Humanoid Robot

Cool.

Until he can walk on his own I will have a command chair with tracks (RAD base) for him to ride in. I need to build his chair and models of his friends. I hope with posters, models and my robot to promote my Micro Explorers book. I need to finish the book too. These are all my original art work. I built these robots in LightWave 3d. They can walk and wave and make faces.

tell me when the book is done i would love to read it! :)

I will let everyone know. I have tons of writing and artwork to do to get it done. But I want to get this robot built too. :)

Seems like the RAD robot would work well to make a replica of a robot from a Saturday morning show called Space Academy or something like that. It was a RC controlled robot and looked cool. Not sure what his name was.

thats pretty cool hope you get his head built soon :)

Me too. Made a head with Sculpey then made a rubber mold and then poured some resin in and it is taking a long time to harden. Plus I want the head to be hollow so I am trying to just coat the inside and not fill it up. This is all new to me. I think I might bake the Sculpey and use vacuum form to make the head. I wanted to build a vacuum form table anyway. Then his arm and leg covers could be light.

I got my B9 robot today, now he needs a front leg panel. I made a fast one out of foam until he gets something better.

Sweet! Do you have any pics?

My B9 will haft to wait for my humanoid to be finished first. This is just the start of my humanoid. He will be blue with a silver face.

This is the face I created in LightWave 3d. I hope to make this face for him. My sculpey head burned up in my oven today. I hope to make a new and even better head for him soon. After baking I was going to sand it smoother and then vacuum form a light plastic head. I will get it done somehow. I tested the arm with the EZ-B and it can run his large servos. I didn't test how much he could lift yet.

If the resin head comes out ok I will vacuum form using it. I wanted it hollow, but the face filled up with resin already. Used up most of my resin and not even half of his head made yet.

Dude, that looks sick!

thats awsome keep posting pics it looks pretty cool right now

I finally started on his head. I used sculpey to make the head then made a plaster mold and then used plastic you can melt in hot water and pressed it in the mold to make his face. I will be getting a camera to place in his head. Right now I have a small one on his head for testing.

Nice!

EZ Robot board can move all 16 of his servos at once. Some of those servos are large 1/4 scale servos. I will need a second board for the waist , legs and feet motors. I need to convert the motors into servos. I hope to get him to walk The feet I will be using can hold 3 D batteries each to provide power for everything. If he weighs too much I will use lighter more powerful batteries. His head is not close to being finished. I just put everything together for a test. I need to build his legs. Right now he has 2 poles and wooden feet to keep him standing. The feet are clamped down to the table.

Thats so awesome! I would love to have a humanoid robot. I will let you pioneer that for now seriously great job though. Once you get him the way you want you could vacuum form carbon fiber to replace your bracket s and hands to save lots of weight. Since you have the means to vacuum form it should be right up your alley.. why dont you use a couple turnigy 2100 mah lithium batteries they are about the same weight as d cell batteries but higher capacity and rechargable ;)

The latest update from DJ Sures makes controlling a humanoid robot so much easier. Now I can setup the movements to make the robot wave and then say hello and the robot can say hello and wave. Plus once he has legs the move command can control his walking. He could track a red ball and follow it around. The legs will take some time as the Robosapian legs are too short. Where his foot is will be his knee. I hope I can make him walk. Robosapian V2 can turn his waist side to side, lean side to side and even lean forward and backward. The legs only have one motor each to move then back and forth. Because he can shift weight from foot to foot he can walk. Because my robot will be taller and carry more weight it will need to time everything better to walk. I will need to give him a gyro so he can balance himself. I am building him a new right hand. I never worked with carbon fiber, but yes to get it stronger and lighter it would need vacuumed to get out excess resin and make it lighter and stronger.

Amazing ! Really good job. Post some video's please.

Greetz,

PhG

I have been working on his eyes. Ordered a few from China. His left gripper works, his right hand moves but is not able to grip anything.

The video camera will be hidden in his mouth unless I can find very small cameras.

I will be painting his head when I get it closer to finished. Right now the blue paint is just there to show what will be blue the rest of his face will be silver.

Hand moldabl Plastic Link

This is a link to the plastic I used to make his head and face.

Wicked cool!

My video camera is charging or I would have included some video. I need to make his mouth a little bigger so the camera will be able to fit in his head and see.

My next project is a full scale android using parts from an Elvis Alive robot and molding rubber skin from a mannequin. This will take some time to build. I have 2 Elvis Alive robots. One doesn't work so it is apart now and soon will have a female face over the servos and motors.

What are you doing with the rad base? The one in the back ground?

One of my RAD bases will be a Nurf and Airsoft armed robot and the other may be a mobile chair for my humanoid to ride until I get him walking. He will need a second EZ B as I have used all of the servo ports on the first one already.

Anyone get AI working with the EZ B yet? I want my robots to ask and answer questions. Plus it adds more life and fun.

This is a video of my C3PO robot. My humanoid has the arms now. I will be upgrading to more powerful servos as some of these are over 30 years old.

Wow, I am very impressed!

Half a body is better then none... at least you didn't put his head on backwards, he gets irate when that happens :)

Yes he does. He even yells at Wookies! Never do that! lol

wow your C3PO is amazing! where did you get the head from?

Got the C3PO head on Ebay. The eyes light up too.

I just got my second EZ-B! Now my android can get some movement started! It only took 6 days from China! Cool Why do Ebay items sometimes take a month from China?

Hey, did you think about pinhole camera? You could possible mount it behind one eye.

