United Kingdom
Asked — Edited

This Is Not The Normal Forum Thing

Hello, I'm wondering if someone could give me a little advice as i'm totally new to robots and funds are very limited. Here is the story...

I saw a little robot on youtube called cosmo, he seemed great, except he very small and works on android and is a bit pricey and I don't have android. I then see a robotis Darwin thing and was amazed till I see the price omfg! Then I see the jd robot, but can't afford and didn't really like the look of him. Then i see a vid with someone using a 17 dof robot( i dont know what dof means but it was cheap and looked cool) and he was using cheap servos with an ez robot brain although the brain is my computer if i read the thing right. i have a friend on secondlife that keeps telling me to use arduino cos she bought a kit and dont know how to work it.

so, i have a couple of robot questions..

1, could an arduino with wi fi use my computer as a brain to save on costs 2, do those cheap servos on ebay actually work (MG996R it's what the metal skeleton thing wants) 3, would it be possibe to make it act like cosmo, cheeky and troublesome.

i have done security work so know about pir sensors, vibration detector, soldering iron, and meter and did get a cisco ccma once. i'm used to working with 12 volt but i can adapt.

p.s. sorry if i'm rambling, i been on the homebrew beer lol, and the guy on here making the full size B9 robot OMG it's awesome! it even powers down when you pull the key thing out.


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#1  

Quote:

17 dof robot( i dont know what dof means but it was cheap and looked cool)
dof = degrees of freedom. Basically a count of how many bends or hinges..

Quote:

1, could an arduino with wi fi use my computer as a brain to save on costs
Not really. An arduino is a self contained computer with input/output ports to control things like servos. But it is not a very powerful computer, and requires some programming skill to use. They are good for simple (or even complex) repetitive tasks, but not those that take a lot of thinking. They can be controlled via a serial port connnected to a PC (or even an EZ-B) to take processor load off the computer for those kinds of tasks, but the robots you can make with them are limited.

Quote:

2, do those cheap servos on ebay actually work (MG996R it's what the metal skeleton thing wants)
Sometimes.... A lot of cheap clones that are not very good, a lot that are just fine. If you go with EZ-B though, buy your servos from them. The EZ-B HDD servos are excellent, and run on 7.5 volts, so you can use Lipo batteries without voltage regulators to knock them down to 5v.

Quote:

3, would it be possibe to make it act like cosmo, cheeky and troublesome.
Yes. ARC software can do everything cosmo can and much more.

Alan

PRO
Canada
#3  

The typical 17 DOF kit you find on eBay is often nothing more than a frame (think mechano) without simplistic Servos or software. There are some 17 DOF kits that include clone Servos but your mileage may vary.

Darwin is expensive because he has expensive dynamixel Servos that provide auto positioning but the software is inferior to ARC because ARC crowd sources development and allows anyone to contribute code. ARC actually supports the same dynamixels as Darwin.

ARC is certainly a great place to start. You may want to begin with a dev kit or a simple robot but your investment remains whole as you can add peaces later and grow into new robotics projects.

PRO
Belgium
#4  

rick b9

hi did you ask yourself .what must the robot do for you ?

PRO
Belgium
#5  

rick b9

can you post the video you saw 17 dof?

#6  

the guy on here making the full size B9 robot OMG it's awesome! it even powers down when you pull the key thing out. 

Well, I'm that guy. Thanks so much for the kind words. I'm glad I was able to provide some wonder for you. Before I started building this B9 I was just like you. A very new newbie. I knew nothing about robotics, servos or how to control them. I found the video on YouTube with the founder of EZ robot building a toy Wall-E and controlling him with this new robot platform. I thought wow! Now that's exactly what I need to control my B9 robot. And it sounds just like something I could understand and use. Unlike Arduino where I would have to spend years Learning how to code just to get him to move around a little. I fully admit and take pride in the fact that I can build things pretty well but when it comes to animating them with robotics I'm still an amateur. My B9 robot is just Testament to what Easy Robot can do to easily bring robots to life for guys like you and me.

Do yourself a huge favor and buy the development kit from the store here at EZ Robot. It's very affordable and has everything you'll need to start tinkering around in robotics. Start small and work your way up. This is one of the great things about the EZ robot platform, you can make your robot as simple as you want or as complex. I've seen a few people here make Easy Robot robots out of paper boxes and bags and they look and act really cool. I've seen other people make ezb robots that would be the Envy of Star Trek that are equally as cool.

Just have fun!:D Oh, and have another beer! ;)