charleybot
Hello!
Since I started with the EZ-Robot controller, it's given me tons of ideas, a whole new outlook on robotics, and seeing what others are doing with the controller is really something!
For years I used to make prototype robots for people as a hobby(nothing special, just proof of concept type stuff) and I had stopped because all of the things of life just got too hectic(kids,wife,job,etc,etc). not too long ago one of those things unfortunately changed for me and now I am what my wife affectionately refers to as "Mr. Mom" and that's still a work in progress and I think it always will be...
Just this week I got in a few robots to work with:
Both the rad robots are fully functional and the Omnibot just had a bad main battery:
The Omnibot does not have any issues, and there was even a cassette tape still in it that still works(what the hec is a cassette tape anyways?)
Long story short I am still trying to decide what I am going to do with the OmniBot(the guy I got it from said it stopped working years ago, and now that it's working I feel kind of guilty hacking it up), but the Rad robots I am working on making the heads pan/tilt among other things.
One of my downfalls is that I couldn't cut a straight line if my life depended on it, and trust me many people have tried, so years back when I was prototyping I had purchased this:
It can cut up to 14"x14"x14", which I recently got out of storage and has been all setup and still works great. The ideas that come to mind.....
CNC Mill... Yum.
Alan
CNC? Jealous! I have to make do with a dremel and butt clenching moments when it grips and you pray to god you don't damage anything noticeable :)
I know what you mean about the omnibot, I've purchased a few bots now and cleaned them up / got them working so it pains me to hack them. Thanfully the Omni2k I'm working never worked when I got it, so I don't feel so bad about that one :)
Great that you are getting back into it. Look forward to see what you get up to and home I can learn something from your years of experience.
Wow! CNC! So many things you could do with it! What does the gold sticker on your Omnibot say?
@mattbrailsford - It was the only way I could build robots, my hand cutting skills are worse than anything, with the CNC mill it made it possible for me to start building robots, it took years to save up for it, and also took a while learning how to use it. Little rusty at it but it's coming back to me. I figure working on the Rad 1.0 will distract me from the OnmiBot, but it's probably going to be modded eventually :)
@MikeDC - I was looking at that before, it says CHOLMONDLEY, I have no idea if that was someone's label for it or what, but it looks like it was made to be there, either someone did a good job with the label or something else...
What all have you been cutting with your cnc mill? Wood? Metal?
I've always used PVC Plastic, price is cheap enough and it's easy to get, as well as wood, but I can also cut soft metals, but I would need to get a coolant setup to do that..
Personally I thought the rad robots are the easiest to hack and cheaper than omni
@jstarne - I think your right, especially after watching EBay with some of the prices, it get's crazy. Some people are paying over $300.00 for one.....
I got lucky and bought 2 for 250 and sold one to another member here for 150 and then sold some parts and pretty much paid for itself but it is a large investment. Sometimes you get lucky though. I think djs project and my Jarvis project has caused the price to go up because before I saw them regularly 100 to 150 before 2012
In the uk, the general going rate is about 30-40 for an omni but they are hard to find (and hardly ever in great condition). You do get the occasional one which thinks its worth the moon, but they tend to just hang around unsold.
That said, I checked my PayPal account last night and it looks like I have spent what can only be called a small fortune over the last couple of months on my collection, so it all adds up. Anybody want to buy some omnibot 2000 tires? :)
It seems lately that most of the omni's you see for sale, especially on ebay they are asking way too much, I mean $375.00 for one that doesn't work, missing parts, some of these people I don't know.
On a side note, something that made me breathe my coffee through my nose this morning, current listing for twinkees, someone is trying to sell a box of them for $5000.00?
Gee let me get right on that...
Four omnibot 2000 sold for 500 bucks 2 weeks ago, another omni 2000 for 100 bucks yesterday. Thats not too bad.
@MikeDC I saw the one that went for $100.00, I had looked at it, but what a mess, looked like it had sad outside for a few years and something was chewing at it....
I'm with Josh, I think the RAD bases are better to work with. Strong, tracked drive sections and not real expensive. And since we are modifying most everything on the bot anyway, what are we really looking for but a good drive section. I have an omnibot that I got for 25 bucks a year ago and he was a cool build (getting ready to mod him again), but any more I get the RAD bases.
I agree on the RAD bases, that's what i've been working with first and it's pretty simple to mod, I almost have the pan/tilt head done, but what did you guys do with the torso section where the motor is? I was going to use that for tilt and then just have the head pan back and fourth, but it's so sloppy I figured either a large servo or something else...