Omnibot 2000 , Rad 2.0 Vacuum Bot

I like the idea of the RAD drive section - tracks ar COOL! And it would give great traction to move that vac around. And when you are hacking a robot, nothing is sacred. I also like the idea of the canister on the back, kind of like a back pack.

Bret i really wish we talked directly back and forth , you started your omnibot project way before me so you have valued info and experience with these guys, :-) thankyou in the tracks comment , i love the agressivenesss of tracks. Ha ha i have a walle ucommand in the mail that id like to make a automated pooper scooper ha ha ha

Dude - bret.tallent@gmail.com I am in the Norfolk VA area.

What a great idea for a Wall-e!

Mines kandyred@gmail.com , im josh , im in chattanooga TN

Hey guys,

Very Jealous of your Omni 2000. Broken arm or not that will be fun!

I have modded my RAD 2.0. The tracks are pretty darn powerful. I drive them with a 7.2V RC car battery. It may do fine....not sure about how it will drive the vac on heavy shag carpet. That would be an interesting test. We have a Shark Navigator vacuum too....now you got me thinking!

Below is the link to my project so far...i am still modding (Mine is going to be a Sentry Bot), but I will be watching your RAD project for sure!

btw, I am in Springfield, VA (just up the road from Bret)

Kevin

My RAD 2.0 Project

Dude! Our robots may need to meet one day lol

Lol , ez b needs a feature that let's them talk to other bots. So is your bot moving yet bret?

No, not yet.

I am waiting on a bluetooth dongle to arrive so I can't communicate with the board yet. I ordered the darn thing nearly a month ago so it should be here soon. Then I need to figure out how to wire up my h-bridge. I'll post video as I go. The first will be of the arms and claw moving.....

When we have our bots up and running, we should do a mid-atlantic region meet-up. Maybe at Oticon (big Anime convention) in Baltimore or one of the science fiction conventions in the region so we can show off a little as well as meet each other.

Alan

I like that Idea!

My inner nerds comming out ha ha ha , robots could follow us around the show .

Very cool inner nerds I think! Meeting up at some time would be awesome! Those pics with Omnibot and the vac are so cool!

Kevin

That bot is going to look uber cool!

Ok my girlfriend went home so I have a couple nights to get the project working. I removed all factory electronics without cutting any wires. Brain and everything is intact so I'm putting all of it on eBay. Might get me 50 to 75 for a perfect set of guts. The bot has Brown discoloring in some places. I have it in the dishwasher with 3 to 4 cups of bleach and regs dishwashing powder. If this doesn't do the trick any other ideas? I don't know strong the OEM drain is. There's 8 sets of plastic gears so I see why its loud.

Check out Vanilla Ice in the Project Showcase section of the Forum. There's a lengthy discussion of using Retr0Bright.

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

Ok I went to sallys beauty supply and got a large bottle of peroxide layup. That's peroxide that is already gelled. It was 3.50 USD. Then a tub of oxy clean powder for about 3.50 as well. Last night I washed parts in diswasher with 3 cups bleach and barely made a difference. So now I'm trying the retro bright peroxide method!

That all seemed like too much work to me so I just painted mine like DJ did his omnibot - I just changed the color scheme on mine. You can use plastic spray paint and it works really well.

I have a weird thing about stuff being nice as possible before nodding. I actually plan on a automotive quality paint job from a body shop however I won't do that until all cutting , molding , fiberglass ext is done. So ill give it the college try but in the end its getting paint. but that could be 3 months from now so I like it to look good as possible in progress pictures.

Ok update after 2 days of cleaning. I went through a bucket of oxy clean and a pint of 15 percent hydrogen peroxide and it definatly lightened the Brown iv damage. However they were only about half gone after many hours of treatment in the sun. So I took remaining oxy clean and added a couple scoops every cycle and ran it through my dish washer about 6 or 7 Times. This proved more effective than whitenening with retro bright type formula. Then before this last load I took 400 grit sand paper and soap n water to really stubborn areas which worked well from just a few minutes but your fingers will hurt tryin to get into those really sharp crevesas and curves. The front chest piece is completely clean , as well as bottom and lower half of omnibot. Now its just the edges if the arms and top of the head I need to clear up.

Cool! Pics?

I'll post pics this evening hopfully after I've finished cleaning up the edges of arms and top of the head. In cleaning I've noticed small damages the bot has incited that has made cracks and splits in a few places. I will definitely fibreglass around these mounting points and cracked areas i previously couldn't see through the browned tar.

I gotta fit lots of stuff in this bot. I think need 20ah worth of batteries , I'm thinking of doing three 12v power sonic sealed batteries. The motherboard draws 90w max but more like 40w average. It's just a dual core atom 330 with nvidia ion gpu. This motherboard came with a its remote for powering on and off , playing music and DVDs ext. I have a New HP lightscribe DVD RW data for the project and standard size 3.5 in Western digital 250gig Hdd , (the PSU is build in onboard) , I also must install a dc to dc regs power supply. This protects the electronics from spikes or drops in voltage. I have the Asus it eye I need to mount somwhere for the remote. This mobo has WiFi and Bluetooth built-in so connection to keyboard and mouse wirelessly is easy. The mono is 6.5 in square and 2.5 in thick. I def need to open up some vents . I'm thinking 5 inch fans mounted horizontally, one above ez b and another above mobo and a exhaust fan somwhere low. I need to install a switching power supply (battery charger) onboard so that all I need to do is plug up a strong act adapter and it charges at the same time pc is running. I removed the bottom counterweight and cassette player/LCD from the chest since that's not useful.

This is the batt I'm thinking off

So you are thinking of running 3 of those batteries? Cool. Is there room in the frive section for all three, to help keep the center of gravity low?

I believe I could remove the drawer and line three up side by side. That's like 15 pounds of batteries though. If I must ill just run two but I want.the bot to be able to go autonomous for 2 to 4 hours at a time without completely draining the batteries as it needs time to dock and recharge. Ofcorse I'm loosing the metal wieght under the drawer that wieghs about 5 pounds and took the cassette and LCD out so I'm not adding but about 7 to 10th pounds I believe in difference from batteries. Hopefully it will have enough weight the dog won't knock it over.

Ok tiny update , batteries on the way , the are 6" L 2.5 W 3.8 tall. They weight 5.9 pounds. So two batteries is 12 pounds , 3 is 18 . I may only install 2 for weight reasons. Also SOUND Deadening is somthing I'm adding in. I'm trying a spray in deadening liner. This is common in high end car audio to block road and wind noise. I'm thinking I could coat the outside of the motor housing and inside where there is no moving parts , and outside all over bottom and top of the gearbox casing. The inside the the bottom half of omnibot would all be coated and inside of torso. Hopefully I can dampen most motor and servo wining! I'm going to take a look at gear housing , if I can fill the gear box area 1/3 with a "gear oil " which is fairly thick ill do that , I believe the bottom of the case is sealed , trick is not putting too much in so the motor itself isn't submerged , this will silence the gears some and add lubrication this little guy hasn't seen in 26 years.. There is a gear switcher for the transmission which I may replace with a servo but it has a "low speed high torque" setting which may be useful for vacuuming or toting around 10th extra pounds of batteries it didn't originally have..

Clearly I've been playing lol. Here's pics of parts after a day of cleaning , the best results appeared after 7 runs through the dishwasher.

Dude, that looks sick sitting on those tracks! I love it!

Thanks , still wieghing options , on a pos note you could do this on your omnibot ! Tracks would be perfect for your bot! I believe you have a rad right? They are going cheap these days. As you can sew the top of bots head and back are still yellowed a bit but its almost completely clean. Thanks for watching my posts Bret , feedback and ideas are what makes the projects even more creative and exciting.

Agreed that the R.A.D. tracks look quite at home under your Omnibot 2000. cool Nice to know I'll have an alternate option if my Robie Sr's drive is a dud. I also love the embedded PC and the location it's currently mounted. I'd really like to do that for my Robie Sr if I can. Would a little home theater PC (HTPC) running Windows 7 Home Premium be beefy enough, you think? I really want the speech recognition to work and having low power requirements wouldn't hurt either.

