Personally I dislike chockblocks/barrier strip. The more cables you have in each terminal the more likely you are to have a cable (or cables) work their way free, especially when being constantly vibrated by the robot.

Personally I would do it this way...

Reuse the existing flylead from the omnibot however cut off the spade crimps, strip the wire back, swap them around (Tomy used a centre ground, EZ-B uses outside ground), strip 2 more cables and crimp both in to one spare connector to make a Y cable (or use piggyback spade connectors)

Plug the barrel jack in to the EZ-B

Connect the other cables to a piece of Stripboard using 16A PCB Terminals. This leaves you with 2 strips with 0.1" spacing that you can now use for battery Vcc and Ground.

Solder in some pin headers and you now have a modular board which accessory extensions, jumper cables, servos etc. can plug directly in to, and be removed when needed if you wanted to make changes, add in things, borrow things for other projects.

Everything remains modular. Very little needs cutting and changing and it leaves everything the ability to be changed easily, removed or borrowed for another project (and believe me, you will borrow from one project to get another project moving).

Thanks jstarne1, much appreciated. I'll look into getting some I read a post from a while ago where you were going to hard wire jumper leads to the v3 blue wifi camera straight to the board inside rather than the usb connector, I just wondered how reliable it was doing this and did you have any problems with the battery removed or any other problems?

EDIT: @Rich I've only just seen this post, what a great idea, I already have all the parts needed so think I will go with this

A lot of people have hard wired the camera in that way. It seems to solve some issues with the camera and is more reliable. There's a decent topic on it here.

:)

Is there a way to change the name of this thread before I mark it as resolved or make it easy to find for beginners?

Niek answered my original question but Rich provided lots of valuable information aswell as other forum members.

It has lots of useful information for beginners in building robots, like me lol.

Thanks everybody

Right, my digole LCD turned up today so I've spent the evening playing with it...

It works. It's very similar to the digole LCD I picked up earlier in the year, the commands are the same, the datasheet is the same datasheet... it even shares the same I2C address (when put in I2C mode).

I'll cover it in a new topic when I get chance.

Long and short of it is this though (my opinions on it).

Small... very small. It's only 1.8". 16x5 character text display, which is just about big enough for basic info but I prefer bigger to fit more in. Graphics commands can be a bit of a pain to use, the rectangle (filled and unfilled) seems to only draw an unfilled rectangle which is pointless. bitmap graphics, while they work you need to convert the image to bitmap data, each byte is an 8x8 grid of pixles. There is a converter on digole's site but this brings up another issue, you can't send enough data to the LCD over I2C in one go, so the image must be split in to parts. Easy enough to do but it's more code and a pain to do if you don't realise.

I wouldn't recommend this one to be honest. Unless you needed some very basic graphics and a screen 1.8" in size (which may come in handy).

It all depends what you want to be able to do on it though...

I'll upload a video too so you can decide if it looks like it'll do what you want it to do.

FYI, a sample piece of code to display a small battery symbol, split line by line to avoid the maximum data transmitted to I2C limit;

I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,0,81,1,0x00,0x7f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xfc,0x00,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,1,81,1,0x01,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0x80,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,2,81,1,0x07,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xe0,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,3,81,1,0x0f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf0,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,4,81,1,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf8,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,5,81,1,0x3f,0xc0,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x07,0xfc,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,6,81,1,0x3f,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x01,0xfc,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,7,81,1,0x7e,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x7e,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,8,81,1,0x7c,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x7e,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,9,81,1,0x7c,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x3e,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,10,81,1,0xfc,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,11,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xe0,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x3c,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,12,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf0,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,13,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf0,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,14,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf8,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,15,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,16,81,1,0xf8,0x1e,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,17,81,1,0xf8,0x1e,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,18,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,19,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xfe,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,20,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,21,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0x00,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,22,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0x80,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,23,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0x80,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,24,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xc0,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,25,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xc0,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,26,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xe0,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,27,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xe0,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,28,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf0,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,29,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf0,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,30,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf8,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,31,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf8,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,32,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xfc,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,33,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xfc,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0xff)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,34,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xfe,0x00,0x1f,0x1f,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,35,81,1,0xf8,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xfe,0x00,0x1f,0x3e,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,36,81,1,0xf8,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x06,0x00,0x1f,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,37,81,1,0xfc,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x3e,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,38,81,1,0x7c,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x3e,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,39,81,1,0x7e,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x7e,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,40,81,1,0x3f,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0xfc,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,41,81,1,0x3f,0xc0,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x07,0xfc,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,42,81,1,0x1f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf8,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,43,81,1,0x0f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xf0,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,44,81,1,0x07,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xe0,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,45,81,1,0x03,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0x80,0x00,0x7f)
I2CWrite(0,0x28,"DIM",0,46,81,1,0x00,0x7f,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xff,0xfc,0x00,0x00,0x7f)

Imagine having to do that for every graphic you want to use...

Ha ha, the coding looks fun... seen your thread, very helpful thanks. I may give this one a miss for now.

I've seen some small low voltage two wire multimeter displays that hook straight up to your battery, I may use one of these until I feel brave enough lol.

It's gonna be enough fun figuring out the coding for the ir & ping sensors aswell as other functions

Rich, I think I would go cross-eyed! blush