I've cut and pasted this a bit from the parallax forum(forgive any mis-edits), but the reasoning is the same, and it looks like picaxe is a cheaper route, but maybe not an easier one......
we are planning a bot that will use two servos to hunt for a radio beacon, which microcontroller should we use? I knoew everyone has their favorite but we want the cheapest, simplest controller available, I was looking at picaxe SX series but maybe I should go with the basic picaxe 2?
what we are doing is taking a radio beacon in a remote location, using the picaxe to run 2 hobby servos to home in on it using 2 recievers with dipole antennas, looking thru the documention about it and it looks like a good match.
good, yeah, the size is fine, power will gome from a 7ah gel cell so size is not too relative. the BS1 looks like it would bareley work, as i'd end up using 4 pins for two servos, giving me only 4 pins for directional input. in theory i think i only need two, but it would be nice in case i need more.
oh, I've been vauge about the application. directed rocket recovery system. a steerable parachute, and possibly guidance for the rocket itself in later design phases. if the BS2OEM works we shoudl be able to grab a few homework boards and use them instead.
oh I bet you'd like to see some video of our project http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yaz_t6IBAKs
more at http://www.youtube.com/tater1337
had to get an FAA waiver plus the OK from the civlian and military ATC (standard procedure, easy peasy). aerotech I 284 for a motor, although that does have a removeable motor mount for just about any size engine you want.
but thats not what the picaxe is for, I figgure i need about 3-4 of them for recovery guidance for the HALF scale (18 ft long 40" dia)
anyone wanna do the programming? hey picaxe? want some free* advert space?
*free as in send me some picaxes to get it working
ok, I've decided not to go the foxhunting route, but find a garmin etrex and give it a target for the recovery systems, so which picaxe do I need to read an input off the GPS and then run a couple of servos? might need a compass module too(i dont think so)I can understand the headaches on guideable(?) recovery, havent researched it yet, like the collapsing cells idea, and might steal it. and we do plan on autonomous guidance in the future, but we figgured doign the recovery first will soften the paranoids to the active guidance on large model rockets. I bet bunny would like it if we could steer a rocket safely away from people in a lawn dart moment.