That is looking really sweet. Love your plans for onboard ITX Mobo! I am very interested on your take of the track drive train. How much voltage are you going to supply to it. Right now I am giving my RAD 7.2 volts and even in low gear mode it moves along pretty fast. I may cut the voltage in half making two low and two high speeds....not sure yet. As far as sound goes. My wife will back me up on this. RAD tracks are LOUD! The gearboxes and motors definitely need dampening. Your idea with the gear oil sounds awesome and I will be following this closely as well as your sound dampening ideas.

Looking awesome!

;)

Yes a Asus mini itx is a great option, it draws less than 20 watts and has built in PSU so it just needs its 12v input ( pretty sure that's watt the act adapters rated for at voltage) it has built in WiFi , Bluetooth, hdmi, dual monitor support, ect. There's beefier versions but I wanted the best power for the wattage. The next step up 20 percent faster and has a larger heatsink. They are made to be home theater computers with recording capability, support for 4 data drives , 4gb ddr3 ram and even a PCI express x16 slot for a nicer video card , video capture or whatever. These boards have comparable performance to a 2ghz p4 mobile CPU for 1/4 the wattage and heat. Also it doesn't require enourmous amounts of air to cool because of the larger fanless heatsink.

Batteries are here today ! The drawer just so happened to fit one 7 ah battery with no mods. However in the future I would like two or three in the bot. Here's a pick of one and layout for two batteries. Two batt gives me 17ah @ 12v way more than original batt. I'm not worried about tracks till after I get this thing running and ESB in my hand.

yeah, i have an dual core ion for an HTPC right now. Those things work very well. What are you planning to run on it? Are you going to go with the SDK or ARC. I am really liking the added features DJ is putting in for I/O. That way you can leverage all the cool controls and easy scripting DJ has in ARC but also send/receive using the TELNET/Web interface. That opens you up to using programs like Autohotkey and Eventghost to automate other processes that are not currently in the ARC realm. For examply if you wanted to tie this into your caller ID system. you can do it and have your bot speak who is calling or read to you the latest news feeds when you ask it. Looks like you are moving along well with your project. Thanks for the connection on the batteries..I may take you up on that at some point.

Kevin

Thanks for feedback Kevin! Ironically I feel like I haven't done anything! Lol I cleaned the bot the last time so I'm ready for some cutting! My favorite tools are my Kawasaki and dremel brand rotary tools. Not only will this.be.a.robot but its gonna be my grove with.blueray player. I don't know anything about the interfaces yet but ARC sounds easier at first. I basically plan to put a nice touch screen fan controller in the chest and blueray drive but I need to trim up some plastic as I need another 2mm on each side to fit. I though about mounting drives on front of the.base above the.gearbox too but first things first! Mounting the motherboard upside down in the motor compartment and cutting the rectangle hole out of the insert behind the accessory door so I can flip up the acc door to cover pc connections when mobile/autonomous. I will only use super quiet rated. Fans , like 30 dba then ill use the fan controller to reduce their.voltage till they are 20 to 25 dba so I can't.hear fan buzzing as it cools ez board or.HTPC inside.

ASUS DELUXE HTPC MOBO FROM NEWEGG.COM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131635R

PCI Express x16

SATA

Onboard Video Chipse

Wireless LAN

Bluetooth

PS/2

Video Ports

HDMI

USB 1.1/2.0

S/PDIF Out

Audio Ports

Onboard USB

Form Factor

Dimensions

Features

Learn more about the ASUS AT3IONT-I Deluxe

ASUS

AT3IONT-I Deluxe

Motherboard/CPU Combo

Intel Atom 330

Yes

Intel Atom

533MHz

NVIDIA ION

2×240pin

DDR3 1066/800

4GB

Dual Channel

1

4 x SATA 3.0Gb/s

NVIDIA ION

Realtek ALC887

6 Channels

10/100/1000Mbps

WiFi IEEE 802.11b/g/n

Yes

1

D-Sub

1 x HDMI

6 x USB 2.0

1 x Optical

1 x 2-CH RCA AUDIO 6 -Channel Audio I/O

2 x USB connectors support additional 4 USB ports

Mini ITX

6.7" x 6.7"

Intel Atom 330 on board Nvidia ION Graphics Processors Home Theater Gate WiFi 802.11b/g/n and BlueTooth Wireless on board DC on board Remote Controller & Receiver

@ KEVIN I plan on testing drive motors at 12v and then scaling them back with adjustable voltage controllers , I will turn it back from 12v till the motors are more quiet but still can pull the bot around fine. This voltage stepdown would reduce current draw over running it wide open at 12v. It would be nice to drop it to 5 to 6 volts but that really must be tested, lowering voltage is a proven way to lower sound and saves battery too. At first I will use the omnibot drive which already runs at 6 volts maybe I can lower it to around 4 - 4.5v and the bot still scoot around fine.

@jstane1 Be careful driving the RAD motors at 12V. You don't want to burn them out. Stock they were driven at 6V. I am pushing 7.2V to them and they seem fine. Not sure I would drive them to 12V..maybe for testing. At 12V if they don't burn out, they will turn the gear box even in low gear very fast. Just a caution when you start testing. If you have another power source, you could check it out at 6-8V first before hooking up 12V. I would not want you to burn the motors out. I would probably say that is the same for the Omnibot motors too...especially if they were stock at 6V.

Good luck! Thanks for posting the specs on your mobo.

v/r

kevin

Thx for feedback , checking YouTube there are.others running 12v on rad and omni but when I meant starting at 12v and testing I was reffering to the battery I was using being 12v not that being the voltage I put to them , I rather undervolt to 5 volt if I can. Can you try under volting yours and see if it significantly affected it?

@ Kevin you definitely gotta tell me how to get my personal robot to read feeds and messages. There are text to speech air programs out there that some trendy websites are using that allow the bot to literally have a conversation but that's on a webpage I don't know if that could translate to use with the robot. First thing I gotta figure out is how this guy will charge. I was watching a 90s movie called evolver that was basically a autonomous laser tag enemy but he charged literally seeing a regular 110 volt outlet and plugging his arm in that had a power plug on it. Copying the way roomba does it wouldn't be bad either.

Alright some parts came in. I have 4 sheets of dynamat come in still waiting on two more. The ez board kit came in today! I have HDD mounting bracket and cooling fans. Just waiting on my fan controller , motherboard and CPU. I sold the Asus theater pc board on eBay and reined around to buy a nice one with am3+ AMD socket with 8gb ram support still mini itx form factor. The board I had was 20w CPU power consumption so I am being careful to get the most performance from a processor and keep it 45 watts tdp or less. I found a dual core Athlon x2 25w 2ghz I'm considering but there's a 3ghz version that uses 45watts. So I'm tossing between these two performance vs my bots autonomous battery life.

Nice

Updating my progress thread , adding pics of the sound.deadening progress.

Im thinking of adding a second omnibot gearbox and.wheels in place of the dummy wheels that were in the back. This is a backup idea because my bot will weight 15 to 20 pounds over stock fully loaded. Anyone think lining up a second gearbox to drive only the rear wheels? I have a gearbox and extra stock wheels. Motherboard , CPU , more batteries , fan controller , CPU heatsink , 6 micro 40mm ultra quiet low current draw fans are on the way. So can I use more than one ultrasound sensor on a bot for mapping? For example on on head and one near floor. That way he doesn't run into the edge of the workbench , person or table.

@jstarne1 did you wrap the enire motor? I think I may want to get some of that. But then again, now I am thinking about scrapping my omnibot build and just working on my big bot. After seeing RCRichie and his daughter's scratch-built - I have the bug. lol

If you do scrap it let me know I would love to get some parts from you , like drive train maybe wheels

I only wrapped the center of the motor , and outside surfaces of the case. The rubber grommets are mounts that hold the motor in place. Can't wait to get this dude moving around!