Yes, I need one that works with a computer.

Check this one out> camera

and here is another camera

Looks cool, wish it wasn't so long. I would need to do some work to get it to fit in my Android. It looks like a good fit for my humanoid. His eyes don't move anyway.

4 cameras

This looks like fun

I have started on my android project. Link to my Android Project

I should have moving eyes and mouth soon. Right now I need to get some sleep for an early work day and then more robot building when I get home.

Here is some video I didn't know I recorded. Next video will have his camera in his head. lol I will be removing the sonar and giving him IR sensors. This will free 2 servo ports. Then I might be able to get him to walk. I need to see if he will be stable enough to not fall. lol So much to do.

Mcsdaver great job, that robot looks great with its arms swinging, not if you use that currently configuracuion servos but I recommend you add commands to the servo speed for the movements are smoother, even small pauses between them, also lengthen the life of the servos. I've had some heavy wear from use servos look of them, run them back and forth at high speed without pause, internal gears are suffering, Regards.

His settings were lost in an update. I will have everything running smoother soon I hope. Thanks for your help.

I have ordered a 3d printer and when it is in hand I will be improving my robots hands and making arm covers, new legs and feet. I want him to look like my robot from my story and less like a Robosapian V2 hack.

I think he's cool! Hey, is your story published anywhere?

Thanks, not finished writing it yet. I spent so much time working on the look of the robots and building them as 3d models I never finished it yet. I did have a few large posters printed for my room.

I also found something to add an EZ-B to. GLaDOS 3d printed Lamp. GLaDOS 3d printed Lamp Link

Waouh! I want that one!. I would put it in my house's entrance as a security bot... A camera, a MP3 trigger with GLaDOS voice... and the EZB, it would be great...

And if I have understand all the clues DJ puts here and there on the forum, it would be a perfect project for the next the EZ-Revolution...

I will be building one as soon as I get my 3d printer and some extra time. Too many things to do right now. GLaDOS would make a great project with an EZ-B. She will need a camera in her head and servos to move around. IR distance measurement and audio from the game and she will be alive.

I have been moving and also had to fix my 3d printer. I have the camera in my humanoids head now and most of GLaDOS printed out. I am still trying to find things I thought were lost in the move. I made an animated video of my Micro Explorers robots. I will post an update video of my humanoid as soon as I get one made. My animation isn't really finished, my Lightwave dongle was lost in the move and I can't fix anything until my new one is shipped to me. More on my humanoid soon. I will also be building the red robot who is singing in my video. I hope to print her parts to keep her look from my story.

I printed his head and I am working on printing his body. I put the smaller STL files on Thingiverse. Just the head and chest so far.

Thingiverse My Dave Robot

I also made a bunch of Minecraft items that are scale to the Minecraft figures being sold in stores. I made Steve's helmet, mine cart, boat,stairs, fences and more. My Thingiverse uploads

These are some 3d printed parts of my humanoid dave! I need to finish painting his head and print the rest of him. So much fun!

This is the dream coming true and no one is even responding. I almost erased everything and left this place.

Hey man, dont leave this place. You've got so much to contribute:) Dont do it for the responses. Do it for the love of our hobby. Do it for the love of sharing it:) I wanna see your robot move:)

@mcsdaver I think your 3D printed parts are really cool. Good job! I can't wait to see more videos of this bot and your Android also. I really like the design of the arms. Would you be able to take some more detailed pictures of the arms for us? I am working on a new project and would like to see if I can get some ideas from your design.

Have you finished your story yet?

Sure, I have him apart right now. Pics coming right now! I have changed the story a great deal and rewriting is taking a long time. What would have been flashbacks may be the start of the story. Not sure yet, but I want much of the story to be a mystery to the robots and the readers. They have come to Earth, almost crashed and have no idea why they are there or even where they even came from. One robot knows everything, but she can't tell anyone. Another robot knows more than most of the robots and he wouldn't have any reason to tell. Their only memory is of a war that may have ended all life where they came from. But they hope they come in peace!

The servo brackets I used come from a Bioloid robot kit and are made for much different servos. I used mostly RC airplane servos and a few 1/4 scale servos for the shoulders. They lift the arms with no trouble at all. I had to drill new holes to use regular servos. My Bioloid humanoid is still complete and waiting for a new battery and me to give him something to do.

If anyone wants to print out his head, body and the rest of him as I get his parts uploaded here is a link. My Humanoid Robot STL files The Bioloid parts can be downloaded and printed also. Bioloid Brackets

@mcdaver I love you concept of interchangeable heads and your contributions of pics and descriptions are really valuable for experienced and novices! Forum robot builders are all different as far as comments. Many comment and many don't comment. Sometimes I wish the Forum did have a " Facebook " Like feature and hit counter like YT which would give the poster a gauge of interest... in a way posting here every step of building, as some people do is like a robotblog and a way to judge your own progress..........but it is what is ! ....Don't be disheartened ! :)

As you can see from the last pic above I like to print my robot at different sizes. His head prints with ears and all with no need of support. It takes time to built objects that you can really print. I have downloaded so many STL files that could never be printed by any machine the way they were. You don't know anything about 3d printing if you never print anything. 3d printing is amazing and a pain at the same time. Getting it to work is sometimes a battle. I thought the belts were too loose and made them a little tighter and this happened. Any idea what this was supposed to be? What a mess. This is what I was trying to print. The print came out fine after I loosened the belts a little. I was printing a Minecraft type tree. It is on thingiverse also. Way over 14 Minecraft items to download and 3d print. I 3d printed the Santa hat also.

