose your configuration

ARPS can be built in one of three configurations. It doesn’t really matter which configuration you start with because components can easily be added to your ARPS circuit make it into the more capable configurations later.

Educational Starter

This Educational Starter configuration is the easiest and quickest ARPS configuration to build. It includes all of the parts you need to start learning beginner Arduino® programming using the five Introductory Learning Activities on this site, and even add external components or modules to learn more advanced programming and interfacing skills.

Robot Starter

The Robot Starter configuration includes all of the components needed for the Introductory Learning Activities, and all of the components for the motor and optical floor sensors. ARPS built in this configuration can become a simple line-following robot, or a robot that can easily detect floors or walls.

Advanced Robot

The Advanced Robot configuration populates all of the ARPS components, and includes either a SONAR module header socket or servo headers so that you can make and program a variety of advanced robots or connect and control other devices. The optional on-board IR (infrared) demodulator can be added if you want to make a remote-controlled robot.

Step 2 - Check your components

First, confirm that you have all of the required and optional components in your kit.

If you are starting with a bare ARPS board instead of a kit and need to obtain the components first, you can purchase them using the link to this shared Digi-Key parts list, or download either the ARPS Parts List (.csv) file or ARPS Parts List (.xlsx) spreadsheet.

Required components

1 - ARPS printed circuit board
2 - 10 µF, 50V aluminum electrolytic capacitor
3 - 100 nF ceramic monolithic capacitor (numeric code: 104)
1 - 6 pos. screw terminal block
5 - 3 mm LEDs for power and I/O indication
2 - 5mm IR LEDs for floor/line sensor module
1 - 1x4 header socket
6 - 1x3 vertical pin header
2 - 1x4 vertical pin header
1 - 12mm piezo beeper (non-polarized)
3 - IR phototransistor
7 - 100Ω, 1/4W resistors (colour code: brown, black, brown, gold)
7 - 470Ω, 1/4W resistors (colour code: yellow, violet, brown, gold)
5 - 1.0kΩ, 1/4W resistors (colour code: brown, black, red, gold)
3 - 4.7kΩ, 1/4W resistor (colour code: yellow, violet, red, gold)
1 - 10kΩ, 1/4W resistor (colour code: brown, black, orange, gold)
1 - 1.37kΩ, 1%, 1/4W resistor (colour code: )
1 - 5.62kΩ, 1%, 1/4 resistor (colour code: )
5 - 6mm pushbuttons
1 - MCP9700A analogue temperature sensor
1 - 16-pin DIP socket
1 - SN754410NE quad half-bridge driver
1 - TSOP38328

Optional components

The optional components are supplied with the kit but are not required to complete the UBMP4 introductory activities. See the configurations section, below, to determine which optional components to install.

2 - 3-pin header strips for right (R) optical floor sensor module
1 - 3-pin header socket extension cable
2 - 4-pin header strips for left (L) optical line/floor sensor module
1 - 4-pin header socket extension cable
- 3mm phototransistor (opaque black case)
1 - 3mm ambient light sensor (transparent case)
1 - 5mm IR LED
1 - TSOP38238 IR demodulator

Omitted components

The following components are not supplied as part of the UBMP4 kit, but may be provided and installed by the user based on their anticipated use of UBMP4.

8 - 3-pin header pin or socket strips for H1-H8 (depending on user preference)

Assembling Educational Starter

  1. Install 100Ω resistor R1

  2. Install 470Ω resistors R2, R7, R8, R9, and R10.

  3. Install 1kΩ resistors R3, R4, R5, R6, and R22.

  4. Install pushbuttons S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5.

  5. Install 100nF capacitor C2.

  6. Install 10µF capacitor C1. C1 is polarized and must be installed the proper way. Solder the positive lead (long wire) into the square pad on the PCB and the negative lead to the round pad marked by the filled white silkscreen.

  7. Install piezo beeper LS1.

  8. Install LEDs D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5

  9. Install temperature sensor U1.

Assembling Robot Starter

  1. Install the 100Ω resistors R1, and R11-R14.

  2. Install the 470Ω resistors R2, and R7-R10.

  3. Analog floor sensing (required when using ARPS with Arduino UNO R4, and recommended for Arduino UNO R3) uses 470Ω resistors for R15 and R18. (Digital floor sensing can only be used with Arduino UNO R3 if R15 and R18 are 100Ω.)

  4. Install the 1.0kΩ resistors R3-R6, and R22.

  5. Install the 4.7kΩ resistors R16, R17 and R19.

  6. Install 5.62kΩ resistor R20.

  7. Install 1.37kΩ resistor R21.

  8. Install 10kΩ resistor R23.

  9. Install pushbuttons SW1-SW5.

  10. Install the 16-pin DIP socket for U2, ensuring that its notch aligns with the painted notch on the circuit board silkscreen – it should be closest to the pads for C4. Solder one pin on each side of the chip socket, ensure the socket is properly seated, and finish soldering the remaining pins.

  11. Install 100nF capacitors C2 and C4.

  12. Install 10µF capacitors C1 and C5. These capacitors are polarized and have one long lead and one short lead. The circuit board solder pads for the capacitor are different shapes – one is circular and the other one is square. Install the long lead of each capacitor into the square pad, and the short lead into the round pad inside the filled, white silkscreen outline.

  13. Install piezo beeper LS1. The beeper supplied in the kit is non-polarized and can be installed in any orientation. If you supplied your own polarized beeper, install the positive lead into the un-marked square pad on the circuit board.

  14. Install screw terminal strip CON1 with its wire openings facing the edge of the ARPS circuit board. If you plan on using ARPS with Arduino UNO R3, be sure to use a minimal amount of solder, and trim the leads of the screw terminal strip as close to the PCB as you can to prevent the leads from shorting to the metal shell of the USB connector on the Arduino UNO R3.

  15. Install 3mm LEDs D1-D5. LEDs are polarized and have one long lead and one short lead. The circuit board solder pads for the LED are different shapes – one is circular and the other one is square. Install the long lead of each LED into the square pad, and the short lead into the round pad. To ensure the LEDs are installed straight, solder one lead of each LED first then, if necessary, check, re-heat and adjust the LED before soldering the second lead.

  16. Install the 3-terminal temperature sensor U1, ensuring its orientation matches the silkscreen outline on the printed circuit board.

  17. Leave expansion headers H1-H4 unpopulated until you have decided what they will be used for. If you plan on using ARPS with an ultrasonic SONAR distance sensing module, install a 4-pin header socket across the four, inline H1-H4 pins closest to the edge of the PCB. If you plan on connecting servos or similar external devices, you may want to install individual 3-pin headers or 3-pin header sockets into the required H1-H4 header pads.

  18. Optionally, install IR demodulator U3 and 100nF capacitor C2. The IR demodulator is used only to receive IR signals from a TV remote control or other IR transmitter. Bend the leads 90° and mount U3 with its flat side against the printed circuit board and its cylindrical ‘window’ facing straight up, away from the circuit board.

  19. Floor sensor. Install header pins.

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