Boris V2

BillDerwent

United Kingdom
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So after building a 'bot with EzB/Mecanno (Boris), I'd decided to up my game a little. Enter, Boris V2!

(Forgive the not-HD quality of the photos, I forgot to check my camera settings >.<)

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Dagu Rover 5, 4 motors + encoders. At this point, the channels are seperated off and the encoder wires are all secured out of the way.

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United Kingdom
#1  

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I opted for clear perspex (It still has it's scratch-proofing film on here, hence the scatty looking edges) as my mounting material. Cut and drilled, here is the dagu 4 channel motor controller mounted. The notches at the top (Boris' left side) and bottom (right) of the photo are for motor wires, and the barely visible notch on the left side (Rear) will be for the cables from the included battery pack.

United Kingdom
#2  

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Here is the dagu board mounted to the main base. You can see the motor cables and the power cables coming from beneath. It's mounted via 4 brass spacers, which have another 4 screwed in the top to give enough clearence for the EzB plate which will go above.

United Kingdom
#3  

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Here's the EzB plate. Battery pack, ezb, then an extension out of what will be the front, with a servo actuated mount for the ezb camera.

United Kingdom
#4  

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EzB plate mounted above the dagu plate. Secured to the brass spacers. The camera is mounted in the mounting bracket, with panning ability. I'd considered giving it tilt, but couldn't think of a neat design right now. That's on my future-list:)

United Kingdom
#5  

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The EzB > Dagu cabling. I considered many different ways of doing this, including breadboards and jumper leads, but eventually decided not to bodge it. They consist of two 1x3 pin connects going to one 1x4 pin connector.

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(Love spiral wrap!)

#7  

wow....(speechless)

this is a really cool project.

You might just see a boris imposter soon!

United Kingdom
#9  

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So I decided to prioritize the pan/tilt for the camera, while I wait for capacitors and voltage regulators for my power distribution board. I moved the entire system to the rear of Boris. Not only does this give a smaller footprint, it also allows me a greater range of view. I'd tried first with those lil' blue servos that come with pan/tilt brackets, but I never had satisfactory results. To wit, I opted for the bigger standard servos.

Hopefully my delivery will show up on Tuesday, so I can get on with wiring up the distribution board to power the EzB, Dagu board, dagu motors and, eventually, spotlight (Almost finished making), IR light (Finished, waiting for power) and under-bot neons (WIP).

From there, it'll be sensors time. I have LDRs already, which will be used to detect low light and automatically enable the main area lighting, with the direction spotlight optional.

I've been toying with the sonar, but I'm not sure on that. At this point, I'm not anticipating an automated bot, so the sonar seems unnecessary. But who knows!

(Plug!) As an aside, my soldering iron died. I think the element has had it, it's not been heating well for a while, so I had to purchase a new one. Solderpro 50 butane irons (Available from Sparkfun and Maplin, probably lots of places) are, I can confirm, fantastic for small jobs. If you've ever considered one, I can highly recommend them.

#11  

also, boris reminds me of a scorpion with that tail of his.

#12  

Any new pictures, can't wait to see what you have done. Now I wish I had not pitched my old E set of course that was 45 years ago. stress

Netherlands
#13  

I really like the cable management, it helps a lot :D

United Kingdom
#14  

Busy week so far, but will have photographs and (hopefully!) a video this weekend! It lives!

United Kingdom
#15  

As promised - although a little later than - here is a quick video of Boris in Action.