Thanks for the comments guys. I wont give up, too much good here at EZ-B. No other company updates their software so often and no one else does it for free. This software makes robots possible for everyone and powerful for those who bother to learn. EZ-B is the best and V4 will be even better. When will V4 ship? I need it! So much power and fun for less than the next LEGO robot system. LEGO can do 4 motors now, EZ-B V4 can do 24 servos all at once and read GPS, sonar, a Video camera and hundreds of things more. This is the right place for Revolution!

@mcdaver Thank you for sharing everything.

:) J

Your welcome jdebay If DJ wants to use my robots head or chest for anything he is free to download it and have a blast. I need to try the brackets DJ made.

@mcsdaver Thanks for sharing the pictures of the arms! I like those C brackets. Do you have a link to the 1/4 scale servos you used?

@rgordon Not sure where I bought them. They are System 2000 1/4 scale Servo TS 72 They are made for 1/4 scale vehicles. They work great on robots.

I got his arms and neck servos installed into his 3d printed body. Now he needs legs and EZ-B V4.

nice job

love it

I had a bit of trouble getting the large shoulder servos into the robot, put the arms back together and run all of the wires to my EZ-B. If I can get some video before he over heats I will upload him moving. I still need to mount the camera in his mouth. I might wait for the new smaller camera with the V4. My V3 will move to my next project.

Something happened to my main control setup for my humanoid, it crashes ARC as soon as I load it. stress I have saved an older, but working file over the one that crashes and I need to update it with everything that was added, but hopefully not whatever crashed it. I know I couldn't save any new voice commands because of a change to how the AutoPosition commands are written. Not sure what happened to make it crash. I updated the commands so they work again and I can now add new ones again. :)

More trouble with instant crash when I load my projects. Everything with Auto Position crashes as soon as loaded. Were there big changes? I can't load any projects to fix them, so it looks like I need to start over again. Anyway to save my projects?

@mcsdaver, I always like to both save a copy on my computer and also on the EZ Cloud. That way I have a safe unchanged one off site. Sucks that your having these crash problems. I wish I cold help.

You say you got things working again a few months ago when this happened. Perhaps you can go back and see what helped and do that again?

This may not be a good time to ask but.... I'm very impressed with the movement and strength of your robot arms. Looks like the servos you're using are very strong and silent. When you get this crash problem worked out could you share the brand and model of the various arm servos and maybe where you bought them?

Thanks and good luck. Dave Schulpius

i had that happen too. i just deleted Auto Position control. save... reopen and redo Auto Position control.

try it...

good luck, j

@mcsdaver You can try using the "Merge File" function to merge the old file (the one that crashes ARC) to a new file one control at a time.. This way you at least will know what's the cause of the crashing... Best case scenario the new file will work properly....

He was working great and I added rest commands so he wouldn't over heat. This made him able to last much longer with no problems. Now I can't load his projects anymore. I have found a very old project and edited the Auto Position commands so they would work, and I can save the project, but it is missing everything I have added in the last 6 months. Plus it looks like the edit to fix the old problem is the same thing I had to do before and now those projects don't work anymore.

How do I load one command line at a time?

Open a new ARC file.... select Merge file.... Choose the file that is crashing ARC... next a screen will pop up asking you to select the controls and scripts you like to carry over from the old file to the new one....

Thank Richard. Merge can save lives, thanks so very much Richard. Now I need to fix his older problem, moving too fast. Not sure how the speed control works for these servos. I want smooth and fast, but not servo breaking fast, already lost one arm servo.

The servo Speed command is:

ServoSpeed (servoPort, speed)
Set the speed of servo or PWM. This is the speed to move between positions.
The servo speed is a number between 0 (fastest) and 10 (slowest)
*Note: If the ServoSpeed command is being used in an initialization script, ensure the servo positions are set first. This is because with ServoSpeed, it moves from a position, to a position, at the specified speed. If there is no previous position (such as during power-on), the software assumes the position is 0.
Example: ServoSpeed(D14, 25)

I had him moving smooth and now he is moving full speed. I have no idea how to make him slow down.

If 10 is the slowest then how do you ServoSpeed(D14, 25)? How does that work? I have seen it show up to 70! I have a bad cold and thinking isn't going very well. My robot is moving way too fast right now.

@mcsdaver... Are we talking regular 180 deg servos or CR Servos (continuous rotation) here? Also remember v3 uses 1 - 100 servo positions and the V4 uses 1 - 180 positions...

Regular 180 deg servos and I am using V3 until I get V4. Right now the servo speed is the problem.

Set a servo position then set servo speed 1 to 10.... next time a servo position is called it should move at the speed you specified with servospeed(D0,3) or whatever...

Try this...

Servo(D0,50)
ServoSpeed(D0,3)
Sleep(2000)
Servo(D0,100)

Here's a couple lines out of one of my servo scripts:

Servo(D1, 43)
ServoSpeed(D1,0)
Sleep(0112)

You see I set the servo port and position on the first line, the speed on the second line the then a Sleep on the third. I found if you place a Sleep in between or in an odd place the servo speed command will be ignored and the servo will run at the last speed it was given. Perhaps in your case all it knows is ARCs default speed of 100%. I think your problem is where you placed your sleep commands. Can you post a copy of your project for me to look at? Just use the Attach File tool to the right on your screen and that will upload and attach your project for us to see.

I have uploaded a copy here. Last 6 months of work hasn't been added yet.