After measuring a bit I need to loose 2-3 inches from this canister and 2-3 inches from the casing above the vacuum motor / blower . Thats over 5 inches shorter because the canister and motor needs to fit into the back of the bot. No doubt customizing the back of Omnibot 2000 upper torso to include this and also route the vacuum hose down to the power head under the bot will all be challenges of fiberglass and hot glue engineering lol. I have not descided which voltage to power the vacuum with but I believe I will use straight 12v from a dedicated battery seperate from the main systems. The power head motor uses 11.1 volts and so does the vacuum motor. Running them at 12v I don't believe will be any significant difference. I may experiment with running the vacuum motor at 6v as well to see if I can make the system around 40 to 50 decimals so that it is not so darn annoying. I have three adjustable step down converters on the way. Also I havevs ideas for a wet mop that too but one thing at a time.

I changed what computer I'm using to somthing with a lot more power. It's a new motherboard just released from ASUS this month. Massive power , runs off 12v dc but only 39 watt http://www.ebay.com/itm/190500465148?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

The CPU I chose was AMD Athlon x2 dual core 2 GHz http://www.ebay.com/itm/260928442285?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l264

Here everyone can see I hollowed out the accessories panel in the back of Omnibots base. Lucky me its just about perfect to have a flip down access door to all the pc connections. I had to cut away the two posts that screws go through which were both hollow. It still is not aligned perfectly. I will cut away a hole the size of the board and recess it to make my connections and this door line up right. The are where the drawer was I believe I will install two 5.25 in bay hhd fans each one has three 40mm fans that move about 5 cubic ft a min. With 6 of these tiny low current guys I'm moving at least 30 cubic ft a min away from my electronics. I will have at least 3 identical intake fans in the chest , also a 5.25 in triple fan bay cooler. Testing battery fitment where I was thinking of installing two 12v 8.5 ah 6 pound batteries.

Though I have a slim blueray drive on the way it looks like my new HP lightscribe drive fits right at home above the two battery mounting positions. I have a Digital readout to install on the front for motor temp , wattage , current draw , and live battery voltage. That will fit at the top of the chest I believe.

This is the bay fans I was talking about

Black bay fans I'm using http://www.ebay.com/itm/260928442285?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Sick! He is looking Sick! I love what you are doing. What if you made the bot taller instead of the vacuum shorter?

To answer everyones question that I have been emailed .... The motherboard is being mounted upside down. I'm making a battery mount that fits in the bottom of the torso with wood , motherboard will mount to the bottom of the battery tray , I will cut away a section of plastic the size of the motherboard. This will recess it 1/4 inch to line up correctly with the accessories door I hollowed out for the pc connections. Mounting the motherboard upside down is more practical because you can only access it by removing the bottom of Omnibots chassis. This gives me a few crucial inches to upgrade heatsink or add a high end video card later , but right now I believe onboard graphics are rated to handle 1080P Blueray decoding and HDMI which is what's important to me

@bret that's a great idea , I could turn the base /bottom of omnibot upside down , it should be the exact shape of the top of 2000 base , maybe that would add 2 to 3 inches?? Or I have more 1/4 in plywood , I could make a spacer I guess. Hmm I need to get the board n other stuff mounted first. If I add a spacer section then I will definitely need to do some painting. It could add some extra space for drives /fans too though , hmm. I will definitely consider this.

I have a idea here. I'm planning in mounting the ez board to one side of the base wall and motor controllers right beside them if I have room. If I don't I will mount the h bridge to the opposite side.

Ok just for fun I tested.how many batteries I could fit inside , I could fit one battery in the drawer , and 4 batteries in the bottom of the torso. Also one battery fit ontoo of the gearbox but that's completely impractical place to put a battery. So I have figured I could have a maximum of 5 yusa lead acid 12v 8.5ah batteries. That's 34 ah of juice , and 30 pounds total of batteries. With five batteries the platform would weigtht 45-55 pounds. More than likely I will only do three batteries. That's 26 ah and 18 pounds of battery weight. This feels like a weight the stock gearbox could lug around. Any opinions are appreciated! Take in mind I removed the 3 pound weight from the base and removed another 5 pounds from removal if the cassette player and stock motherboard.

You may want to add some weight to the drive section and just see if those motors can move it. Remember you also have the weight and drag of the vacuum to consider.

I'm going to get the battery tray done , mount up the fans , and mount up ezb. Right now I don't have a h bridge , it was accidentally not shipped with my ezb so all I can mount is the sonar and ezb, fans and batteries now.

Man it is really coming along! I really like how you are mounting it all in the bot. Looks professional. I still think you could add a spacer so you don't have to cut down the vacuum. I saw that someone else did it to 2000 that he painted black. It is somewhere in the forum under projects I think. He just used wood. Question Josh, If space is not a real problem and you already had one, do you think a standard ATX motherboard would be acceptable? Or is it more of a power issue?

It won't fit a standard atx unlesss the board was mounted sideways . The power supply has to be a small one. There are 160 to 200 watt power supplies , mine litteraly is 1.5 in x 3 in and produces 160 watts continous. But really though there are lots of atom power mini itx boards that use way less juice but still do the job. I picked this board because with a simple CPU change I can go from 25 watts 2.0 GHz , but I can plug a AMD Phenom X2 555 quad core 3.4 GHz at a drop if a hat.

Omnibot is going to have a full belly for sure ! J.W.

A full Omnibot is a happy Omnibot! Lol. Right now I'm kicking around a idea to use two servos in tandem for arm movements. Mounting two side by side and run a pushrod on.each side of secondary helper servo to main drive servo. Both would share the same signal and ground so they move together this would pracically double the torque the shoulders have. I would like the arms to be able to lift 3 plus pounds so it can hold a wine bottle with no problems.

@jstarne1, Looking great so far! So now that you have a freekin awesome MOBO going into your bot.... a few questions. What do you plan to use for a monitor? What size? I noticed you had a Blue Ray player ready to go but just for planning..and saving power and real estate.....do you need it? Unless you are going with a 42 inch screen or larger... putting up 720p will really be all your eyes will notice for resolution.... and you can easily stream that over wifi (you can probably stream 1080p with the MOBO you have with no issues). That is..unless you actually want to put the disk in the tray to watch a movie, which is kind of a novelty.

You could even put a projector on your bot and have him put up a projection.........or have it so your bot could jack into any HDMI source and get the party started!.....VERY COOL!...anyway, just curious as you have some decent processing power now available for ARC and more if you want. Just was wondering what you were going to do for a screen, or if you are just planning on no screen and remote control? Running XBMC on a built in screen streaming videos while your robot danced would be awesome!

v/r

Kevin

Kevin, every time you talk more money goes flying out of my wallet. Now I am going to need to buy a pico projector dammit

Alan

Lol I have a 7 inch I have contemplated. I figured I would plug in my 42 in LCD through hdmi and when I need it to be mobile I could either remote desktop from the tablet so I see everything vicariously or switch Bluetooth connections to the tablet. I'm not real concerned about having a built in monitor but I'm considering options. Obviously I need somthing small. I thought about using one of those USB powered 5 in LCD monitors and stick it in his chest but I definitely don't want dj to think I'm stealing ideas. And by the time I'm finished I want to be 109 percent sure no one would ever confuse my bot for someone else's. If anyone has monitor ideas I will definitely take the ideas in consideration. Right now I gotta figure out how to make a radar with the sonar module. I've never done it before so anyone who can't point the right direction would be greaaaat. Projector? Wow if I could fit one in Omnibots head after fitting the camera and night time ir led rings .

@kevin yup everything about a bot is novelty lol , I just want to give him as many practical uses as possible. One is autonomous use , sentry , watching bluerays off him , use him as a pc when charging batteries as I don't have any other pc besides my tablet (hard to believe I know lol ) obviously possible plans for autonomous vacuuming in the works. But the reason why I made all connections accessible through the accessories bay is so he can go from desktop to autonomous in seconds. The more practical uses for a creation the more it will get used. Id really love for it to play catch with my dog , she just chases the ball she doesn't care who or what throws it lol.

