Bobsheaux
USA
Asked
Is there a way to connect the tape player of an omnibot to the EZ-B or battery holder? It'd be awesome to have that retro piece of technology still operational amidst all the brand-spanking-new tech that's been retro-fitted into the body without having to hunt down (and figure out how to reconnect it to) one of those bulky battery packs it originally came with. I found a nice schematic of the robot from its user manual...
...but it's not terribly clear as to how it hooked up to its power source.
If you want it to actually work, it would need to be a stand alone system which you can simply apply power to. If you need to try and read the tape, play it through the ez-b and so on, probably not going to happen.
I would imagine a lipo could supply the needed current, just not sure on the voltage.
Share the motor wires with the hbridge and cassette pcb. Simply don’t disconnect the existing motor wires and tap into them instead.
That’ll leave both operational and have a toggle switch between their power. Because you wouldn’t want both on at the same time, as it’ll cause a short. One could be grounding the line while the other is outputting positive.
My Alexa project uses a highly modified Omnibot 2000. The robot has all of its original functions including the tape deck. The right arm still has the same remote functions. I modified left arm with servos connected to ezb. The drive base motors work as original . You can connect the motors to hbridge without disconnect anything internally. Use the auxiliary rca rear connectors to connect directly to the motors. There are 2 slides switches on panel to that. If you want to switch motor connection via ezb,you could use 2 relay boards in place of slide switches. The entire robot uses (2) 6 volt sla batteries. One for the omnibot and one for ezb. You can see my project in my profile.
"Share the motor wires with the hbridge and cassette pcb. Simply don’t disconnect the existing motor wires and tap into them instead."
To make sure I'm following what you're saying correctly, I can take one of your extension cables...
https://www.ez-robot.com/Shop/AccessoriesDetails.aspx?prevCat=103&productNumber=8
...and put one end into the EZ-B, and then wire it to where the cassette player would receive power?
That’ll leave both operational and have a toggle switch between their power. Because you wouldn’t want both on at the same time, as it’ll cause a short. One could be grounding the line while the other is outputting positive."
Actually, having both the EZ-B and the tape player on at the same time was EXACTLY what I was trying to accomplish. That wouldn't work? Also, could you explain further about the toggle switch, or grounding vs. outputting positive? (Wow, I am SO wet behind the ears here...)