DaveFix2Sept2014.EZB

Tried to upload and just get a link that never works.

I thought the Auto Position controlled the speed. I never set a servo speed outside of the Auto Position screen.

@mcsdaver, cant seem to open your file. Did you use the "Attach File" tool? What you have there seems like a link. Maybe it me but when I click on it I'm taken to a blank web page.

@Dave Schulpius I just tried again and same problem. Not sure how to upload it. I used attach file 3 times and it keeps making a useless link. Just tried again! DaveFix2Sept2014.EZB

Dave4.EZB

Is there a command that can make all servos move a certain speed?

I have Windows 7 Is there anyway to get a good male voice? I found some on the web that cost money, but nothing worth buying or using for that matter.

Attaching a photo still works, just wont let me send a copy of my project.

Humm, can you upload your project to the EZ Cloud, make it public and post the link to it? That's one way I can get to it.

As far as global servo speed for all servo's I don't think that's possible. Again, I'm not familiar with the Auto Position control bit if your writing a script you would need to set a servo speed for each port. The only global servo speed is 0 (full speed). Some set all their servo speeds and positions for each port in an initialization script.

Here's a caution statement from the script manual: If the ServoSpeed command is being used in an initialization script, ensure the servo positions are set first. This is because with ServoSpeed, it moves from a position, to a position, at the specified speed. If there is no previous position (such as during power-on), the software assumes the position is 0.

Sorry, I don't know anything about the voices. There has been a lot of discussion here about that and some of the other members have good sources. Perhaps they can share or you could do a forum search on the subject.

I need to get some sleep, almost 2 in the morning here and I don't know how to link to the file right now. I did save it to the cloud under the same name I tried to upload here.

OK @mcsdaver. I got it off the EZCloud. I've ran out of time though so I cant really look deep at it. Again, I don't know much about Auto Position control but I do see where each frame has a place where you can add and edit scripts. Perhaps that's where you can insert servo speed settings. I'll look more into this later. Sorry.

Just got home. Thanks for helping. I wont get to do anything tonight, got to work early tomorrow.

Sucks when work and real life gets in the way fun stuff. ;)

I took a look at your project and I really cant add anything to what I said above. Nothing stands out to me. Never having used the AP control I don't know how the speed is actually set but there are a lot of places to edit and add scripts.

Warning ( I typed life story stuff, nothing much to do with this project) Not even sure how to write scripts right now. Been awhile. I programmed educational games on my Amiga computer many years ago for my daughter. She is 26 now. My memory doesn't hold much anymore. I am not even old yet, just never had much of a memory. I still did great in math, art and science in school. But college never worked out for me, I was working 6 days a week and falling asleep during tests. I didn't have a single day I could just rest and then all of my family decided to move to Oklahoma from Ohio. I just moved with them and was never able to go back to college. My mind could figure out amazing things, I can do the Rubic's cube and many other puzzles with no problems. In fact if I figured out a puzzle before I got to the registers I would just leave it in the store. No reason to buy it if it is too easy. Sadly I am just too tired now to even look for new puzzles. Alexander Star was a cool puzzle. I almost made a book to show how to solve it, but never finished the book. I can still solve all of the puzzles I solved when I was young, just not as fast as back then. I never was all that fast, wouldn't impress anyone who knew how to solve it. People see my robots and think I could get rich from them. Not at the speed I build, I am just too tired when I get home from work. I was 3d printing everyday for a while, but I haven't printed anything for months. My robot was overheating and because I didn't find any fans I haven't done much with him in a while. I still need a better voice for him. Windows 7 has only a female voice and the downloadable voices I have found are not very good and cost money. I will pay for a good voice, not the ones I tried so far. My robot is supposed to be around 10 years old when he reaches Earth and then grow up and become more human as he explores the Earth, humanity and the internet. (Mostly studies You Tube) So an adult male or female voice is just wrong for him. His friend Jen is a little older than him and she grows up quicker than he does. Jen is one of the red humanoid robots in my story. She is named after a beautiful Swedish friend of mine who lives in Sweden. She has red hair, so my humanoid robot Jen has red hair. I will be 3d printing her next. (The humanoid robot, not my friend) All of my humanoid robots will be getting EZ-B V4s. My V3s will go to other projects that wont need large servos that overheat the board. GLaDOS will need an EZ B when I build her. If the V4 camera fits in her head then she gets a V4. Late again, I need some sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

@mcsdaver, are you still in Oklahoma? If so, what town? I'm in Yukon (west OKC).

Hmm, forgot to sleep again! Everyone moved to Missouri and I moved to Georgia to be with a lady, but it didn't work out. I will be moving back to Missouri to help my mom out. Wont be too far from Oklahoma. I still have friends there in Tulsa. I have been away too long, my mom is in bad health and my dad died less than 2 weeks ago. Haven't felt very well lately. Long drive to Missouri and back plus I miss everyone there. Losing my dad has been very hard. I think he could have built anything he wanted to build. He never did build any robots, but he did build buildings, wire them and did heating and air conditioning work, fix TVs and anything else that needed fixed. Must be where I got my ability to fix stuff even if I never saw one before. My mom could have been an amazing artist if she wanted to. I had been drawing for years before I ever saw my mama draw anything. Her artwork is amazing in detail and pure beauty. Sadly she never drew very often. I only taught myself to draw because I had so many ideas that I wanted to build and need to draw them on paper before they were forgotten. Late again. Night all! Will be back to building after some rest and my cold goes away.

