RichiesRC
Hi Everyone,
I'm Richard(Rich) and my daughter is Phoebe
That's right myself and my daughter are building a scale Wall-e from scratch, after she got the old movie for Christmas, she has become totally Wall-e mad and after just a few days she asked me if could build her a Wall-e robot as she thought the plastic models were "boring" and after seeing a few hand made Wall-e's on the internet she asked me if I could build her one. Anyway I didn't jump straight away because you know what kids are like, they can get disinterested in things pretty quickly but not Phoebe(my 9 year old daughter) after building her own cardboard Wall-e and fully equiped Wall-e house with many of his toys and gagets. After several weeks and the DVD just about constently running we have started the build. The first thing to get was the tracks so I could scale him arround them. Picked up a set of Matrics about 170mm long off eBay which arrived about a week ago and after quite a bit of mods to them the carcase is well on its way. Originaly Wall-e was just going to be radio controled as that is my pasoin and I've been playing with everything RC since my early teens.
Phoebe was checking out some youtube videos and came accross D.J Sures video on his Robot Wall-e and said "dad you have to have a look at what this Wall-e can do", so I did and I was sold straight away as some of the other robot hardware out there needs some special programing skills. So we are ready to buy the EZ Robot System but would like to know a couple of things so I know what other hardware we might need.
Will I need a seperate LED controler as we plain on having the front Solar Charge Level panel lit up in rows and each row will be timmed some how to turn off after x amount of time.(Did read that I could hook them up to the digital outputs but there are 7 channels .and will probably need as many of them just to drive servos etc
You see a 9 year old finds things that we might not find that important like us adults,few examples: The solar power front panel has to work and look just like the real Wall-e's one, The play, Record and Stop buttons on the top have to work, He has to have a lazer comming from his head(lazer pionter mounted inside his head), She has even downloaded the sound track to Wall-e's favorite movie and today she started cutting parts of that out of the mp3 to be able to use on Wall-e, She would have loved him to be able to actualy compact trash(that one I've said is just about imposible due to the size of him). And he must be able to pick up things(well try at least) and he must be able to put his hands together(looking forward to that chalange). Looking at micro Linear Actuators but these are quite expensive. His hands will be controled by a thin flex pushrod cable to his thumb and his other fingers will be fixed. The linear actuator for his arm that I'm looking at should be able to spin/twist with the use of a micro servo to give him some wrist movement.
I am normaly a big advocate of the KISS system, even have that painted large on the workshop wall....So much for KISS this time...lol
Ok Wall-e is made from mostly 3mm MDF with his base and a couple of other small parts from 12mm, 12mm because I can screw to it easly(great for mountin servos, motors etc with out having to use small bolts and nuts not to mention how well it paints up. So we are ready for the EZ Robot controler and I tested the 2.4ghz pinhole usb cam today and it works a treat(got that ages ago to mount on my RC models but it's no good as it interfears with my 2.4ghz raido gear)
I will post a couple of pics so you can see what we are up to and to give a bit of look at how we are going with Wall-e.
Looks like my nitro heli is being put on hold for a while untill Wall-e is compleated.
Thanks and G'day from Rich & Phoebe
The build looks great, and I love those treads (What was the brand again? Tried searching for Matrics and came up blank).
EZ-B has 20 digital io ports, and yes, you can drive LED's from them.
Alan
This is sweet! Nice job! I love those tracks too.
I also wanted to say it sounds like you are an amazing dad and your daughter sounds amazing too.
Alan
Hi Alan,
Thanks and that's great about the 20 digital ports because I've been searching everywhere for something to do the job.
Here is the link to the treads on ebay: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/180669979265?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_500wt_1202
I wrote to the seller as I only wanted a pair not two pairs and he was fine with it, cost was under $30.00 with shipping.
One thing they don't come with any axles or bearings and no mounting hardware. I have a pretty decent workshop with a lathe and mill so not that big a deal.
Rich
Thanks. Those are really cool. Don't fit the style I am looking for on my first bot, but maybe the second one.
Alan
Where are those tracks from rich? Is love to have a set for my wall-a project (yes the bigger robot in the movie). It looks like good workmanship, are you going to seal it up with epoxy to protect its surface and keep the wood from soaking up paint?
jstarne1, he posted the link to the treads just above my last post. If you change it to US ebay, the shipping is a lot less
Alan
@RichiesRC Whoa, now THAT is the real Wall-e!!