UPDATE; I recieved the AMD ATHLON 2 x2 2ghzCPU , had bent pins but I carefully corrected them. Tommorow I will bench test everything , maybe load Windows. ( if anyone can hook me up with a copy that would be awesome). I also recieved 2 ,6v batteries uv 645 , the Asus blueray player slim USB powered also came in! Plus 4 more sqaure ft of dynamat came.

PICO projector? Anyone have links , costs? Specs?

Anyone point me to right article for making a radar setup with sonar sensor?

Thanks guys all support and suggestions greatly appreciated , I'm just trying to mod the greatest omnibot 2000 to date , and I'm confident with everyone's help I will!

Here is the link to the PING radar tutorial: https://synthiam.com/Tutorials/Hardware.aspx?id=3

Note: since this was recorded DJ made a change to the ping calibration and it no longer measures in inches. Each increment is ~0.27 inches (~70 inch maximum range / 255 increments).

Pico projectors: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=pico+projector

These are last year's models and stock over-runs for decent pricing (as these things go). None of the Pico projectors has had great reviews yet, although they have been improving every year since they came out about 3 years ago. At this time, I would just buy the cheapest available because the difference between the best and the worst is not significant.

Alan

@alan thanks man. Ok guys I have a idea to add some movement to a omnibot. A turning waist ! I believe I could do it with a couple heavy duty metal gear servos and a ball bearing swivle plate used in furniture. I love the flexability of what Muppets thought Omnibot should have been.....besides that he's all yellow and dirty lol. And yellow eyes.

I particularly like the 5" floppy drive in his chest hahaha

@bret......ill just go.with a dvd/blueray in the same spot.... I'll use that more. I haven't.seen a floppy like that in ten years in person.

@kevin good news I researched to AMD II x2 270u is the exact same core as the 3.4 GHz CPU the multiplier is 17 vs 10th. This board can actively unlock cores and memory unlock so I should be able to clock from 2ghz to 3.4 at anytime. Wattage draw is 65 watts. My 12v dc power supply is rated at 160 so maxing out this CPU I'm still good on power.

I took your advice and found a 4.3in LCD monitor that powers on with 12v , that means it powers on with the robot. IT has no buttons or logos but is from USA and has 3 yr warranty. It's only 28 bucks shipped too

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-3-TFT-LCD-Digital-Monitor-Vehicle-Parking-Reverse-Camera-NTSC-PAL-12V-/130640469901?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6ac75f8d

I have lots to fit in his chest , so far I have a5.25" bay 5 zone LCD temp and fan controller from cooler master (this keeps fans spinning at.minimum unless temps go up. Saves battery!

Also.in his chest goes a LCD display for battery status , power supply voltage from battery , total wattage usage , amps being drawn and battery temprature during charging/ operation.

Check this out for omnibots claw center. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Belt-Clip-On-Plasma-Sensor-Disk-Luminglas-Light-Circle-/180639982470?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item6fc39573ab

I am going to put a 6" version in the chest of my big bot. This could even be cool as the eyes, and it responds to sound.

@jstarne1, Wow you are moving out on the gear! Glad you are going for a screen. I hope I am not bearing bad news, but it looks like that screen may not work directly with your MOBO. Your MOBO has DVI and HDMI out and the screen on ebay is NTSC/PAL which will no work without conversion. Converters, while not super expensive, will take room and power... and you are going to loose resolution with that too. If you already bought it, you can still use it....may be a bit tough to fit everything in your bot. I hope this is not too bad of news for you. I will see if I can find some DVI screens which would absolutely rock at a decent price.......

@Bret That circle thing is trippin'. I think i just found a centerpiece for Legion...if you don't mind me stealing your idea shamelessly!

v/r

Kevin

Ok I've descided the vacuum unit will be a seperate unit that attaches to the back , but power head built in is what I'm thinking. That way it can be removed easily anytime. Just a thought there. Also I believe ill do eyes with either el film behind some plexi or just frosted Plexiglas side lit with LEDs. I was thinking " what would Tony Starks personal robot look like , his personal flashlight and screw holder , what a bot might look like rolling around his shop.

Go for it Kevin, I think it will fit quite nicely in Legion's chest. They also have them in rainbow colors and other single colors. But I liked the blue and the green ones best.

@kevin board has a "tv out" with is regular RCA video connection.... It's standard definition but on a 4 inch screen no one cares.. This really is a perfect board to do this project with ...

whew....good good! It looked like SPDIF coaxial audio ..... in the pic above or was that your old board? Whats the model of your new one........I am taking notes...

@kevin. Ok I lied , its not a video out ,wooops! Not the end of the world though because I can grab a video card that has a tv out or somthing else that will produce the standard video signal. From what I understand there's a dvi to composite adapter for 30 t0 40 , I think I would rather invest that money into a suitable video card. Anyways its cool everything's been super smooth in this project so I'm happy !

I was able to salvage a lefty motorized arm from another Omnibot 2000! Woohoo with two potential motorized arms now I'm more concerned about getting good head movements. I need left/right turning , side to side tilting , and looking up and down. The tilting to the side with the head would be a great reflex after recieving a voice command , or if the bot didn't recognise a command as if he's thinking about it. Any ideas or info for setting up neck movements let me know !

you need a mount like Helicopter .LOL 3 servos,(L to R, F to B, Spin) I'm sure you can do it .

@ww321r. That sounds like a option minus the head spinning. Maybe like a ball joint with pushrods going down to neck where the three servos will be ! If anyone finds a specific piece of hardware please link me ! Thankyou

Spin meant ,left /right movement. You could make a gimbal I'm sure. It would allow you to tilt the head at any angle . Like this You would attach the servos at 90% from each other centered on the pivot point. Should make it very lifelike J.W. gimbal

Or like this idea

http://www.goodluckbuy.com/xaircraft-cm130-tps-pan-tilt-camera-mount-with-3-servos.html

Here is my proposed rangefinder placing. The front is radar , sides are still on the drawing board but the idea is that the could measure a couple inches off the wall to make sure Omnibot is not scraping when vacuuming. Rear is ONLY used when backing up for object avoidance. I was thinking of one sensor faced down on the front edge to avoid drop offs and stairs. I have thought of a sensor for edge avoidance on the back too. I have 3 sensors on the way and one was included in the kit. Any better ideas?? Feedback?

Ok I used a new 40mm x 40mm x20mm fan and VGA heatsink to add some additional cooling. The fan has a few drops of super glue attaching it to the heatsink. The heatsink has arctic silver paste on it where the voltage regulators touch it. At the bottom where it meets the board its just 3m double sided tape. I did cover the outside edge of the blade fuse with electrical tape to prevent any paste run from touching anything other than the heatsinks.

Update: card reader / blue led fan controller came in! Also the LCD voltage,amp, watts and temp meter for power supply monitoring . Plus the fans and Blueray player came in !!! Lastly the voltage step down power supplies came in so I can power ezb from 12v battery , the motors at 6v and seperate power supply for High Torque servos as well Wow

All I'm waiting on now is my h bridge motor controller from dj which is in the mail.

Now I just got to figure out where I'm going to mount these things. I can do cutting on chest and cut edges of controller off and put it in the chest......OR I noticed the drawer in the back of omnibot 2000 is the same width as a standard cd drive bay. This is crazy that I was thinking of putting everything in the chest and this is perfect size. Downside obviously is putting drives in the back is less accessible. Any suggestions guys??

That's some serious fan!! I think this bot combo is gonna be aweeeeeesome

Lol yea but moves 6 cu ft per minute and is very quiet. Low current draw for the airflow too , given the presence of other things generating heat , like CPU , power supply , and other stuff I want to make sure this little guy has excellent cooling.

@DJ thanks ! I really hope everyone likes it , I will make improvments overtime but I really appreciate your feedback dj.

hello ,

found this and think its useable for you

http://www.instructables.com/id/Tiny-Wanderer-A-Table-Top-Robot/

bot can't fall of the table

greetings

helmut

Ok so your thoughts are one IR led and Reciever on each corner pointed down. Using these parts : 2 -- 940nm IR LED (ex. LTE4206 --available from BG Micro) 2 -- 940nm IR photo transistor (ex. LTE4206E -- available from BG Micro)

note: Radio Shack part 276-0142 - IR Emitter and Detector will work for the the parts above

@ jstarn1 and helmuteke - I like that idea. Simple and reliable.