Been programming on my robot and got lots done. His waving is at a good speed and he can high five like a pro. My only working camera is too heavy for his already heavy 3d printed head, so I need to find a new lightweight cam for him to see with. Had a bit of trouble with his neck getting stuck when he tried to look to the right. Looks like he is ready to make a new video. Too late here to make much noise, so I will make a video in the morning. He hasn't over heated all day, so that is good! I want to turn motion tracking on and off with voice commands, but haven't figured that out yet. At least everything else is working and I have added some new voice commands. I still need a male voice for the little guy. Windows 7 only has a built in female voice.

Uploaded a video of Dave in action. Still working on adding more commands and functions for Dave. He needs his head balanced and a camera in it. I need a new video cam for him that fits. The voice command rest kills all of his servos so he wont over heat or waste batteries. If he is tracking my face his neck servos will continue even after a rest command. His large arm servos are the ones that used to over heat Dave. He is running much cooler now. I will be replacing his EZ-B V3 with a V4 and the camera made for it.

Servos turning worm gears would add strength to the arm and make it so even with power off the arm stays put. If I had a better 3d printer I could try this ideal on my robot. This would make the robots movements slower, but stronger. EZ-B has no problem making a servo move fast.

mcsdaver, Enjoyed watching your videos. Looks like maybe Dave has new paint? Looking good. The interaction is great. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to any updates on Jenn. Steve s

Amazing! I'm really impressed with hi movements and your work! Keep the updated coming please.

Dave has a whole new 3d printed body. His arms are the same, but one servo was replaced because it stripped out.

Glad to see you making progress.....Dave looks really cool. I think you told me once before but, what servos are you using for the arms and do you have any pictures of how you did the neck pan and tilt? Also what is the length of the arms?

Great job!

His arms are only 31cm long. Most of his servos are regular rc servos for planes or cars. His shoulder servos are much larger. They are System 2000 1/4 scale servo TS-72 Detail pictures of his arms are on page 6.

The neck pan servo is in his body and the tilt is in his head. No pics of his current head pan and tilt.

Dave has a new video and does more! I still need to make his legs. No money right now for the powerful servos needed to make him walk. I want the servos before I build the legs. He will need gyros too. I need a new mic. I keep running the chord over with my chair. Somehow Dave understands most of the time.

Dave has 3d printed Minecraft and Minecraft action figures behind him. All of my Minecraft models are free to download on thingiverse. Dave's STL files are free to download on thingiverse also. EZ-B has no problem powering and controlling Dave's servos. He can move every servo all at once with no problems. He also doesn't over heat anymore. He must have had a bad servo that gave him trouble. EZ-B V3 working very well even after being in this guy for over a year. He did have a different head and body then, but the same arms and EZ-B.

Very nice work and attention to detail. This will be so cool to see walking. Thanks for the .stl files.

You are very welcome. To build the working robot, 3d print him at 1.1 scale. That makes him big enough for servos to fit. It also makes his body scale to my servo arms I made.

I love his name! Fantastics work. I'm very impressed. I can only hope my B9 turns out as well as your Dave have ended up. Thanks for the inspiration.

Dave, your B9 is amazing! Yes, I gave my robot a good name, I need to find him a good voice.

Wow, that last video you posted was great! Dave has a lot of personality now. Your project must be quite extensive - i'm impressed :D

Feels real good to see the stuff you all create with ezrobot - puts the biggest smile on my face!

Thanks DJ. I love all the robots you have made, and using EZ-B has helped me give my robot some life and personality. I will be building some of my robot's friends, so I will be getting more EZ-Bs to have fun with. I was on vacation when I got my first EZ-B and had such a blast playing with it and learning how to use the software. I hot glued the continuous rotations servos to a thin wooden board, added wheels, sonar and a camera and had a working robot in a very short time. A robot that could hear, talk, measure distance, drive around and track my face all at once. I knew this would work in my humanoid robot I was building. When you added Auto Position then things really started to come together for my humanoid. Then I got a 3d printer and had to learn how to make the robots I designed in my 3d animation software print correctly on my 3d printer. After upgrading my software I had STL support in LightWave 3d. 3D printing an over 73 cm robot on a small 3d printer is a bit of a challenge. He still needs working legs, but he is getting smarter all the time.

Dave has learned a few new tricks and will be in a new video soon. Has anyone had trouble with Pandora? I tried to use it and it works then freezes the software for a while then works and freezes up the software for a while again. If I keep Pandora paused, then my robot works fine. Hope to get this sorted and teach his Pandora bot a ton of new things to talk about.

I found a Santa suit to alter for my robot Dave!

Dave has taken on the roll of one of the most known and beloved characters of all time! Video coming soon. I am moving soon, but work on Dave continues.

Here is Dave all ready for Christmas! He has new moves! He just keeps getting smarter! My computer screen shows me the whole time just talking and not controlling Dave. No edits or F/X except for color correction.

thats really cool, i like the idea - nice movements also- nice beard in that monitor next to the robot ;)

Glad you like him. I need to get him to bend back a little farther so he wont fall over when moving his arms. After I finish my big move back to Missouri I will start 3d printing his new legs. I hope to get him to walk. I might be needing much stronger servos than I have.

Thanks mcsdave.. you did an amazing job with Dave! Very impressive personality and movements! I need to program Data to be responsive like your Dave.