@RichiesRC - You said, "Will I need a seperate LED controler as we plain on having the front Solar Charge Level panel lit up in rows and each row will be timmed some how to turn off after x amount of time."
If you're interested in trying out something different than LEDs for the Solar Charge Level I came across this YouTube video a while back of an Ultimate Wall-E mod where the guy used the LCD Unit off a 2.4 inch digital photo stand to do the Solar Charge Level animation. Good effect especially if you don't really care about the actual power level of your bot. Check it out, it's pretty slick. cool
@thetechguru yea sorry sometimes I type messages and don't finish them or hit submit for a while at work when I get busy so I never noticed he posted them. Those are cool maybe a good option for wall a concept
Beautiful job Rich
You could also use these for the Solar Charge Level:
LED Bargraph - Passive
LED Bargraph - Active
You can order them in all yellow segments.
Can't wait till you finish this one.
That's just what i want!
Thanks !
But what is the different between the active and passive?
And i can't read if the 7.4 volt is enough or just to much.
You should make the top flip open two little doors like the movie to expose nice solar cells , I imagine you could get 20w or better worth of them on that walle , then he's energy efficient lol
@jstarne1 Hi,
We will be sealing and painting Wall-e much like the way a real car or that high gloss painted furniture is painted using car filler, grey primer and spay putty. Paint will be acrylic and we are looking for a local artist to do the final paint job to make him look old and rusty as I have trouble with that kinda thing. We will be making him all shiny and new looking and the getting the artist finish him off.
Ohh he will have the two opening doors with the solar panels mounted on the under side. Already have those and a small NiMh pack that he now will actually charge, that pack will operate the small red light just below his speaker(it's a light bulb and not a LED) so it will actually drain the battery.
Thanks Rich & Phoebe
@JT @mereyes @jstarne
Thanks heaps guys, Phoebe found that video but we were unable to find how he did it(his site was all in Chinese) and my electronics skills are not up to creating complex circuits(complex to me anyway).
Hey mereyes they are awesome and are exactly what I've been looking for, perfect size, did find some small bar-graph electronic thingies but would have no clue how to wire them up. Will hook it up to the small battery pack that is charged by the solar panels (see above post)
I have asked the eBay seller what the difference between Active and Passive for those battery Indicators and will be ordering one in all yellow and if he can do one that the bottom line can be yellow and change to red when the battery is just about dead.(I think that may have something to do with the "Passive & Active)
Gotta love plug n play.
Rich
@RichiesRC - You're welcome!
Yeah, I know what you mean about the Chinese site. Google Translate didn't help much there... I don't know how he did it either... BUT! If I were going to use a LCD Unit off a digital photo stand I'd keep it simple.
What I mean is that some of those digital photo stands are almost mini-media centers at this point with the ability to do slide shows and play media files. I'd use that functionality if I could without modification and create a series of animated GIF files for the Solar Charge Level animation and play those in an ordered slide show where each animated GIF slide removed one more bar from the Solar Charge Level.
If I couldn't use animated GIFs in a slide show, I'd create a video media file doing the same Solar Charge Level animation and just play that over and over.
That way you (and I) wouldn't need to create complex circuits. We could just utilize the built-in functionality of the digital photo stand itself. Seems you've got a plan already you're happy with, but I just wanted to throw out a way it could possibly be done with the existing digital photo stand functionality.
If you hear back from the eBay seller about what the difference between Active and Passive (that was my first question when I read your post) is for those battery Indicators and how to wire them up, I'd like to know too. Thanks and nice work on your scratch-built Wall-E so far! cool
@JT I still have not herd back from the eBay seller and might contact him again as he probably had no clue was I was asking as some(many) of the Chinese sellers do have trouble understanding us, even when you try to keep it simple, I did send a couple of drawings to him to help but maybe he just thought the whole email was some kind of spam.
I now see how the panel on that other Wall-e works but seems to be a lot of work/money just for a battery Indicator but great idea, Walll-e could even play his favourite movie on it.
