PRO
RoboHappy
USA
Asked
New Robot , REMI
Thought id share a look at this new kit I received from SuperDroidRobots. Its a 4wheel drive, mobil steel base. All motors are 24VDC. y plan is to move My Hemi bot, with its Actobotics framework over to this base instead.
This kit comes with a RC system and a Sabertooth 2x12RC motor controller which I will be changing out. I also plan on swapping two of the four motors for two with encoders and use the kangeroo device.
Just getting started, so stay tuned
Hi EzAng, I did make some more progress tonight (after tweaking the code some more). Still have much more to add abd test before I go any further with the build.
Just a short update on my project...
On the front of the drive base, I finally got around to adding a "kick stand" . It came with the from originally but I didnt like how it want bent to be all the way down to the level of the wheels. Its designed to prevent tip-overs. I reshaped it to raise it up some to have a little clearance from anything in its way while driving forward and still acts to prevent tip-overs if it happens.
I'm also thinking of adding a couple of bumper switches out front. Also added that Sharp IR sensor. Have yet to figure what it will yet. The USB cable you see hanging off to the side is to interface with the RoboClaw M/C and its pc app. I think I will use that to switch between serial control from the EZB or R/C mode. There are programming buttons on the controller but I cannot access them easy on this configuration.
There will soon be another upper deck added on. So the EZB is planned on being relocated elsewhere.
Well, thats all I have for now :).......Progress !
keep it up :-)
Just wanted to throw up a few photos of my REMI robots build progress.....
I recently decided to add a couple of bumper switches. Mounted to the forward tilt plate as shown. They are to help stop the robot in the event it mages to get caught up in a corner some how. Also added (not shown) a Sharp IR Sensor on the bottom, behind the switches, also to help if the robot got too close to a stairway edge.
Finally added the second deck. Giving the robot a little extra height and to hide some of the wiring.
Even decided to hinge on the back side for the upper deck for easy access when needed. I still have yet t o decide where to mount the "main" power
switch, and relocate a few other parts.
Another view of the upper deck as I was installing it. The servoCity linear actuator will eventually allow the "spine" of the robot to bend backward some. The idea is to possibly help with "CG" balance if it picks up something too heavy to carry across the room (in theory at least).
Finally found a place to mount an EZB. The EZB will be powered by a buck converter mounted in the rear. And I sorta cleaned up some of the wires
from all the sensors.
Hidden away, the EZB's Power supply.
That's it for now.
What kind of converter are you going to use to buck down the voltage from 24 volts? You may already thought about this and if so please forgive. But are you planning on running all the power for the rest of the robot like your servos and lights through the EZB from it's power pins? If so you may want to consider running the power for your more power hungry motors and servos around the EZB and directly form the converter(s) to avoid a EZB brown out and reboot. I've had EZB's brown out from just a single servo starting to move.
Keep having fun! I read in another thread that you're going to a different place inn a little while for the summer. I think it was you anyway. If so are you taking this project with you to keep working on it?
The main power source is two 12V,7ah SLA batteries wired for 24VDC wired to the drive motors via that funky relay power distribution board (from SuperDroidRobots) on the backside. This board splits up 12 and 24 volts. The drive motors are 24V and only draw about 2amps when running and are controlled via a 2x15a RoboClaw M/C with encoders. The EZB is powered from a 12v Buck convertor, adjusted for 7v and I will run some EZB servos from it. All other servos will be powered thru a Lynxmotion SSC32 that I used before. All the Ultrasonic and IR sensors run off 5V, so they are powered by a little Pololu 12v/5V converter that's good for 5amps (but im only drawing about a lil more than an amp right now.
Hehe, yeah, it looks like a tank right now but soon it will be taller, having a spine that can almost fold up, two 4dof arms with claws, a new head for the camera, and other stuff
Hard to tell, but this sensor is on the robots bottom (near the from), just in case the robot gets too close to an edge (stairwell), it will then halt and back away.
Front view: Added new Main power switch (located above the Ultrasonic sensor). Also two bump switches to the front tilt plate.
Side view, again showing new main power switch. Lower black switch (I may move) allows to select drive signal between the EZB or an RC receiver to the roboclaw motor controller.
Rear view, I changed out the rear sensor. I was able to get this one to mount better. Also added new fuse holders, mounted with velcro.
Just another view. I've been thinking about possibly doing something to cover the whole lower base. That will def come way later for sure.
Installed an old servocity 2ch motor control board (seen just above the EZB ). This will control two linear actuators for the "spine" as I like to call it. I will have a video soon to show what I plan to do with this .
That's all for now :-)
I also like that you're using Velcro here and there. I discovered it a number of years ago. Until then I thought it was a lazy way to attach something that gives you a weak joint. Once I started using it I realized it was a great way to attach non stress load devices and it makes replacement easy. The right quality Velcro has great gripping power and quality adhesive that stays put.
Have fun!!!
Thank you very much :-) I Like watching your B9 builds. The rc/arc switch allows me to switch the electrical path of pwm or simple serial to the m/c but turns out I still have to connect the m/c to a pc via usb to use an app to tell it which of signal type to accept. There are setup buttons on the controller but cant get to them now. So sadly I cant just freely switch back and forth. Besides, within arc, since we can use the custom Movement Panel Joystick, I found I can use that for manual control instead of an r/c controller.
The previous robot, I had two motor controllers wired in, one for ezb and one for r/c, and wired each motor outputs to a big switch to the drive motors since I had the room to do it. I don't have that kind of room on this model this time.
How is progress going?
Hiya! progress....slowly but surely ,lol I work on it when I have the time to lately. The other night I did add an LCD Battery monitor and now starting to work on the upper body. I hope to do a quick video of a couple things I'm doing with it soon.
Added a digital battery monitor.
One shows the the robot moving forward via voice command.
The other shows how the robots spine can fold up ( realy only bends a little).
https://youtube.com/shorts/_1_UIoQtwFM
https://youtube.com/shorts/JUQ6LxwSiNQ
Just another view of the front of the base, with LCD battery monitor, forward sensor, and newly located Main Power switch
reminds me a little of my crane I built with voice commands in 2021
Always thanks for your comments,
https://youtu.be/fUQ8eYO8CEY
Front of the robot
Rear of the robot
I'm happy I was able to move the arms from my Hemi robot to Remi now. Robot is getting taller, which now has brought on its own set of new problems. First off the stability which I really noticed when the robot drives ahead (might see this is one of the recent videos I posted) it wobbles some. I'm thinking either adding some support struts to the lower spine or add add a sorta of support tray to keep things still as it drives forward.
Another thing i'm still wrestling with is the robots turning speed. Left or right turns are way too fast and also cause things to swing about. I'm still trying to find some sample code around here that will help me slow this issue down alot. If anyone can point me in that direction, that be great. Think some redesigning is in need here. One idea I am also still trying to figure out, is Remi's "head". Needs something fitting for this.
I had a similar problem, with height, base needs to be bigger, wider to bear the weight of the height.
One thought:
Did you try the servo speed control?
Servo Speed - servo - Robot Skills - Support - Synthiam
https://synthiam.com/Support/Skills/Servo/Servo-Speed?id=16044
I used both the Sabertooth and the Custom Movement Panel and created scripts as needed. Except for the left/right turns, which I had to use old ezscript code to get the bot to do a 90 degree turn then stop (just does it too fast)
The Roboclaw does also accepts pwm commands from an R/C receiver, might be an idea to go that route as I think about this