After I move and if I have the room I will be working on my android again. Right now she doesn't have any skin on her face, but she does have a blue Star Trek dress. Your Data is very cool. I try to find words that my robot understands well. Some words he just won't understand no matter how many times I say them. I could work with my computer to teach it new words. I am looking for a better voice for Dave also. I as a bit surprised he understood Merry Christmas, because I couldn't get him to earlier. Then I was making his video and just said Merry Christmas and he said it back. That was fun, but not sure how he learned to understand.

Dave has a friend. I may be making and selling BJD dolls. This was my attempt at making her a Mrs. Santa dress from one that was made for a dog. Dave's outfit came from an old Santa I got from ebay for $10. I was able to make the suit fit, but not the hat.

Speech recognition adds so much fun to using a robot. I have my mic on the whole time I am programming or using my robot. Oddly enough my robot seems to learn to understand words. I had him setup to say "Darth" if he heard me say "Darth" and "Vader" if he heard me say "Vader", and I had him say and do something if I said "Darth Vader". He wouldn't recognize either "Darth" or "Vader" nor did he recognize "Darth Vader". When I was talking to my R2 I said Darth Vader and my robot started moving and saying "Noooooooooooooo!" Then I said Darth and he repeated Darth back to me and I said Vader and he repeated Vader back to me. Then I said "Darth Vader" and he raised his arms up and yelled "Noooooooooooooooo!" Not sure how, but he started recognizing Darth Vader even though couldn't before. Now he understands it most of the time. Some things he does very well with like if I say "How are you?" he gets it every time. If I say wave or wave left or wave right he understands. Then some words he never understands. Darth was one of those words. Now he knows the word without me going into Windows and teaching him. People see me talking to my robot and him telling me the weather, news or the other many things my robot does on command and they think I can just tell the robot their name and have him start talking to them. I am sure in the future I will be able to teach him new words, names and things by speaking to him, but right now I am new to some of this software and I have lots to learn. The more I learn the smarter my robot will become.

There are reports that Windows SAPI is constantly learning. The software I use for most of my voice control (not ARC) has an option for "Learning" however the release notes state the button may not be required since it's always learning.

I've actually noticed this very thing. I thought it was odd. When I first typed the phrase "Thanks Robot" to listen for, I could't get him to recognize the words. After having it listed for several months and with no training he understands and responds now about 60%. More if I talk like a news anchor man (I'm kind of a big thing around here ya know ).

No wonder my little robot is getting smarter! Funny how people watching my robot and I talk think my robot is much smarter than he is. Also so many people think I am a genius and should be rich from my robot! To be fair, I only just got him working well 3 months ago and he still can't walk. I made his arms 4 years ago, but didn't have EZ-Robot and the software I was using and old laptop were not up to the task. Even moving him to my desktop computer, he moved smoothly but he could not hear, see or feel. I was building C-3PO from Star Wars, but then decided to build my own humanoid robot from a story I am writing. He had no feedback so he could only do programmed movements. He was not interactive at all and I had no idea how to make him smarter. Then I saw EZ-Robot and ordered one EZ-Robot board, wireless camera and servos. I got the set during my vacation and had a blast testing everything out and learning about the hardware and software. My test robot (a thin wooden board with 2 continuous rotation servos with wheels, sevros to give the camera pan and tilt and sonar) worked great so I took it apart and connected EZ-Robot to my humanoid robot. I tested the robot and EZ-Robot could move my robot arms and the robots head with no problems at all. I ordered a second EZ-Robot. Then I began programming the robot and learning more how to use EZ-Robot. About that time I received my 3d printer, so I began work on 3d printing my humanoid robot. I had been using an old V2 Robosapian's body and wanted my robot to look like the robot from my story. My 3d software did not support 3d printing, so I had to use a plugin that someone had made to save out STL files. Sadly the plugin was not very good at making printable files. I thought my robot was too complex to print and made a simpler model that printed, but didn't look very good. It didn't really print very well either. Then a major upgrade for my software included 3d printing support. The $500 upgrade was what I needed and I was able to 3d print my robot. EZ-Robot software had changed a bit while I was upgrading my robots head and body. EZ-Robot would crash every time I loaded my project. With some help from friends on the EZ-Robot forums I learned I could load just part of the project and then add parts of other projects to get my robot working again. Then I began learning much more and got the servo speed figured out, voice control working almost 100% and tried AI and paused the AI for later testing. Now Dave has personality, tells jokes, the weather and moves very well.

I have finished moving to Missouri and have upgraded some of Dave's servos to 1501MG Power HD servos. They have all metal gears and give Dave more lifting power. I only had enough for his left arm and will be getting more servos for his right arm and other projects. I have made a few other changes and need to rework all of his programmed movements before I make a new video. I am still working on his leg design. I want him to walk!

1501 MG Power HD These all metal gear servos have no trouble lifting Dave's arm even with a metal tool in his hand. These servos also hold position even with the servos released. Now Dave can hold his arm out without over heating his circuits.

Dave has his EZ-B V4 on his back and his new camera on top of his head. I will be installing the camera in his head as soon as I get the chance. His new servos are much stronger than his old ones. Dave now has a Windows tablet for a brain. I need to find servos that can handle Dave's weight so I can get him walking. Right now he is using Vader legs until I figure his legs out and 3d print them.

I made my own tablet stand. Hot glue and wood can make anything!

I am reprogramming all of the speech commands so Dave will talk using his onboard speaker instead of using my computers speakers. The new servo commands use 0-180 instead of 0-100. This is much better because you can move them much smoother, but I do haft to redo every pose. Because of the number of servos and how much movement his arms can make I need to change every pose to his home pose before powering Dave up just to keep from breaking his arms or servos. Then redo every pose to get his movements redone. Then adjust the speed he moves from pose to pose. He will be a much better robot, stronger, speaking using his own speaker and have a camera powered and controlled by his EZ-B V4. After he gets a gyro I will see about making him walk.