I'll consider it , right now I have 3 ultrasonic sr04 coming. , maybe place them the exact same.way.just.using a.different type of sensor? One in front of each wheel just like this little bot in the videos that way it works on dark or shiny floors and glass.

Idea here is to widen the slots for the wheels and use wheels with no tread to lay track over. If your tracks have a guide grove u can modify your omnibots stock wheel for it. Rad only has a few teeth every couple inches so knotching shouldn't be too difficult. Any ideas? This way u can incorporate rad 2.0 tracks to run on a near silent drive train and everything will match up perfect , thoughts?

@jstarne1,

Concept for tracks is good but making it look and work well may be difficult. I would like to do my own track system but keep running into difficulties that unless you go with matched gears/treads you are going to have tracks falling off/slipping and all sorts of stuff.

about the IR sensors. I you look through some of the threads they tend to be a bit less reliable over the sonic sensors...either would be worth a try. IR sensors can get wacky sometimes with various light sources causing interference (like a candle for instance will reek havoc on an ir sensor....backlights on flat panel TVs and also CFL lights)...not that that would apply with them mounted on the bottom side of your bot though.

v/r

Kevin

I cut holes to flushmount 4 40mm fans to pump air into the base. I cut up HDD bay cooling fans for this. Playing around with mounting positions I'm considering this location. I've descided to retain the original switch and LCD panel. I'm just going to put my own spin on it.. Dvd drive fits at home in drawer hole. I plan on cutting the hole down to make it .5 inch taller opening that way I have two full 5.250gig pc bays ! One bay I'm inserting a 5.25 bay triple 40mm fan probably as a exhuast blowing outward. The h bridge , ezb , hard drive , and maybe even motors will have individual cooling fans so all I need to do is keep 20-30 cu ft a min of air flowing through the torso and out the base.

that is looking totally SICK...looks like you got the cooling down for sure! well done jstarne1!

Nice! You are blowing me away Dude!

@brett , then get back in the workshop! Lol I am excited to see your bot running around! I just now got the H-bridge from Dj. Once it has a fan on it and maybe a heatsink if I have one small enough I can start the tedious task of plugging everything up. So far I'm thinking of having the ezb and motor controller in the torso so I have fast access to them through the back door.. Hopefully this h bridge from dj is enough to lug around my bot. I'm sure it will draw 1-1.5 amps a channel. I have some fiberglassing to do to reinforce the plastic around the axles and wheels as they are supporting twice the original weight and ofcourse being 27 years old doesn't help lol I have voltage stepdown transformers. 3 adjustable ones. I was going to convert my 12v battery voltage to 6 volts for ezb , 6 volts for motors and 6v for servos I believe. I did have an alternative idea.... A battery configuration that supports both voltages....hmm ill post a picture.

Ok the term paralleled means all positives are connected together and all negatives connected from batteries of the same voltage. Paralleled batteries of the same voltage adds their Amp Hour capacity at that voltage.

The term series is where batteries are wired positive to the next batteries negative and positive to another negative. This is commonly called a daisy chain. Series two 6v batteries together and you will have 12v at the same Amp Hour rating.

Ok here's the idea- ezb, motor controller and servos need 6v everything else is 12v. I want to be able to charge them from a home base eventually but for right now it would be through the DC charge port already in omnibot back. This way while running everything has seperate power supplies and all charge from one easy source.

I modified the OEM LCD panel. Previously it would not light up like modern backlit LCD. So I purchased a LCD unit that perfectly fit. Once I got the LCD and LCD microcontroller driver it added up to about 45 dollars. The four buttons on the right are no longer functional but I planned on retaining the original power on switch , power on light and hard disk light.

The bot needs cooling as there are 3 dc to dc converters , motor controller, ezb board , mini pc and HDD that generates heat. I doubled up the exhuast , 6 40mm fans from a now taller drawer hole. This should exhuast 30 to 35 cu ft a minute.

Now I need to mount my slim blueray player right over the fan controller. I must mount the 3 dc converters , motor controller, ezb. I want to use standoffs but they are hard to find locally.

Dude! That is sick!

I'm trying dude , this lol robot is very complex and not much room for all the things. I have not mounted any servos yet. I am salvaging some standoffs from smaller less important boards to mount my components. I'm going to epoxy the standoffs so my components can be unscrewed and bench tested or even replaced. I had my 10 amp hbridge come in which.I may use instead of the 1.5 that I got from dj. Here's a picture of the boards I gotta find a place for ...

Any suggestions on if I should put ezb on the inside of the torso door or just try to keep everything in the base. I'm thinking of the fact I will have head and arm servos needing to be connected. So here is my proposed ezb mounting position for easy access....

i applied two layers of fiberglass fabric and epoxy to repair the rear wheel mounts. The.

• plastic by the rear wheels split and i didnt want it to break agian given ive really added some weight to the robot

-Josh

I am Drooling! that is just wicked! I would recommend mounting EZB for easy access...and label your wires...and use the notepad feature in ARC....when you have a gazillion wires on your EZ-B troubleshooting will be a pain if you don't have things well documented and have easy access to the EZ-B....you will be making adjustments or fixes or how you want to map your wires when you start plugging everything in. you may want to make room for that 2nd EZ-B with the rate things are looking.....nice work!

v/r

Kevin

Thanks man, this is tip of the iceburg but i want to make the best one out there lol. oh yea i am known to be a overdocumenter I will make paper tags for the wires because there are far too many to keep up with. my fan controller alone has 25-30 wires that are all black. I will have power for ez b, power for motors, servos and motherboard. thats another 4 pairs and i havent even mentioned any servos yet lol right now I gotta figure out how to mount the slim blueray drive above the fan controller and below the control panel. I will need to make a mount somehow. More work for tommorow! - Josh

I really like the EZ-B on the inside of the door, that really gives you excellent access. Which I have found out in my omni, is really crucial.

Great project however You can't have the 6volts battery parrrell and series at the same time. Your schematic is a dead short across the batteries. If you want to do what you want, you would need a relay to have the battetys in parallel when sourcing the ez-b but switch to series for charging while disconnecting the load.

@drwass I descided to use voltage converters , drops from 12 to 10-1v adjustable. So all my batteries will be 12v. @brett yea I'm liking the idea , I will need to do some cutting to make sure I have ample space to plug.in wires.

I think that's the smart way to go jstarne1 ! Now energy from all the batteries will be able to be used . J.W.

My only potential problem which.May not even become an issue is my dc to dc converters are rated 2amps each. So I must me sure not to over amp. The drive motors dj had no problem with but I'm wondering what kinda juice they will draw with the 15 pounds of electronics and batteries onboard. Anyone know average current draw the motors usually use at a close to original weight?

Okay updates ! I'm mounting all of the electronics. The motor controller on one side and ezb on the other. The voltage converters that allow me to drop the 12v battery supply down to a usable 6v are lined up agianst the front. I will be doing some more dynamat as I just recieved the 4 sq ft I bought on the internet.

Ok I wanted to utilize the holes in the back door so I installed led holders to indicate pc power on , ezb status light , primary power on and HDD light.. one is a momentary switch to shutdown the pc if it freezes. The switches are going to be arranged so I can remotely control the robot from my w500 tablet.

Looking great.....where did you get your voltage converters? Very neat work!

Nice layout.

I purchased 3 voltage converters for 30 dollars shipped. So they are cheaper and allow you to use a 12v battery and get a longer runtime. http://www.ebay.com/itm/150748060772?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I reversed all the fans orientation and glued in the mount with epoxy. Now my cooling solution is finished. I.have the led holders in place but I have not descided what colors I'm going to use yet. All the LEDs I have at the moment are high output and that's big overkill for indicator lights.

Ok somthing I was waiting on ! Back to building. The additional three sr04 ping sensors came in from Hong Kong. With as much as they ship you would think they would make international imports more efficient. Anyways here they are...

