Sorry Dave, I had a big day at NASA today and my wife has plans for me tonight so I won't have time to add pictures of my setup tonight. I should be able to in a few days.

Steve

No Hurry at all Mr. Armstrong... err.... Neal, I'm mean Steve. Take your time. The wife's plans come first and in front anything robot related. That is if we want to stay happy following our robot dreams. LOL. It's good to know nothing is different even if you live on the other side and at the bottom of this fine earth. Damm, I think I hear my wife calling. Later.............

Hi Dave,

Here's a few photos of my setup with regards to the radar motor and ear motors

Thanks for the pics with the labels Steve. Man, that's one clean build! Very impressive and I'm kinda embarrassed with my messy wire filled CSS now. I'm so glad things are working now for you.

I have a couple off topic questions if your willing to answer;

Have you had the torso in place with the CSS and the EZB sealed inside? If so have you experienced any connection problems? I see your EZB is mounted on the second shelf down. That would place inside the torso and depending on your WIFI signal direction you may have lots of metal and devices between it and your router. I was afraid of this same issue so I have my two EZB's mounted on the top shelf to get the most unobstructed signal possible. One EZB is for all the torso and head robot functions along with sound streaming. The other EZB just runs both arms. I was also worried with two EZB's being so close to each other that the WIFI radio signals would interfere with each other. I have each mounted about 5 inches apart and there seems to be no issues with interference. However I was having trouble at first with one EZB connecting and not the other. I set a static IP address for each EZB in my router and also have and Engenius Access Point that they attach to. That gives me very strong signal strength close to the robot. Once I did these two things I have had no issues with connections.

The second question; When your radar rotates back and forth (along with the bubble lifter pipe that runs down through the CSS) do you exuberance the collar twisting with the movement and unlocking it's self? I see you have a hook latching system for your collar to lock it down the CSS. I assume you set the collar down on your CSS and twist it in place to secure it. My Collar tend to move a little when the radar rotates and after a while I need to re-lock it in place. After viewing Chris P's HD pictures on his DVD I see the orignal B9 had a clip and screw in the very rear where the collar joined to the torso. I bet it's there to keep this from happening when Bob May used his head to move the radar back and forth and bubble up and down. I plan to add this clip and screw to keep my collar in place.

Third question. What are you using in the center of your CSS to guide the Bubble Lifter pipe. It looks like a PVC fitting. I'm also using a PVC fitting but it's much more bulky and bigger. I had problems with binding and had to do a lot of sanding and aligning from level to level. It was a pain but is heavy duty and solid now. I'm not sure if it was really necessary to go that HD and was a pain in the but. LOL.

Anyway, Nice work and please keep in touch. I'm very interested in your path.

Have fun!

Hi Dave,

I haven't forgotten about you. Been busy again. I took a bunch of pictures last night to help answer your questions but i need to sort them and label them yet.

I should be able to spend more time to upload the pics and answer your questions tonight.

Steve

Thanks Steve. No worries my friend. No hurry either.

Hi Dave,

With regards to the EZB mounted inside the torso, yes I have had the torso on with seemingly few problems with connection. Sometimes It does disconnect from the router but the router is installed way up the other end of the house and the robot is down the other end. I do want to upgrade my router and move it to a more central location in the house as I have had some problems with the laptops in the house disconnecting or having a poor signal also from the router. This sort of leads me to question of my own. Every time I run the INIT script, It wont connect. I then have to scan in the Connection box in ARC to find the EZBs and the addresses always have changed since the last time I connected them (From one day to another). I think you may have answered this question in your above post when you said you set a static IP address in the router for each EZB. Not sure if this is the answer or even how to do it.

My radar doesn't seem to loosen the collar from the CSS with radar movement. Just luck I suppose. (More unicorn than class). My collar has three locating blocks which fit into slots cut into the top shelf of the CSS and they fit snuggly between the torso top ring and the CSS. Also the metal hooks are snug as well and when I locate the collar onto the hooks I need to give the collar a quick twist to lock in the hooks. Seems to be firm enough not to twist off.

EDIT: (more unicorn than class).......? Wait.. What? That's not what I typed... rhymes with class though... Laughed my unicorn off!

The center guide in the CSS for the neck tube was again, more luck than good planning I originally had a piece of PVC pipe that fitted perfectly through the hole in the radar and of course use that for the neck tube of the bubble lifter. I was however going to have to make some sort of guide for the neck tube in the CSS as I couldn't find anything to fit the pipe which would allow it to slip through. I also had made my own neck bracket from modified PVC pipe fittings and acrylic that fitted the pipe. I mounted a plastic Brain cup, (From Fred B.), to that and a beautiful laser cut metal brain, (made by a local B9 Builder). I have since decided to replace the plastic brain cup and neck bracket with a Norm S. aluminum ones... but the new neck bracket was too small to mount properly into my PVC neck tube. tired So I bought some slightly smaller PVC tube for the neck (I did need to heat it and stretch it to fit the Norm's neck Bracket), but this change in pipe brought about an unexpected bonus. Before with the larger pipe, I couldn't find anything to fit it for the center guide in the CSS. With this new pipe, I found a flange that fitted it perfectly with enough clearance to allow the pipe to slide up and down with no binding. I have two of them, one in the CSS and one in the radar. I spent ages in the hardware store fiddling with pipes and fittings until I found parts that would work together. The flange was intended to fit into a larger pipe, (not have a smaller pipe pass through it), and the pipe was from a different range of pipes. Some pipes use internal measurements and some use external measurements. I just mixed and matched until I found something that would fit all my needs.

Anyhow, I think I have waffeled on long enough Here are some pictures of some of my work

Steve

Holy cow. I'm speechless. The CSS and everything that has gone into it is a work of art. You're a very talented guy. It's a shame you will be bottling it all up inside the torso. The for-planning that had to have gone into this must have taken you a very long time. You obviously know what our doing.

Thanks for sharing.