Tried to order the same gyro that DJ has been using and the US gov blocked me from buying any. Something about it being illegal to export them. I was trying to buy them from someone in the US and use them here in the US. I also checked to see why they were illegal and they were not even on the government website. This world is crazy. A GPS could make a worse weapon than a gyro could. Every phone has both in them.

LOL... @Dave, what gyro are we talking about here? EZ Robot hasn't released their new gyro, gps and accelerometer yet... Are you saying the US Military is monitoring your online shopping activities?... Tell me you're not wearing tin foil on your head... LOL :)

The MPU6050 accelerometer, gyro, temp sensor. They said it was illegal to export them, but I was buying in the US and I live in the US. I just want my robot to walk without falling over. I have a bunch of cables that will plug into the I2C ports, so I wanted to make my own sensors.

@mcdaver, I think your being played by someone. The US Gov doesn't do this (yet). Where did you order? I just placed an order all the way through to completion for this item at Sparkfun.

Well, the US Government does have import bans on items that violate patents, and export bans on all kinds of devices that can be used in munitions. Maybe the link you were trying to order from is a knockoff that does have an import ban. Just because you are ordering from a US company doesn't mean they are shipped from the US.

Without seeing the link though, I tend to agree with Dave. If you gave your credit card before the order was rejected I would watch for unauthorized charges.

Alan

The sale would have been on ebay and I tried many different sellers. I just ordered 2 from somewhere else with no problem. I am used to using ebay, wish they hadn't gone bonkers on me.

@mcsdaver... That's a relief... LOL... Good idea about making your own sensors. I think Adafuit sells those gyro's too.... I am going to wait for the ez robot ones but please do let us know how you get on with the ones you managed to buy....

Hey guys just note that when using third party MPU-6050 boards you may have to use stronger pull-up resistors to ensure I2C communication is stable. You don't have to modify the surface mount resistors, you can always wire in some through-hole resistors to an open I2C port, like this:

I'd suggest using 1Kohm (or lower) resistors.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I2C is a parallel communication bus so anywhere you place pullup resistors on the SDA and SCL lines the entire bus will get pulled up.

I thought it had pullup resistors built in? It looked like JD just had wires going from the ports to the gyro. Anyone try this yet?

@mcsdaver... The MPU-6050 that DJ was using was a custom board that Jeremie had designed that's why it plugs directly into an I2C port of the ezb... Plug and play... These will be in the ez robot store very shortly....

Thanks @RR,

That is exactly right. Third party MPU-6050 boards will likely have pullups included but they may not be strong enough (low enough resistance) to prevent I2C lockup.

The MMA7455 would need the same pullup resistors also? I have a MMA7455 and I haven't got it to work yet. It does light up but nothing works if the control for the MMA7455 is unpaused.

Recently I was able to get good reliability with the MMA7455 by using 1Kohm pullup resistors and 100pF capacitors to GND on the SDA and SCL lines. That accelerometer is a rare case where capacitance needs to be added to the I2C bus.

Thanks! I was wondering why I couldn't get it to work. I might just wait on the MPU6050. I have other things to work on right now.

3/28/2015 5:39 PM - Auto Position Thread Error: System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array. at EZ_B.AutoPosition.(Object )

Anyone know what this error could mean or how to get rid of it? Some of my saved poses now give this error and no longer move my robot to that pose. Without poses the Auto Position wont work. This error is given when I try to use those non working poses. They worked fine before.

The error usually means that a value is larger than what is allowed (or smaller). It could also be that a servo is assigned a number that is larger or smaller than is allowed. I would reinstall ARC. If that doesn't fix it, DJ will have to address it in the code. I don't have a functioning robot at the moment Or I would try it. You could post your project and see if anyone else has an issue running the auto possitions with their ARC install.

If your using ax-12 servos, I don't know but maybe one of the servo id's got messed up. I don't use these so it is just a guess.

The problem was using regular servos and none of the numbers were too high or low, so I redid the poses that didn't work, got rid of the non working poses and then renamed the new poses the names they replaced. All kinds of fun, but it worked. I am also glad I found the tip to multiply all of the servo positions by 1.8 so they would work with the V4 board. I thought I had to redo every pose to the home position and then remake all of the poses. If I tried to just adjust each pose from where they were my robot would have broken his arms or something. Now I need to adjust the speed of every Action as they are now too slow. I had changed to more powerful servos in his left arm and needed to adjust some of his poses anyway. Dave now has his EZ-B V4 on his back and his new camera in his head. Dave can also move his eyes left and right now. His voice now comes from his EZ-B speaker now except when he tells a joke or the weather. I haven't figured that part out yet. Dave's servos are a bit too much for his rechargeable battery, so I need something with more mah. I might be selling an old robotic Elvis made by Wow Wee. He works great, I just don't have room for 2 of them. He comes with his remote and the song cartridge that came with him.

Been having fun with my MPU6050 gyro,accelerometer, temp sensor. Now I need to add it to my robot Dave. This thing works!

Dave has had some updates. Video soon I hope. I got a light sword from a dollar store and changed the single LED for a set of 5 and added my own push button switch to make a light saber for Dave. Looks like Dave needs a little work on his back before I make any new videos. Something came loose on the inside. Back problems already and he is still so young.

