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Asked — Edited

Remotely Power On Or Off Revolution Robots?

Hello - I am mostly paralyzed from Lou Gehrig's disease and I won't be able to turn my Roli on or off to use it when I am home alone. My house is fully automated so I can be left alone for a few hours at a time. Is there a plan or a way to do this seemingly simple task? Robotics for the disabled is a largely untapped field. I performed a few searches but came up empty. Thank you in advance for your replies.


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#10  
It sounds like an adaptation is in the near future! The ability to do this would be a huge deal for me and it sounds as if there is some interest in the community. To give an example of how I envision using the Roli is, someone comes to my door, I turn on, or wake up Roli and drive him to the door which is opened using a remote controlled door opener, I can now see and speak to the person at the door. They will freak out by being greeted by a robot! It will be AWESOME! Thank you! I have a friend that is in the electronics field that helps me with this stuff. He is always wondering what I will come up with! He won't see this coming, if I need any help!
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Synthiam
#11  
The lower power mode is enabled when there are no devices connected. It's a feature of the EZ-B v4:)

Also, due to the power supply being a Switching Power Supply, there is no heat during idle - therefore low energy consumption.

In this video, I talk a bit about the power supply that we created...
#12  
Wonderful! I would have my caregiver turn it on before she leaves, connect to it when I want or need to use it and disconnect when I am through and it is in low power mode. Brilliant!
Canada
#13  
Gotta luv that low power consumption in the EZ-4. Revolution is also ..."green" awesome DJ
United Kingdom
#14  
Hi stelmobarry and everyone else.

Funnily enough I had a similar thought to you, of doing something along these lines on my current build. I don't have my EZ-B v4 just yet but expecting it soon, so I have not had the chance to physically look at one. Can someone tell me how the EZ-B4 power button works, i.e is it a click ON/click OFF switch or a momentary ON/OFF switch?

I did some web searching and came across this on the Amazon UK site, something similar to what thetechguru found which I was curious about.
Remote control switch

Does anyone know, could something like this be connected to the EZ-B power switch or even bypass the switch completely and play nice with each other? Obviously it will need it's own power supply but a battery should last a long time between charges. If this was to work it would be a relatively simple and inexpensive fix to create a neat and useful feature for robot users from all walks of life.

Steve.
United Kingdom
#15  
The V4 doesn't have a power button itself. I believe the revolution robots have power switches though.

The power switch/button on a custom build could be anything you want it to be. I have a simple toggle switch on one bot, Melvin doesn't have a switch at all and my test bot I just unplug the battery to shut it down.
#16  
In basic terms, the V4 board doesn't have an on/off switch... just a standard 2.1 barrel plug connector... Plug it in and it powers up...
United Kingdom
#17  
Sorry, my mistake about the power button. *blush* . Just watched JD's video about EZ-b power.

youtu.be/NilxwE9KV6I

Steve.
Canada
#18  
One Idea I have that I want to do with scraps is use a push on/off button and have a solenoid push it that will be plugged into a low power RF remote controller setup that way you could use some thing like a garage door remote to trigger it on and off
United Kingdom
#19  
Why not just use the low power RF controller to short the connection of the switch or switch a relay? Adding in a solenoid to push a switch seems like over complicating things to me.
Canada
#20  
If you use a push on/off switch triggered by a solenoid it should use way less power
United Kingdom
#21  
@ rich. That was what I was thinking for stelmobarry's bot. Simply bypass the power switch on the roli with something like the remote I supplied the link to, which should use very low power consumption. Would something like that work him?

Steve.
United Kingdom
#22  
@wolfy, Are you sure about that?

A MOSFET based switching circuit to simulate a button push will used extremely little power. With the correct latching circuit for the power (i.e. a push on/push off type circuit similar to that of a PC power switch) the circuit will only require energising for a fraction of a second. A solenoid is effectively a motor, these are known for having very low efficiency. Not to mention the possibility of mechanical failure.

@steve, it should work. It's a circuit I've been wanting to get on to looking in to for some time now but never had the chance to do so.
Canada
#23  
A relay or transistor will draw constant power when the bot is powered up
A solenoid only uses power for a moment and the controller will only use a tiny amount of power when on standby plus relays can cause other problems like power spikes though the ez-b
United Kingdom
#24  
At worst it would draw minimal power while the robot is on and no power while off. Yes you would need a latching circuit rather than a mechanically latching switch but the current draw of that would be barely noticeable and it would eliminate any possible mechanical failings, not to mention would look a whole lot better (i.e. it would be invisible or totally hidden while leaving the push switch accessible for manual operation)
Canada
#25  
But it needs to be triggered remotely that's the most important part to be completely remote
United Kingdom
#26  

User-inserted image


Further details on this circuit

Something along these lines. This one even allows the EZ-B to turn itself off. This is just an example, there are other circuits which could also be used. You can also have a remote RF controlled switching circuit run along side it to simulate the push button for remote operation.
Canada
#27  
Hello I found a Simple RF Receiver that should be small enough to fit into most any robot just use a small transistor on the output should do the of a simple remote power switch
#28  
That is really slick @Wolfie. Of course the question that comes up is how much power is the receiver drawing, and is it any less than just leaving the EZ-B on (for v3, almost certainly, but v4 goes into low power mode when ARC is not connected). I am sure there will be uses for this in any event. Cheap enough I will probably oder one just to play with.

Alan
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