BRAD (My First EZB Robot)

It's an interesting toy to customize! I had one in the past. Have you thought to mount the collision sensor ping? better if you can do to turn sideways with one side used to detect obstacles. You're going to replace the engine of the arms, with servos? If you use a servo to move the torso, must be very powerful, you could mount a continuous rotation servo modified for gear and connect it to the torso, and control with the modified servo control ARC. Well, that looks good robot to pick up objects with their hands.

Ya, I have been toying whether to mount the ping sensor just under the table and only have the two circles (transmitter and receiver) sticking out while having the rest of the board inside the bot. or if I should do a collision control with a servo. The collision would be more practical although less stock looking. As for the torso, I have a sproket and chain set that will hopefully allow me to move the torso with a less powerful servo. (its the same one radmeck used here ) The head also doesn't look like it moves on its own so that is going to be another challenge, because i would like for it to be able to move side to side.

Well I finished the tread mounting problem and am ready to use hot glue to mount my servos for the base. Ill do it tomorrow, right now i have to head to work.

PS: sorry for the crappy vid quality, my cell phone doesn't take good pictures or video

dude nice work!! That looks like it'll be a pretty wicked robot!!!

How are you enjoying the ez-b?

I was one of the ones who it took almost forever (it seemed) to get their ez-b, I just think it helped build the suspense. The ez-b is working great so far. (I didn't get the arduino shield things but I don't quite think i'll need them for this project)

As for Brad, I am in the midst of soldering the speaker to some servo wires (btw i found just the ends because i have a bunch of wire at my local hobby shop) and soon going to hook up the lighting on the face too. I did hit a little snafoo; I was working on the lights trying to strip the wire and I pulled to hard and one of the bulb element pulled out of the rest of the bulb so i have to think how to fix that.

The arduino sheilds weren't packaged for a lot of the ez-b's over teh past month or two. I had purchased all of the hardware for the v3's but we still haven't received the pins for the arduino shields. I'll send them out to anyone who requests one. I'll post a message and send out emails to everyone soon as it's sorted out

Hey, so I put most of the rest of the robot together and started doing some preliminary testing. All was going well, then the head fell off. The hot glue didn't hold. I took the head off and continued testing the base with the body of brad still on it. After a few minutes one of the drive servos (continuous rotation) also came unglued. Both are easy fixes by themselves. But I kinda would like them to be a little more permanent than 5 min of testing. Does anyone have any hot gluing tips? I'm gluing the drive servos to a level plastic surface while the head doesn't really have a support structure. The head servo is held up by the head and then glued to the side of the neck to stop the servo from rotating instead of the head.

Sorry it's been a while since I have posted. I am currently dealing with the loss of my second grandparent this year.

We are very sorry for your loss. Losing a loved one is never easy.

That's sad to hear. I feel for your loss also.

Hot glue tip: Scratch the smooth plastic surfaces so the glue holds better. Make sure you are not using hot glue for wood only. Attach things when the glue is still hot. Don't use hot glue. Buy some small 6/32 or similar threaded machine screws and nuts, washers and lock washers (to keep vibration from loosening the nuts)

Also instead if taking out motors that control the body and arm, use them! Just control them using a motor controller board. Search eBay and google for Arduino motor control or Arduino relay may work. Also try gorilla tape with the glue(after the glue dries) for added support.

Visit harborfreight.com and visit that store to get cheap tools and ideas.

Be sure to "window shop" at true value, lowes, Walmart, any hardware store. Look at tools and materials, electronics, toys, everything so that you can solo brainstorm with yourself and fill your head full of ideas.

And after you tried everything else, The last thing to do is: Don't give up.

TheGoodRobot

Thank you TGR, I used the scratch method, and that seemed to work quite well. So far it seems to be holding.

Have you thought of using LEDs instead of the lights that came on the bot? A lot more durable and less power drain. Plus they will last forever. I really like your bot. I had one of those in my younger days (I was still an adult haha, just younger). I also started using 5 minute plastic epoxy (Lowe's or Home Depot) to mount my servos. It is super strong but is kind of a pain to remove.