Dave is looking sharp. I picked up some of those light sabers from the dollar store too a while back. :)

Dave is looking great I love the legs can he walk. Also Yoda and R2-D2 are they robotic as well. Looking forward to the video.

PS I hope you have Workmen's Comp. for Dave which I never knew robots could get back problems lol :D

Dave won't be walking for a while. His legs are not motorized yet. I also need to get him to ballance. He does have a gyro now.

nice pictures off your robots.

Wow, I have had a gyro for a year and never used it yet. Life gets hard when you mother is very ill. Sadly she passed away a few days before Thanksgiving. She was the sweetest person I have ever know and I will miss her always. I went months not even watching television. With time brighter days will come. I have worked a bit on Dave and got his back working again. I will try to get him to keep balance as he moves his arms. I will be working on his legs next. He had borrowed Darth Vader's legs for a while and as you can see from the photos on the previous page Vader has his legs back and Dave has his own now. They need powerful servos and as I get them installed I will make test videos. I hope I am up to the challenge. His arms were easy for me to build. These legs will need power, precision and hard work. @Merne The Yoda and R2 are interactive toys. The R2 is not near as smart as the interactive R2 sold years ago. The Yoda can understand some words and "teaches" you about the force. He knows if he has a light saber or his cane in his hand. He can fight using his light saber. I might be adding an EZ-B to make him a bit smarter and the same with the new R2. This R2 can adjust from 3 leg mode to 2 leg mode, but he can't retracted the middle leg. He would be great with an EZ-B inside.

I am very sorry for your loss. That is great you are working on DAVE again! I enjoy your robotic projects. Any thing new on your Elvis WooWee, you were replacing servos a while back? Steve S

I replaced the servos, but the latex skin didn't work out. My mold broke and I haven't made a new one yet. I might 3d print a new face and make a mold and then make the new latex face for my android. I haven't had a place to work on an android until now. I want to get Dave walking first.

Very sorry for your loss. Death and sickness suck. More so it it's someone you love.

I'm really looking forward to your attempt to make Dave walk. If anyone can do it, you can.

How soon do you think it will be before we see flexable latex 3D printing?

They do sell something called Ninja Flex, but I have never used it and my printer would leave lines in it. I want to buy a larger, better 3d printer.

Auto Position is not smooth while reading the gyro. That would make balancing while walking difficult. I hope I can get this to work for Dave!

Dave had a bad fall and busted some of his servos. I have been replacing his old servos with metal gear servos anyway, so Dave will be stronger. I also bought a C3PO that is a little taller than Dave and I will be making him into a full robot with his own EZ-Robot board. I am also fixing my 3d printer. I need it to print my robot parts to get these robots moving.

Where did you find a C3P0 that size?! That's awesome!

poor dave...

I found him on ebay. They have a R2D2 the same scale. The R2 can turn his dome, make sounds and light up but not drive and the C3PO has no lights, sounds or motors. THey make some Star Wars characters this scale and finally they made R2 and C3PO. Search for C3PO 31 inch on ebay. The R2D2 I am getting has no lights, motors or sounds. He was just 25 USD used.

Dave will be better after I get his neck fixed. I need to 3d print him a new one. He needs a lighter head. lol

Right now Dave falls too hard to make walk, so I got on ebay and found a used JD robot to play with. Sadly the last owner burned up 5 of his servos. So I spent some time replacing those servos with some I had on hand. I don't yet have the mini HD servos to replace the burnt one in his neck or the one in his gripper. After replacing what I could I got JD walking and dancing. He is a cool little guy. I have ordered a bunch of servos and EZ-Bits from EZ Robot. When I get everything I have ordered I will have 5 EZ robot controllers including a EZ mini robot controller. I have plans for a number of new robots including C3PO, R2D2, a rover type robot, modding and programming JD, a robotic bear and or a dragon.

Dave, That raptor dinosaur/dragon is an interesting fellow. Does it have any movable features? I like how you pose your robots outside. Looking forward to your build of C3PO. Thanks for sharing, Steve S

JD already has some friends! The Bioloid robot shown here cost me about $1000 USD and does not walk near as well as JD. Also it has very limited sensors and will never see or hear as well as JD.

@Steve The Dino is a robot that makes faces, roars moves his head, eyes, mouth and tail very well and will walk again if I can fix him. If he was working he could follow you around. He makes cool sounds and even laughs. He is called DRex

Ebay link

Cool robot family. :)

bring back alot of memories for me.so cool. :)

Sweet collection man! :D

Just got Dave and the other robots a new ride! This Landspeeder can carry 130 lb or 58.9 kg at 5 mph. It is not rc so I have some work to do!

freaky cool space car.

Having fun outside playing with robots!

This Omnibot has 2 motorized arms, not hooked to EZ Robot board yet.

Well, that's just too cute. :P

Thanks Dave! My Dave robot will be making new videos as soon as I give him more movement. He will have a 2 axis waist and some leg movement. I want him to be able to sit in the landspeeder and someday walk, but one step at a time! lol

wow they drive well on grass.

mcsdaver, Your robots look right at home in their new space rider, great photos. Your Omnibot does maneuver quite well in the grass. Steve S

He has his original drive system and wheels. You should see a RAD robot drive in grass. Almost unstoppable! My 1/6 scale tank is great in the grass also. It will become a rover type robot with a GPS, sonar and EZ Robot! I will be adding an arm to it as well.

Now THAT is a picnic I wish I was at! :)