I'll quickly tell you how my panel will work. I'm having a vinyl sticker made up by my local sign writer of the panel in reverse image that will be stuck the back of a thin acrylic panel (all scratched up on the front side)and the led's/bar graph will be mounted behind that with small dividers to keep the light confined to it's area. I could even be operated by a micro servo (a shutter type of thing with the servo programmed to cycle extremely slow but don't think I will go that way.
Once again thanks to everyone for their input and help so far.
Rich
I've seen battery chargers that have led bar.level meter built in , you could install the board and remote mount the leds and replace them with all yellow LEDs
This is a smart charger , charges 12 or 6v it has indicator LEDs for charging and 25% 50% 75% 100% charge levels. Since all these are is LEDs you could solder up yellow bar LEDs. This could double as a build in battery charger too , maybe this is a option for you? You would need to attach a ground from batt and 12v or 6v pos to the dc side after the transformer converts household current to dc. Sounds complicated but its two wires.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Noco-Genius-G1100-Compact-Smart-Battery-Charger-6v-12v-RV-Trailer-/320789700748?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item4ab08e608c
@jstarne1 Thanks good idea, will look into it. The only thing is that Wall-e' main power supply is a 3 cell 11.1 volt lipo and it must be charged on a balance charger but it could charge the the smaller NiMh pack but that ,if all goes right will be solar charged.
I read another post "How To Light An Led Strip" about using a separate power supply and switching transistor, as the drive servos(converted) are large and will probably draw quite a lot of current this sounds like the way to go with them but as I've said my electronics skills are limited, I'm fine if I have wiring diagrams and component lists or could i just use a switching BEC and just connect the signal wire to the EZ-Robot board? The rest of the servos will be fine on 5 volts.
Rich
Ohh will try and get some more done on Wall-e this weekend. finish his back and start to give him some detail. Will post more pics soon. Would have liked to have that done by now but have had to fix the real car(replace brakes and the power steering) I hate working on cars and there went the cash for the EZ, so will have to wait a week or 2 before I can purchase that
Phoebe is at her Mums this weekend so will be able to get stuck right in.(she lives with me full time and sees her Mum fortnightly, long story and not going there)
Rich
If I read it correctly the passive one will light up the display relative to the input voltage. So if you pump the full 5v in you get a full display, if you have 2.5V you get half a display etc... The Active one needs 5V supply and a reference input. I am ordering the passive one because I am lazy
There is a guide on here somewhere about fitting the LED to a DO to make it come on through the EZ-B, I am sure that DJ will have already put some kind of DO with a reference to the EZ-B supply voltage, if not, WHY NOT!
KISS, and you can't get much simpler than this!
regards
Darren
Nice work RichiesRC. Another Australian as well
Hi guys, Just found this LED indicator that is fully programmable and can be made with all yellow LED's and the seller got back to me straight away so I might go with this one, might have to mod it slightly but because it is going behind the vinyl sticker it will look like a bargraph anyway. And this one is truly plug n play.
Ebay link:
6v 12v 24v LED battery monitor level meter indicator
Ohh and thanks Creativita. and thanks for the info on the Active and passive bargraph Djandco
Hey guys,
The best contact for the LED Bar Meters is below. I also asked the same questions regarding the passive & active models.
"From jeniffer at barmeter.com:
Hi Manuel, The active detection needs power supply and 3 lines,which is the low of signal connected with the negtive of power supply,it can measure voltage and current.While the passive detection is no power supply,it just need 2 lines,it can measure the voltage,which is used in the display of battery power. Enclosed you will find the PDF of AS110P-2712S(Actived) and AS110PN-2712S(Passive). Hope this can resolve your question. Best Wishes Yours faithfully jeniffer Yin Barmeter Electronics Co., Ltd. "
I also asked about how to get a LED meter to monitor my specific power source (in my case 7.4V). Looks like you just specify your power source voltage & they will make it accordingly when you order.
This is her reply:
"Hi Manuel, You can go to our ebay store,and auction what you want,then you could give us a message ,tell us the power supply,input signal and color. When we receive it,we will confirm to you again,and we will produce for you as your request upon receipt of your confirmation and payment,is it clear? Our ebay store is :http://stores.ebay.com/ledbargraph?_trksid=p4340.l2563 Your any reply and question are highly welcomed. Best Wishes Yours faithfully Jeniffer Yin Barmeter Electronics Co., Ltd. "
I wonder if we could ask them to custom build a LED Bar meter for Wall-e?