Here is a robot arm made by an EZ-Robot intern. You could certainly do something similar with parts from JD, using his head instead of the smaller camera, and just a few other parts (I think you might want a rotation servo and a mounting plate to attach the arm to some kind of base).

https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/6844

And one that @bhouston made from 3D printed parts:

https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/6916

What part of Virginia are you in? I am in Maryland, near DC and I have a bunch of extra EZ-Bits and other parts. I might be interesting in getting together for a day to collaborate on something.

How old are your kids?

Alan

Hey, that's a good idea. A kit from ez robot that let's you build several robots or anything else you can think up. Kinda like Lego or Tinker Toys. You can call it EZ Robot's Tinker Bots kit! I love it!

While I've not got around to it I did order a load of extension blocks, lever servos and rotation servos for just playing around with. Straight away out of the box I built a snake without even realising it

Throw the kids a bunch of servos and a bunch of extension cubes and see what they make, just like Lego.

I'm barely remember, but when I 3D printed the extension blocks, they didn't turn out good. I was hoping the files were setup so that they was download, print, and go. But I think mine didn't come out so well. The robot head did ok.

So I agree, if there were more items/kits to pick from the ARC software, then the kids would probably enjoy it more as they would have something to follow and build. For example, (I could be wrong), the BiLoid kit allows you to build different things out of the box.

Thanks for the link to the robot arm, that's what I had remembering seeing. Guess I could try to get the kids into this one, but I don't have all the parts. Its a good idea for sure.

My kids are 11(boy) and 9 (girl).

Another member printed me some parts to convert lever servos to rotation servos (I have too many of one and not enough of the other), and they do need a bit of sanding or filing to fit. The tolerance on the clip and play bits is pretty tight.

That is why I asked where in Virginia you are. If in Norva, I would be happy to bring my box of parts, and my modified Roli over and we can see if they are interested if they have more stuff to work with before you invest more in parts that they might not wind up wanting.

I have most of what we would need to build an arm without scavenging anything from your JD - Servos, extension blocks, claws, camera, EZ-B. I don't have the SIX base, but I have a mounting plate we could screw down to a piece of board or something.

It the kids like what we built enough they want to keep it, you could just pay me for the parts and I can re-order replacements from EZ-Robot.

If you don't want to narrow down your location in public, we can move the conversation to email: alan@thetechguru.net

Alan

You won't be able to make the exact robot arm as we did, because you will be missing a few parts that we used (extension blocks and rotation servo).

But, you can be creative and make a robot arm yourself! If you'd like to see an example of we did - the project is available in the App Store or you can click on the AppStore in this website.

Look at the top menu under COMMUNITY and there is a menu option that says "Robot AppStore". Press it and there are robot apps.

to install the apps, use ARC and press OPEN in the EZ-Cloud menu option.

What exactly comes with the: Hexapod Body (includes battery) $69.00 USD

It just says 1 body and 12 connectors. Which connectors/blocks?

The 12 connectors are on the body.

But are the 12 connectors an "Extension Cube" or an "Extension Block" or something else. Trying to be specific so I know exactly what comes with that base unit and what else I would need to order.

They are connector slots on the body itself. Not cubes or extensions. Cubes, extensions, servos, or anything else with a clip and play clip can connect to it.

Alan

I changed the wording to "Connections" instead of "connectors" to clarify - thanks for the heads up

You do not necessarily need the hexapod body - if you will be disassembling JD, I would recommend using his body. The children can get creative and use a hot glue gun with popsicle sticks to create a base.

The plastic of the revolution robots will allow hobby grade (low heat) hot glue to peal away. I would avoid getting the hot glue in the connectors, because that might not be fun

You can also draw on the plastic as well - even with a sharpie! It simply washes away with whiteboard eraser spray. We draw on ours all the time...

@69developer.

I was just reading through your thread and thought I would offer up a couple of ideas for yourself and your children. Just to add to what DJ mentioned above, some time back (before I discovered EZ-Robot) I made some robots with my niece and nephew when they came to visit, using some old R/C cars and lots of plastic containers and cardboard. Below are a few pics of what we came up with...

Made using an old mini vacuum cleaner, ice cream container, cardboard, an old MP4 player, and foam.

Sorry for the bad photo quality, it's the only picture I have. He was made using printing paper, cardboard, drink bottle caps, and a broken clock radio.

This one never really go finished as the Dalek took over. He was made of a cardboard cell phone box, plastic milk bottles, plastic biscuit box, ice cream container, and cardboard.

The Darlek is my favourite (and a bit of self indulgence), and made completely of recycled parts. Cardboard, old marker pens, peace's of foam, deodorant can lid's, old wireless web cam, and various other bits and peaces. Dalek BOB Instructable

All the bits we used were rescued from my recycle bin. Empty milk bottles, ice cream tubs, breakfast boxes, R/C cars and tanks with their servos, the only thing I really paid for was for the paint. So to get back to your original question "Using The Jd Kit, What Other Projects Have People Built?", as I said, these are not EZ-Robots (although I thinking of rebuilding the Dalek using a development kit), but using your JD (or any of the other Revolution bots or Parts) you could consider doing something similar. For example...

Remove the camera and RGB display from the JD head to put in your own robot head and use the servos to make your own pan and tilt neck,

Use the servos as arms and make paper or cardboard limbs to cover,

Make a single manipulator arm,

Use lever servos to act as actuators to deploy and retract things like a torch,

Use servos to open flaps on a robot body to reveal his insides,

Order and add a couple of modified continuous rotation servos and wheels for a drive base,

the possibilities are endless. And using sturdy plastic containers, small holes can be cut (adult supervision of course) for EZ-Bits to connect to.

This way your son and daughter can use their creativity to make something they would really like, have fun with the building process, and a sense of achievement with what they built, all using the JD robot and items you already have laying around the house. My sisters kids loved doing these projects, and when they got bored with the robot, they would make a new one with a different design using the same servos ect. Cheap, fun, educational, and great to see what the kids come up with.

I'm currently making a project up-cycling items and using the development kit, scorpion kit and a few extra servos and sensors, which I will showcase in a couple of weeks. Anyway, I hope this have given you some ideas of something yourself and the kids could do together using what you have, and maybe you could build a robotic arm using similar methods.

Hope some of this helps and gives you some ideas what you could do with your JD.

The robot arm the EZ-Robot has on their website in which the Intern helped with is something the kids are interested in doing. DJ, do you have detailed instructions similar to the JD robot to make this robotic arm? I'm gonna try and let the kids do this one by themselves.