Asked
— Edited
I-Cybie And Possible Ez-B Conversion
I've been cleaning out the attic this morning, and found a box of goodies I forgot I had. In this treasure trove, I found an I-Cybie robot dog which, after charging the battery, still works.
It got me wondering how hard (if at all possible) would it be it take out the existing PCB, and change it for a v4. Does anyone know what kind of sensors and motors/servos the limbs use, or has anyone even tried to put an EZ-B inside of one of these things (successfully or unsuccessfully)
I'm a bit hesitant to take this little guy apart, but I am a little tempted to get the screwdrivers out this weekend and have a look.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts guys.
Hey DJ.
Yeah, the Dremel is sitting poised and ready. I was looking through some of the older threads a bit earlier with anything with "I-Cybie" in the text, and read your posts. I would say I'm supprised you didn't get around to doing it yourself... but then you have been rather busy
.
I agree it is a shame, and surprised me, that it doesn't have servos, as that would have made things far simpler, but hey, your servos should do the job nicely. Do you, or anyone know much about the existing sensors (voltage etc) that are inside the dog, and could they possibly be used with the v4's ADC ports?
I know the feeling.I have a working full size Femisapien I'd like to convert but haven't a good idea of how to start. The only thing I have assessed is that I will need to use mini, or even micro servos. The full size ones just aren't going to cut it.
And so it may be with yours. I think you will have to use smaller servos or try to drive the existing ones. The thing is, these toys are often not really a collection of individual servos but some servo-like motors connected by cables and linkages and springs. All of which tend to pop out when you are exploring it's innards. sick So, mine is in a "someday" collection for now. I think yours may be more doable, however.
The other challenge will be getting the EZB-4 in it. May require a disassembly of the EZB-4 itself to get it apart from it's shell and just a couple of bare boards. Also, it may require wires to be soldered directly to the port pins, or using smaller push-on connectors. When I was thinking about that for my project I thought perhaps I could just attach to the signal pin and run a pair of common power leads directly from the battery to the servo power inputs. That would reduce the wiring considerably.
Just a couple of thoughts. Happy gutting and modding!
@WBS.
This will certainly be a challenging one to do, simply because as you say, size constraints (with room for a battery as well). I think that I will get away with full size servos, maybe a couple of micros for the head pan 'n' tilt, although covering up the leg servos will require some thought. All part of the fun.
I'm going to shoot some video clips of it's walking gait and other movements to give me something to refer back to when setting up the Auto Position control goes it to overdrive.
NOTE:
This thread continues with the following link to the Project Showcase...
EDDIE. The I-Cybie and EZ-Robot Mogrel Robot Dog.