For a robotics project I would highly recommend the use of Phidgets, they can supply sensors and interface kits with APIs. Not sure if Python is fully supported yet but there certinally seems to be a considerable effort ongoing creating an API for python. I've only used them to date for servo control and accelorometer sencor data collection through c++ / wxWidgets.
http://www.phidgets.com/ They offer direct motor controllers but I'll be looking to control a 7.2V motor with a 100A draw, so I'll be using the servo controller to drive a standard Radio Control Car motor controller. Cheers, Wes. On 09/07/07, Gabriel Genellina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > En Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:06:48 -0300, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> escribió: > > > in this project, we need something that would basically function as a > > blender. we know we'll need to buy a motor that spins, but what we're > > having trouble with is figuring out how to program it. we want to be > > able to control the speed of the motor. how would we accomplish this? > > This is mostly an electronics question. How much power? For small power > and fine control I'd look for "stepwise motor" on any robotics book; for a > high power "blender" I think you don't care so much about fine control. In > any case, it's the available motor which dictates how you can control it. > > > i'm new to all of this, so i'm having a hard time wrapping my mind > > around how it'd be possible to program one of those things :\ > > > > ex: what if i want the motor to turn for 10 seconds. stop for 5. then > > turn the other direction. > > You may write the GUI using python, and the high level controlling API > too. But you may need to use a PIC or some kind of controller, listening > for commands from the PC and acting over the motor accordingly. > > Picasso: a Python-controlled robot for doing paintings > http://youtube.com/watch?v=PsbKq5Kysj0 > > -- > Gabriel Genellina > > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list