Have only been here as a member for a day now and quickly received great info from another member building an r2 from a Walmart r2 he purchased. A bit of background to my project... Always wanted an R2 since seeing the first Star Wars in 1977. Shows my age..lol Nevertheless, hasbro came out with the interactive R2 quite some time ago and I immediately scooped one up. While he could do just about everything I wanted in a robot, he isn't quite the size that I wanted and a few more bells and whistles would be nice but not completely necessary. That said I began this past summer building my own R2 from mixture of files I put together provided by the astromach building group and a pepakura group I belong to. I decided to build a 2:3 scale version because in all honesty I don't believe Lucas would've had r2 be 40+ inches had he not needed a person to be inside to control him back in the day. Plus, I just don't want one that big. So mine will be about 36" when its all done. Initial plan was to build him light weight using styrene, hdu signfoam, card stock paper for the details using pepakura,and fiberglass. Thought behind this was to do as light as possible so that I could use the insides of an interactive r2 to bring him to life and secondly... His weight would not be a safety issue should he run into something or someone. That said... The newer interactive r2 comes with a controller, many functions and has voice commands like my version all for $140.00. To build using the ezrobot that already places me well above the cost of the toys r us one. So what benefits would come from ezrobot over using the insides of an already fabricated r2?
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Sweet !.... Will be placing my order in the morning. The developer kit looks like it's the more cost effective way to go vs buying parts along the way. How many distance sensors can this thing handle? I really want to place two on both sides of the skirt, one in each foot... But that might be overkill. The camera of course will go in the head. And I assume the jumpers provide you with added wiring lengths to connect to the ezb?
@Jkcweber.... If you are using 2 pin pings (like the one in the developer's kit) you can use 12 if you want... If you use 1 pin pings (like the parallax ping) you could theoretically use 24...
Each EZ-B v4 has 24 digital ports, 8 analog ports, 3 I2C ports allowing 255ish I2C sensors, a serial port and a camera port. You can have up to 255 EZ-B controllers running from the same ARC app. You can interface with arduinos or PIC's. Honestly, I don't think it is possible to realistically outgrow what is possible.
@Jkcweber
I'm not sure if you are aware of it, but Brookstone is having a big sale on EZ-Robot parts. All the basic parts like servos and sensors are buy one get one free. Big savings right there. Also, one of the kits, the "Six" robot, is half off at $200. You might want to compare what you get with it vs. a developer kit. For example you'd get 12 lever servos (remove the levers and they become like the servos in the Development kit). It also includes a camera with housing and, of course the EZB-4 Brain/controller. The body of the Six unit can be used as the holder for the EZB-4. It comes with rechargeable battery to boot. The development kit, by comparison comes with a mounting base to which you have to add your own batteries.
So even if you don't build a Six robot with it, it's still a treasure trove of parts. With the BOGO sale on the parts you can mix and match parts as desired also.
Thanks for the heads up.... Checking it out online now.
Hi @jkc weber,
I said many will help guide you.
Have fun !
P.S. Six is a great way to go, and you get a cool robot to mess with while you are building your droid.
Ron R
Six doesn't come with any sensors that I read, but I suppose I can always get those relatively cheap separate. Not sure what I would do with all of the servos on my droid either, but I see where I could make a few things happen that I originally wasn't intending on. For motors to run the wheels... Since he'll be about 30lbs-40lbs when it's all said and done...what size DC motor should I look at? Trying to figure this out prior to getting to far into my build then attempting to figure out how to place things. Trying to somewhat plan ahead. Lol
Look at Steve G's "E4-B4 Build Diary". There you will get tons of ideas. I am sure you will get replies to advise you what motors to use. I was given some windshield wiper motors which will become drive motors on a future project.
The sensors can be gotten easily, so I still would point you toward the Six.
Ron R