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Well, after a month of waiting for parts, a week of building a base, and a week of runnning wires and reading your community posts to ensure I don't set something on fire, Dopey came to life and made a couple of complete circles in the middle of the room.
I've captured many pictures over the last two weeks, and while he won't win any beauty pageants, it has been fun, and in the interest of sharing the experience, I'll be posting some pictures and commentary over the next few days.
-John
By jdmarsh50
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I hope to see some pics soon.
As a prototype, and anticipating the need to constantly move things around, I settled on a 15 inch pine circular tabletop, weighing in at 2.4 lbs. Cost was about 8 bucks.
(First time I have attached pictures. Hopefully I am doing this right).
I did some trimming on it to create "wheel wells", and so here is what the base now looks like.
He'll run on 7.2 volt motors and wheels from Parallax. Kit is about 80 bucks and seems to be very well made.
Wheels installed, and put a good loose caster on the rear. I have since added a second caster to the front.
Here he is with the underside somewhat complete.
And finally, I added a vertical wall and a horizontal shelf. The EZ-Board will go on the top shelf for now.
More pictures tomorrow.
-John
Looks like you are on your way to a fun robot.
To the rear of the shelf, I added a terminal block for power connections, then attached a 7.2 RC battery pack with a quick-disconnect.
Two HB-25 motor controllers were added to the front shelf. I moved the AA battery pack up top at this point, as real estate was filling up quickly.
Wired in the ultrasound sensor, tie strapped to a small post added to the front. He is now on "blocks" so he can be tested without running into something.
Power checks were all good. Wrote my first 5 line script last night. Wheels are turning using the PWM tags; the values I am using are kinda weird, but they were the same values I had to use on the slider control the night prior.
So far, so good.
-John
Nice job so far. I love the idea of using the tabletop as the base.
Jim
I also co-located all the power supply parts together into one area. Built a small panel out of sheet metal and added two toggle switches - power from the 6 AA batteries to keep EZ going, and the other powers the motor drivers.
-John
I have been showing my students just how easy it is to get up and running with the EZ-B... keep putting up those pictures so I can show them what you're up too!
Wayne
Technology Teacher in New Zealand
Just a quick question. Does the bottom work fine without the top on it? If so, just lighten up.
Good Luck. It is a good start.
Mel
Hi Mel,
The bottom works okay. I am still playing with the wheel location and the placement of the front caster. Right now, the wheels are placed in the exact center, to allow him to turn on a dime (motors same speed, opposite direction). This caused me to place a caster in the front, in addition to one in the rear.
If the front caster is turned 90 degrees, he stalls, or takes a lot of power to push forward.
Tonight I am going to move the wheels forward a bit... maybe to the front, and see how he operates in dragging a tail caster around.
Also, I have a few pieces of lightweight white PVC tubing and have not ruled out a lightweight, schedule 80 frame attached to the wooden base.
I just want to get something solid so i can start learning the software. I know that I will upgrade the motors/wheels down the road into something that can carry more weight.
-John
A stackable box from the dollar store turned out to be a good solution. I was able to mount all the components into either the floor or the walls... with the two power switches on the back.
Mounted on the back of Dopey, it only takes one single screw and four quick-disconnect wires to move the whole contraption to another body.
Had some time to put together another wood frame last night. I'll be mounting some 12VDC motors from an old power wheels jeep to this one...
-John
Your robot is looking cool. Power wheels motors will move a big robot. Then you add a GPS.