I actually just did actually! I was mounting my wires to the existing lighting and broke the eye light. So I ended up having to replace the bulbs with some bright LEDs. ( think the LED's look better anyways )

I haven't been able to work on my bot for a while, but I am going to get back on it in the next two weeks or so.

I am finally back to working on BRAD. I do have a question. I am looking into using a hbridge (probably the new one for sale here) and I am wanting to use it to control the arms of my robot. The system is already in place i just need to attach some wires and get the motor controller. I do have a question though. While I was messing around with the latest ARC. I noticed that I can't have a servo Movement Panel for the base and a control for the motor controller to activate the arms. Is there a solution that I am not seeing?

You can only have one Movement Panel at a time.

If you need to control an HBridge for arms, etc - I suggest you create a script and talk to the BV directly. A script for Left Arm Up, Left Arm Down, Right Arm Up, Right Arm Down. And in each script, send the raw commands to the hbridge.

*note: a Movement Panel would be useless for arms anyway. Sure you can connect two motors to it, but when you don't have seperate control with a movement panel. It's either both on one way, both on the other way, or both opposite ways.

You need to send custom commands

jamerperson,

Awesome BOT! It sounds like things are moving along very nicely. I also have started work on a RAD 2.0 as well. I am sorry your head fell off on your bot...! My first modification was to the head. I used a few pieces of lego and hot glue. I mounted the servo on the arm piece that connects both RADs arms (on the inside). The servo has a small piece of lego (one of the round barell pieces) glued to a servo adapter. I then used a lego 'rod' to extend it up through the head of the RAD. The head of the rad has a small opening. I used hot glue and another straight piece of lego to span across the opening (so it will move the head). The rod goes through the lego and is connected to another round piece which is glued to the straight piece of lego. When you put his head back on, it goes into the original head grooves as the RAD head moved when it was stock but not as far as you may want. You can adjust this if you like by modifying the plastic ring (that goes into the front/back chest plate grooves. I did have to loosen the screws that screw the plastic ring to the head so the head moves easier in the grooves. I may put a little white grease in the grooves to reduce friction when the servo is moving the head.

Here are my pics and a short vid. I hope they can help. Its Gonna Be RAD

I have an H bridge on the way for the track motors and will put a servo in for the gear box shifter. I am planning to get another H bridge for the arms and waist movement and will have to script that manually as DJ describes above.

How do you plan to mount your ping sensor. Right now I am thinking about putting it where the Tray went but will be experimenting with that.

Right now I am planning on a camera and upgrades lights. While I like that stock look, I am going all out for a new look and maybe even a paint job.

I look forward to seeing your progress....Nice Work!

(I just realized you have RAD 1.0 eek .....I think RAD 2.0 was fairly simular and hope you can use some of the stuff I did with my RAD 2.0.)

@kkeast I wish I would have done a h-bridge for the tracks, instead i am just using modified servos that are running direct to the tracks. As far as the head, i had a weird idea. Since hot glue wasn't strong enough to hold the head on, tape would be worse... OH WAIT the servo's come with screws to hold them in place!!! I attached two screws and mounted the servo to it. ( i will reinforce with hot glue)

For the ping sensor, I would like to hide it under the tray to be as inconspicuios as possible. I will probably mount it on a small servo and use it in radar mode. maaaaybe even cutting a small rectangle directly under the tray (mine has a RAD sticker the exact size/location i want to cut) and put it so the sensor is actually inside and not showing as much.

I don't think I am going to paint mine but i do think I want to add a "B" somehow. I was going to call it RAD 2.0 then i found out there is such a thing.

@Jamer Person,

Most people do not know that there are several types of hot glue. The one that holds the least is the clear type. They also make the sort of Cream colored ones. Those are the ones that hold forever. I haven't purchased any of the cream colored ones lately. I don't know where to look for them, but I know that they really hold good.

I would like to see more pictures of your robot. Is it a B9 head that you have on it? It looks cool.

Oh, you can also reinforce the hot melt glue with Silicone caulking for bathtub. This comes in white or clear. It is the same strength for both colors. It has to dry over night.

Hope this helped.

Mel