I planned on facing one forward for radar , one for stair avoidance on the front bottom and the other two sensors use is not definitely descided yet but previous pictures I drew threw ideas out there.

That LCD front is awesome! I have a serial LCD laying around i could put on mine! thanks for the idea!

Do those voltage converters get very hot (waste energy to heat)?

I have a pair of 12v 17amp/hour batteries that are currently wired serial for 24v, which is what my wheelchair motors want. I also want to provide auxiliary power to the netbook the bot will be carrying (19v) and would like to also use the same batteries to provide 7.2 to the EZ-B and maybe 12 to some fans.

I figured I could pull the 12 by just connecting to one of the 2 batteries (will that work if they are wired in Serial -- pull 12v + and ground from between the batteries? Seems to look right on my meter, but it has been 30 years since I did any electrical work other than replacing a light switch or ceiling fan). If that works for the 12v, then another converter to go down to 7.5 (maybe from the other battery, so they discharge somewhat evenly)....

I am still looking for a charging solution too if anyone has any ideas to charge 1 24 or 2 12v high amperage batteries without taking all night but also without breaking the bank account....

Alan

What about something like this?
Charger

Thanks Bret. Price is right. It would take 4 hours to fully recharge. I'll have to come up with some kind of self plugging docking station so it can go patrol and get back to the charger on its own if the house alarm goes off while it is charging, but there have been a lot of ideas thrown around about how to do that, so I am sure I'll be able to figure it out.

Looks like this seller has a bunch of differnet chargers. I'll look through and make sure this is the most appropriate.

The previous one I had found (that would have had 2 hour charge time) was $90, and I would rather spend $30 on the charger and put the difference towards a 2x25 H-bridge. Once I have those items I can really start my big bot build.

Alan

I think Drwass answered my question a couple pages back about using the batteries as both 12 and 24 at the same time.. Answer is no, although he was critiquing a more complex circuit than I was thinking of.

Can anyone recommend a good site or book on basic circuit design? Just looking for things like voltage regulation, use of relays, transistors, capacitors, etc... I don't need anything that gets into IC design or higher level stuff. I just need a refresher course on the basics I learned in high school.

Alan

Just testing no it didn't get hot. Are you 24 volt.motors? There are voltage steppers that would work fine for you and I see them on Rabat at 3a and 5a if you needed more current. The 2 amp should be plenty for a netbook though.

Yeah, the motors are 24v, (they can haul 300 lbs, plus their own 60lbs...)

I think you are right about 2amps for the netbook, I'll verify this evening. I have a car converter for it that steps up 12 to 19 volts, vut I know it wastes a lot to do it, so going down to 19 makes more sense to me.

I eventually plan on doing what you did and putting a mini atx in, but the netbook doesn't get much use since I got an Android tablet and a laptop from work not much bigger than the netbook with twice the horsepower.

Alan

@alan so did you.confirm netbook draw , on my tablet charger max is 1.8 amps but.I'm sure its using less than that.

Ok so I'm "thinking" of leaving in the OEM motors for claw and wrist rotation . I came up with a wiring diagram today at work. In.this diagram all powered units are accounted for except my front LCD display but that's 12v anyways. I'm if I can get a servo to move slow enough I will put two high torque servos in place of shoulder motors any thoughts are appreciated.

Anyone know the width and length of the motors in the arms? One arms motors are bad. Or ill just buy a whole motorized arm. And what size thickness and length in mm for the drive motors. I believe I.have found higher torque upgrades but I gotta know the exact size to know if I can fit it in the tranny easily. this is a backup plan in case the OEM motors are having trouble pulling around the extra 20 pounds

Netbook draws 1.58 amps, so no problem with the DC-DC converters. Nice find.

Alan

Have pics of your bot? Or design?

Ok I have a few updates. first.I caught a great deal to get.three usb 4G data sticks for .99 cents. The idea is.to use.this as a longer range / endless range form of communication I can either use the web portal or direct remote desktop from tablet or phone.

These data.sticks are also usb hard drives since they have a SD card slot for up to 32 Gb memory. The sticks have GPS satillite tracking as well if that could really ever be useful.

Ok I took off modding for a week because I changed to nightshift , however I may actually work.on the bot from my desk lol. I modified the camera housing by cutting a notch into each edge to clear the reflector lenses in the eyes. I used a hole cutting bit to make a perfect hole between the eyes to mount my camera. I drilled a smaller hole below the usb charger so I can do the 5v camera power mod. I used epoxy to adhere the camera casing to the inside and camera pressure fits in just like it originally did.

Ok the camera is mounted , I will probably do LEDs in the eyes but I am still thinking of putting a few IR LEDs in the eye sockets for additional illumination.

Nice job! You could mount IR LED's over the eyes to look like eyebrows and keep the regular LED's for eyes. Just a thought.

I'm glad you brought that up, I thought about making eyebrows from LEDs to give him more personality. Maybe even make it where certain LEDs turn on for one mood or another.

You could use the RGB color changing LED's and get three different moods from one source. I believe they change color depending on the voltage so that might be a nice way to do it.

Could you link me to this?

Ebay Link

or these:

Ebay Linky

@jstarne and others i designed h-bridge design and pcb boards all info in zip file,made this design awhile back and sold many boards if anyone needs to buy the boards let me know,more that buy the boards the lower the cost to have it made ,boards are in 2 parts ,main reason is that the board is universal logic circuit on one board and pwm h-bridge on another rated at 60 amp cont,but you can easy remove mosfets to save money,remove 4 of the 8 mosfets give you 30 amps i dont get money from this and dont need it HBRIDGE.zip files in bmp and sch

Ok time to do all the tedious wiring to the 9 different boards , pc 12 cooling fans , batteries , switches and camera 5v mod. First I was worried about arching accross my connections from the batteries. I soldered the clips on , heatshrink over them and I'm using turnigy quick disconnects. In the future ill move to lithium ion which turnigy uses these same high amp plugs.

turnigy lithium ion i use alot great batteries,just design a charger for it and one one gel cell rare at up to 50 amp charging and up to 24 volts ,both charging rate and voltage can be set,getting the boards in 2 weeks i like sending my boards out to be made,kinda hard at more and there different ways to do it,but most take time and now good as pcb company does it

you you need the circuit for yours can post it,do need to recheck it with the pcb i will get

jstarne nice job so far

Ok here is the 10th amp motor controller , I put heatsinks on all four chips.from radioshack. This was 6 dollars retail. I just don't want these guys running hot under my boys "heavy" load. When I perform first tests after wiring I will only have one battery in the torso which.will reduce load by 6 pounds and no arms , about 3 less pounds too.

@jstarne mine is much smaller, but still very close to it,running with 20 amp load on mine the mosfets get only warm ,at 40 amp and higher they need a heatsink,looking to get my board in soon to post so far your project looking really good

also noticed they using 2 h-bridge driver ,mine is one full bridge chip and h-bridge are rated up to 180 amp and higher peak using 8 mosfets,mostly made it for very high current wheelchair motors IRF3205 mosfet are rated at 110 amps each and in parallel and quad so looking at 440 amps total each side if using only 4 mosfets looking at 40 amps at 220 amp each side maybe 90 amps peak

Ok today I got a sliver of metal in my eye , oh the sacrifices we make for the robot. I was wearing nice safety glasses too. So I started mounting ultrasonic stair sensors in the base. I want to bring realism to the bot and more than.the toy it was meant to be. The shoulder and neck segments are ment to mimic rubber dust boots on industrial bots. So I found some rubber tooldip to coat the neck and shoulder to make them look new yet still be flexible. More flexible than paint.

