Operating system Website www.e-robot.com | Power 5 volts | |
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Developer Eng. Ahamd Al Saleh, Eng. Nasser Hayawi Manufacturer CreativeBits Solutions co. | ||
Snowball ( Arabic: سنوبول ) is a microcontroller unit (MCU), it was invented by two Kuwaiti Engineers and have received many national and international prizes.
Contents
Snowball is a mini integrated digital computer that consists of a processor, RAM and Input/Output peripheral devices. Unlike processors used in PCs, Snowball was designed for embedded systems to control operations.
Hardware
The Snowball microcontroller was built using an (ATMEGA1284P) integrated circuit from the (AVR 8-bit) family, which uses 8 bits to build the commands.
The diagram consists of two layers. The first layer has (ATMEGA1284P) pin functions, the second has the Arduino-compatible pins (bootloader), and the second layer has the names of the (Snowball) pins. The pin names and placement have been modified to suit the unit’s inputs and outputs ports, which will facilitate the programming process for the user.
Software
Snowball IDE was developed by CreativeBits Co., and was designed to teach programming in a simple way. The software allows users to program using a command-line interface or a graphical interface, with a Data Lab to analyze the records, a serial Monitor to view current readings, and an PC control Interface to add more advanced options.
Snowball IDE works like a magnet, where the user drags one component from one of the menus on the left (Input, Output, Flow) and drops it at the top of the graphical page. When dragging the next component, it will be attached to the previous one, and so on.
Awards
Robotics education in Kuwait
15 schools (primary and secondary) have been teaching robotics in Kuwaut, and by the 2016 academic year it was planned to be taught on a wider scale in all state schools, according to the Education Minister Bader Hamad Al-Essa. Certain errorsTemplate:Such as will have to be rectified after they emerged during teaching it in some schools.
Robotics competitions offer a chance to encourage students to build their own solutions as a team to real-world problems using science and maths.