This build was in two parts. The original build was hacked live at Comic Expo in Calgary Alberta with an EZ-B v3 in 2012. It was a fun hack, because I performed the hack live, where people could watch on a stage. The second hack was in 2017, where we replaced the EZ-B v3 with an IoTiny.
The recent hack now has the following...
- Powered by an EZ-B IoTiny
- Video and vision recognition with a EZ-B v4 Camera
- Extended the camera cable with a EZ-B v4 Camera Extension Cable (60cm)
- LED animation using a 18 RGB LED PCB
- Reusing the existing motors with a 2.5 Amp Motor Controller
- Powered by a LiPo Robot Battery 7.4v 1300mAh and a LiPo Battery Harness
- Servos for the camera and dome are HDD Servo
Here's the video of the original hack from 2012 with the EZ-B v3 at Comic Expo...
By DJ Sures
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That looks like fun, I'm going to have to watch those vids!
DJ, I am planning this hack. Do you have any internal pics of the hack? Did you remove the existing control board? How did you attach the servo for the dome? Would you mind posting any photos?
Hi @mstephens_42,
I'm not DJ but I can certainly provide my personal experience with this R2D2 toy robot. I'm certain there are a few others that can provide some info as well, as a few of us here in the community have tackled this hack.
I have some pics of the internals but I'll have to create a "Robot" project on here soon to share them. I believe all of us have gutted the control board in order to fit our own control electronics. I actually kept the existing motor in the dome and controlled it with an H-Bridge. In order to get the position you can read the on board infrared encoder sensors.
An alternate method is to steal some servo electronics to attach to the motor but you will have to replace the potentiometer with resistors or find a clever way to mount it to get the head position.
Otherwise, I'm sure DJ will share how he did it.
If you'd like to see the raw footage of me hacking my R2D2 interactive toy, check out the live hack I did a few months ago:
Jeremie, Thanks so much. I will be watching this and hacking tonight! Can you post the project code?
Mark
Video of the hack...and initial testing.
Hello All - Bringing this thread back to life.
Has anyone been able to marry io-tiny with existing stock components? Meaning, stock programs, sounds, human detection sensor, IR, etc?
Or is this a complete rebuild?
Thank you.
I guess you mean has anyone tried to hack the main board and control it. I don’t know anyone who has. It’s not a full rebuild, there’s a bunch of stuff you can reuse.
I tried to reuse the ultrasonic sensor but I wasn’t able to figure out its protocol. I reused the motors by using H-Bridges and I also reused the existing IR encoders for the head. I did remove the battery holder with a dremel and used a 7.4V battery instead. I reused the front button and LED.
Thank you any special skill for the ir encoders?
Naw, just the digital input skill
@Jeremie is any way you can share you project for r2d2?
Thank you man
My project isn't 100% complete. I did have some issues with moving the head and stopping it with the encoders, it's not perfect but anyway, here it is:
R2D2 Test.EZB
Here's my App from the video above: synthiam.com/Community/Apps/r2d2-12049
Thank you guys
Maybe that's why people go servo for head to ditch motor and encoder.
A servo is a motor with a built in decoder
the standard shell of the r2d2 doesn’t have a decoder in the head. It has a limit switch which says this is the end so it just guesses at positions based on motor timing.
The R2D2 does have an encoder within the head, the challenge is reading it when the motor spins the head quickly. If the head moves slower with a lower PWM it’s easier to read the encoder pulses.
You can see the encoder at 14:30 here
Ah, so it does! My memory was incorrect - but either way, it is only an encoder, and there's no way to know the absolute position. With an encoder, you only know the relative position. You'd need to turn for some time and "assume" the head has reached zero to use it. At that point, you could use an interrupt on an Arduino to count the ticks. The Wheel Encoder robot skill would be the robot skill; it could return the tick count and give you an idea of the position.
Interesting fact... The Apple ][ disk drive also did not have a limit switch, which is why they made that noise. The stepper motor would move the head for a period of time until it bounced off the stopper at zero. It would make an awful racket while it bounced. But that assured the stepper would be at zero. From that point, the stepper counts would determine the head position. So, in a way, it would operate similarly.
So yeah, if you want to use it, use the Wheel Encoder robot skill.
DJ and Jeremie -
How do I get the .mp3 from your projects you shared? Im shure I have to download them some how.
Thank you.
Dunno where i got them. Probably just googled for R2D2 WAV files or MP3 files...
I downloaded some and others I believe I made with the R2D2 Translator (https://www.r2d2translator.com/) you will need a flash plug-in for your browser these days for it to work. Yet another way is to play YouTube videos from the movie and then use Audacity to record the audio output. Audacity is great for editing and trimming audio clips as well.
I didn't know if you guys had the mp3 files saved with your project to share. Thank you all.