I found this while in radioshack getting 5v regular low Mcd blue LEDs for eyes or indicators. I'm still thinking about using a multicolor .) Thanks for planting that idea Brett , lol my budget just went a tiny bit higher lol. It's a passive infrared sensor. Package says its sensativity is adjustable from 15 ft to 30ft+ it was just 9 dollars so I picked it up. Any ideas where I should / could mount it? I saw others use it to trigger thirty bot to "look" in that direction if it sees motion. Ideas for its use are appreciated.

looks good so far,i got a tiny spec in my once once,like the smoothie drink you made,i make one aday very heathly,have 2 special machines for them ,plus i am baker well leaving on my work trip to CHINA ,i got a new handheld digital/analog o-scope given to me by work to keep and use on my trip,cant wait to use it @JSTARNE have you look at my ROVER project on the really good PIR detectors ,very very small for $15,many different types digital and analog output,just drill a small hole

second item whats the name of the developer cleaner and whitener you used (make of it) look on sally's and they have too many and dont wont the wrong one

@jstarne1 - I have the same sensor haha. I am going to use it as part of my intruder alert system. For something like that, a good place might be the top center of his head. I guess it kind of depends what you want to do with it. You could put it on the front chest somewhere so when someone walks by he says something or acts out a script you have written. HMMMM - ideas, ideas.

@robotmaker could you.link me to these , where to buy? Thanks

Ok now for stair avoidance system! I descided to use ultrasonic sensors because they work in most types of floors and stairs. Basically the idea we are using here is if the sensors read more than say... 15 cm then the bot "sees" a dropoff which indicates stairs or edge of table. I thought about having one sensor.beside each wheel what does everyone else think?....

@jstarne here is is buddy,like the uni-bit,i have all 3 of them ,they great for robot projects

what about the developer you used what name or it or link motion sensor they have others on digi-key site

utrasonic not great as stairs detectors,one main reason false or bad reading if any carpets,mostly all people that build robots and companies use IR sensors short distance types

Hi guys , I know this is still a few days away but its getting close to paint prep time. I want to go with a really nice red but a OEM color that's easy to match in the future. I'm going to look at cars tonight a little bit. If you have a idea for a red similar to iron man red please post pic , model and year and paint code if you find it. Thanks guys!

Depending on what pictures and lighting you see pictures of iron man in you might like Barcelona red by Toyota. It does have a little metallic in it though so I'm not sure if it would be easy or difficult to get matched later on. My tacoma is a 2009 painted Barcelona red and I know they still paint cars in that color. Should be easy to find and look at. It would be cool to use a candy apple red however it'd most likely be a huge pain in the butt

Yea my painter said a candy red which is base , then color , then 5 coats candy and clear would run me 200 for the bot parts. I'm gonna find a pic of that and post it.

That is HOT!!!!! Here is a pic of my car, the color is GM Crystal Red. It is a deeper red out of direct sunlight.

Sweet , Bret on your doorjam or a sticker on the bottom side of your hood there should be a paint code. That's a great color too

Paint reference for gm looks like I'm getting crystal red! http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?type=sample&ditzler=915635&syear=2009&smanuf=GM&smodel=Corvette&sname=Crystal%20Red&name=corvette2009WA505Q

Ok buying paint tommorow but for now I gotta take care of suspension on this bot. These tires are old and could use some retreading. I picked two plastic rubber coating products. First is tool dip for heavy duty applications and spray tool dip for places I need extra thin coats like robots neck and shoulders in plain view. I used a paint brush to apply tool dip liquid rubber over the original 27 year old treads so this new rubber would maintain a original tread pattern.

Nice Idea! I like it.

Ok I tested this paint on rubber and its a alternative for areas with lots of nooks and crannies that's hard to.get a flat piece into. This coating is safe and completely non conductive. Spray rubber works too I just noticed it goes on.thinner for each.coat and costs more in a spray can.

Ok I took the shoulder skirts off and washed them well. Here's the neck skirt next to freshly cleaned shoulder skirt. Soon as it dries it will get a coating inside and out of rubber to match the neck. Also I will coat the rear dummy wheels as well.

Ok I have a couple coats on the shoulder pieces , just a couple more coats inside and out once this dries.

all this work and only vacuum the floors,looks good

I'm sure it will do.lots more. It will be my personal computer , a security bot , feed my dog at a certain time when I'm at work and hopefully I can teach.this guy to bring me a beer too lol. I want.it to fit in and be good looking like a high dollar appliance. I may install a screen on the front so its also a telepresence robot as well.

looking at the same with my omnibot,my full size robot will have arms and full hands,main reason for lathe machine,but add my AI LEAF project to it ,and mostly all my robots have you check the LEAF project,only full AI design project open source there is so far,fulll emotions, and chats,recognizes faces ,objects,spells and so much much more i finished a design to detect beer from water or milk called spectrometer

Can this leaf thing.be used with ezb? Easily?

Ok back to work.. I been pondering the power system because the bot must be able to charge. I descided to wire it similar to a car with 12v system that charges between 13.8 - 14.4v my regulated power supply is 12v but I believe I can adjust it in high 13 volt area otherwise I would need to get a nicer power supply. In a car the battery is always in the charging loop so when my bot docks for charging its completely uninterrupted. Everyone please look over this. Also just to let everyone know all the juice passes through the LCD system monitor wether it comes from batt or the ac adapter.

Potential docking station. , just an example not a final idea or design...

dont you have a led system monitor not lcd,each led near 20 ma x 7 segments so you are looking at alot of wasted current draw,lcd monitors are cheap and easy to use and very low current

Holy cow! eek That is one seriously awesome robot! What excellent work, that definitly is looking like a high dollar robot. You must have put a lot of time and $$ into it. I am absolutly impressed, that is so cool and very inspiring. Awesome!

@okidey I probably have 1000 , 180 was for computer, 70 hd, 40 ram and 90 for CPU, 235 for ezb , 200 for nice Omnibot 2000 , 40 for all the cooling fans , 30 for H bridge , 15 wiring , 20 for 2 12v batteries , 25 for 12v 15a ac adapter. So adding that in my head was 925. It's also getting a automotive quality paint job gm crystal red code 89 which after paint costs and paying a buddy a few bucks to paint it is 200. Wow building a nice robot has a price , I haven't really thought of how much I spent. Thankyou for the compliment it really makes my day. This is my first robot build.

@robotmaker the LCD is not only for systems monitor but its built into chest of Omnibot where the factory LCD was. It's draws about .2 amps

@jstarne on the led units i was talking about are the dc-dc converters you are using 3 of about bout the right price for a good design,mine mostly over $2000 my big big project JOHNNY FIVE LIKE SIZE will be over $6000 MAYBE MORE here is the link to it,tracks and motors alone are $500 each one the we bsite so far they dont have a computer, just base plans , mine with have LEAF project,still looking for a SAPI voice of johnny five

@robot maker. Johnny 5 voice was human voice recorded with autotune. You could maybe make your own mp3 files this way adjust autotune and pitch till you sound like Johnny 5 . I would love to make him , or.the newer robot from lost.in.space movie. Lastly the robot from evolver would be a menacing security droid. Anyways I will get different dc to dc regulators with higher 5-10 amp current handling without the LEDs on them because eventually all the motors in both my motorized arms will be functional and 2 amps won't cut it. Next payday I'm buying three h bridges to power the original motorized arms. , and those could draw 2amp each depending on load. Right now I'm trying to find motor replacements for my motorized arm as they are corroded and locked up. They are 3 or 6v motors....

If anyone could help me find a direct replacement that could run 6 to 12v I would greatly appreciate it!

from what i can tell they look like the stock motors in the rad main drive i new the 2 amp dc-dc converters wont work,but good for sensors ,EZB and rest of low current stuff on the voice its TIM BLANEY AND AUTOTUNE most R2-D2 builders buy parts a little at a time pre-fab parts,SOME ON EBAY rest custom made some parts i got or made ,like his eyes and iris same on johnny five,iris i think i paid $35 each at edmund optics,stereo camera $200,led vu meter for his lips moving,made part of the telesccope RF controller (multi-frequency controller) on his head

also the stock rad MOTORS i dont really need,so can sell cheap

@jstarne1 - how many of those motors do you need? I have a few from my RAD torso that I won't be using if they will fit. You can have them dude. Just let me know if they will work.

I need three at least. I accidentally washed one.motorized arm in.dish washer and all the motors are.locked. so three , two a minimum for claw and.wrist movement.

@ jstarne1

You are very welcome! It is very inspiring to see your robot, things quickly cost a lot of $$ but when passionate in making something the results are priceless right? I do not have the knowledge nor a lot of money to make a robot with all the hardware you have working on it on yours. Though I am completly new and just started out building robots for myself. Results like that require lots of time and effort and dedication, who knows in time mine may turn out as cool and extensive as yours, and hopefully I may learn from your experiences and everyone here. You guys make some seriously wicked robots.

I havent gotten very far with Hank v1.0 unfortunatly, though I have been working on something else which ill be showing too. I am learning and having loads of fun doing so and together it can all result in hopefully as wicked. I keep getting more and more ideas.

I am now starting to get into the software of things and I'm thinking of adding AI with the Leaf project. I will be running into a pile of questions I'm sure, aswel as hardware problems. I've been checking out all the robots made by members here and reading about it and I can learn a lot from you and all the members here. Hopefully I can share some valuable experience of my own. Im going to make pictures of what ive been working on right now, I hope you guys like it

@jstarne,i see you are mounting sonars on the bottom of your robot,do you have carpet on any of your floors, it wont detect it

They can't read carpet at all?? Should I remove these and use ir??

yes,look for short distance ones like this one should work and digital is better since you are not detecting distance only steps and ledge detection

short distance digital also these are great for non contact bumper switches you set it at 10 cm or distance to hard floor to sensor,then stay high from 10 cm or less like if see carpet or tile or wooden floor,now if you have a step it will be over 10cm and output goes low i dont know what the distance from your bottom of you robot to floor IF can tell me can find you a better one also sensor reads at 24 cm so you need to modify it ,here is the link

short distance digital modify can modify from 10cm to 24 cm ,10cm is 3.94 " and 24cm is 9.449"

another IR sensor will work is 1.5" to 20" but analog ,if you have some ports left over

short distance analog remember to set the distance from robot IR to wooden floor,so it will detect carpets ,floors,and small metal strip for carpets and any thing higher will be cliff detection

and these are great for non contact bumber switches,dont need a bumper guard like on the neato,good reason if using bumper switches robot cant turn around but with non contact IR sensor it can because you can set the distance

on IROBOT ROOMBA is uses them for cliff detection

Ok I.bought 4 of those ir sensors the 4 to 30 cm distance sensors. I may only.use two but spares are nice

http://www.junun.org/MarkIII/Info.jsp?item=37

Also I descided I could try converting my bot the treads using rover 5 tracks which are 1/8 in thinner than rubber treads on omnibot 2000

Doing.some math I.figured the length.of tracks at max stretch , using omnibot 3 inch wheels its 1.4 inches shorter so the tread should fit snug agianst the hub. Diagrams above show how I would do this. Also on the way is 2 6amp dc to dc converters to reduce drive.voltage , servo supply power and origi nal motors from 12 v

i finally got me omnibot 2000,cant wait to start on him ,its monday morning in china now,i know my girlfriend is happy,me getting it and comming home this friday,i hate the about 20 hours on the plane right now it lunch time at work,i think right now back home its 12am,food here super cheap @jstarne the tracks looks great also

wow man what do you do?

i design and build high precision in-house test equipment for A/C and electrical test company

Ok so obviously I'm giving this robot a iron man theme. No better way than for this robot its very own ARC Reactor! I purchased a Hasbro toy but once I recieved it , I noticed it had a unconvincing Amber glow when lit up. I took this guy apart and installed 3 bright white LEDs. It's amazing how much blue color is in a white led. This picture just shows the toy sitting in the placement where I would like it to go. I believe I will cut into the speaker location a recess the ARC reactor in about 1/2 inch deep or more. Once it has been installed into this torso it will also be painted the same crystal red color. If anyone has additional ideas let me know.

instructables.com has many ironman ARC reactors.lot of them look very close to real in the movie

Thanks ill take a look

Nice!

leaving china at 10:30pm plane today to usa,27 hours on plane that is a big drag so will be back about 2pm at my house friday or so about 7am now so have some time to look around

Ok the painter picked up the paint , its crystal red. What does everyone think?

nice color,mine looking at chrome or silver,i have friend who owns a paint shop,may have him do it or might do it my self,since i do a lot at work on some projects also i guess you are getting it air sprayed on in 12 hours about 10pm will be on the plane,good to come back home

I really like the Ironman paint scheme and that red is going to look wild on there !

Did you see the ARC reactor I'm working on fitting into the torso ? I'm not sure if I will do any gold accents. If I do I will use it sparingly.

I would really add some gold to it. From the waist up on some Ironman art, there isn't much gold . I saw the ARC reactor you got and it looks good and bright now . I can't wait to see yours complete. I saw you sold your spare Omnibot . I was watching the bidding on it JW

Yea I still have the regular Omnibot which I may paint red as well , I already have a ezb on the way for it lol.

Ok I couldnt sleep tonight from kidney pain (i have a blocked kidney) and I was checking out the carry handles. I don't know if they are sturdy enough to handle the extra 15 pounds on a regular basis , so I filled the hollow cavities with fiberglass resin. Tommorow I will coat the handles in epoxy and fiberglass to thicken them slightly , also I will place a single layer of Matt on the backside of the handles where I filled the cavities tonight. I will post pics in the am. It's about time to mold in my iron man ARC reactor into the factory speaker location. I believe I will still put the speaker behind it though.

Awesome! Pics dude, pics.

@jstarne good to be back home to work on my robot projects,had a great time in china hopping to get my omnibot 2000 soon my first project since most of my parts are here is my roomba project ,then my brookstone rover hack since i think i have all parts for it now,many mant boxes of parts to unpack,my girlfriend did a good job holding them for me,so going out to a nice place to eat dinner with her

Ok I beefed up the handles , I will.sand these to get ready for paint. More.pics when I get the ARC reactor in.

have you check the instructables for ideas on the ARC design,many are on the site

@jstarne you making 2 different robots,one you hace a cd player and itx board ,OMNIBOT 2000 and another you have a ARC reator i guess where the missiles go in on the RAD

Ok I cut out a hole with a dremel carefully , I had to.cut.down this ARC reactor toy 1/4" on the edge so it would fit.

ok i see now,going to look great,looking at one day to make a iron man robot,but for now looking to first finish my irobot roomba project ,almost done and my rover project about 75% done a fter start on my omnibot 2000,kinda close to yours,not using a reactor or cd player,but does have alot more upgrades i have plan for as i wait for parts to come in one,i start on another,my irobot roomba will be about 4 feet tall

Ok here is my reactor lit up. The lines in the torso I will fill with epoxy and shave smooth tommorow with body filler. I recieved the four IR sensors and will drill out there holes and mounts tommorow. I picked up my.light sensors today and I already have the ir LEDs I'm using.for low light illumination because some areas of my house are dimly lit. Any ideas of a good placement of.motion detector /pyro electric sensor? rover 5 will be.here.monday and as I have illustrated I would like to convert my regular wheel drive to track drive.

in the front i front and sides,looking to use the big PIR'S ones kkeast is using or like the one on my ROVER robot design about 3/8 hole,they cost a little more ,but they have digital and analog output i like because of the tiny size,i like my sensors to almost be hidden

Josh that is looking SOOOO cool!

Thankyou Brett! I want to make sure this is one of a kind and looks good. If you have any suggestions let me know. Today I'm drilling mounts for the IR cliff sensors.

I'm wiring my drive section for B9. It is so nice to have some time to work on bots.

I know what you mean , I'm on LOA from work a few days trying to get this kidney problem diagnosed and treated and when I get bored I work on my bot

Ok before creating mounts for the IR sensors I needed to.clean.up the holes I originally drilled for cliff avoidance , I'm still undescided about also having a ultrasound sensor too in case there is too much bright light. I taped off the holes and filled with epoxy. They will be setup by the time I'm out of the shower.

I picked a creative place for the PIR sensor. The four buttons that were removed with the original LCD left empty holes. In a effort to use them I drilled out the holes and used standoffs epoxied in place for mounts.

The sensor is now part of the power management panel.

Ok this.is the.PIR .sensor.by.my.power monitor.display.