Skip to comments
Here is my small B9 robot made from the trendmasters toy from the 90s. 
I combined the Trendmasters Robot B9 and a RAD drive section with the EZ-B and a lot of work. For details of the build process, please click
here
Here are the side by side before and after pics of Mini B. This thread will be devoted to the programming phase.
And here is my first attempt at programming him. I like the way I have the antenna moving, but I still need a lot of work on the "Danger Will Robinson!"
By bret.tallent
— Last update
Other robots from Synthiam community
DJ's Machine Learning And Cognitive Services Jd Humanoid...
We had been working on plugins for the Microsoft Cognitive Services, and I was testing them with the JD Humanoid. This...
Bhouston's Another Inmoov Modification
I redesigned the Top Stomach Pistons for quicker movement. The STL files are on Thingiverse....
DJ's Drd 3D Printable Robot
I wanted a robot that was super easy to 3D print and was least number of parts to make. This robot was inspired from the...
I hope you get your laptop back soon.
EZ-B has no trouble with 20 servos at once.
Hope you can get it all figured out.
Love the before and after pics.
I could call mine EZ-B9. lol
Test AutoPosition
You will like it once you find out how cool it works.
It makes life more fun.
It makes motion much easier to program.
Bret very nice job on it.
YOUR project is getting very good.
MAY be you can put in a good word for me and let others know i am on the ghost list or when i will be off.
I got a lot better with RICH and my grammar since taking time re-checking my posts.
I just got a 24" B-9 so I will be watching your progress closely.
Some Questions 4-U.
what type of paint did you use on the rubber?
what type of paint did you use on the body?
Where did you get your sound bytes?
how do you have the electronics setup for the lights in the chest?
Many more to come. Loved the video, post lots of pictures, please.
Thanks for sharing this.
Mel
Can anyone assist me or point me in a possible direction?
Thanks in advance,
LAB
I'm amazed at the progress Bret has made in molding the b9. I think the arm and claw refinements are fascinating.
If you goal is to just restore it with a remote I would seek purchasing a replacement remote on ebay. I would not attempt to build a remote from scratch.
If you want to motorize it and use an EZ-B to controller it I would purchase a developers kit. Brett did away with the original motorized base, so I'm not sure what you would need for it, because Mini-B has a Rad robot base which is beefier. The DC motors are controlled with an h-bridge, you would want need one of those to control any DC motors.
For servos in the arms and claws I highly recommend spending a little more and make sure you get metal gear micro or sub micro servos! Because if you get the plastic gear servos and they break (because they will) and you have to redo something you'll be wishing you had paid a few more dollars up front for metal gear servos.
You'll also need lots of voltage regulators for your micro servos to make sure you don't over power them.
lab
If you wanted to interface an different RF control you'd be gutting the current controls anyway (I think) and likely adding new motor controllers.
If you consider an RF kit with controller and receiver you could buy from a hobby store is setup to run servos, you'd need a PWM motor controller for the motors and probably on/off controller for the sounds. Because usually most of the toys like that have an all in one receiver with a funky h-bridge to controller the motors. That setup does not interface well unfortunately.
In my opinion if you were to interface an arduino I don't see where that would save you work or parts required to retrofit it. In this case I believe it would add the additional requirement to learn arduino coding.
Does that make sense?
No, it probably is too much for me to take on, at least for quite a while. Eventually I may try to mod the little guy in a less ambitious attempt than bret's. I guess I just wanted to see my robot move because so far I bought a plastic statue of a b9 robot for a couple hundred dollars. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled in the unlikely event that somebody sells a b9 remote on the 'bay.
Does anyone know if you can program, say, a car remote to read an rf signal if I can find somebody with the original remote controller to feed a signal to the auxiliary remote?
Lab
I have recently decided to upgrade my Trendmaters 2 ft tall Lost in Space robot! A few years ago, I added lights to the bubble and chest!
But now I am completely rebuilding it from top to bottom!
One of the issues I am having, is dealing with the audio! I purchased a circuit that will play mp3 files that I want the robot to say.
It is a MDFLY SdCard MP3 Player Module Rs
233-Ttl.
All I want to do is load MP3 audio files on an SD card and then play them back in the robot!
Can anyone please tell me in easy to understand terms, how to operate this board? I cannot find any instructions on this board, other than the two pages offered with the product!
I have a 12v battery I will use, a audio amp am speaker! I just need to know how to simply know how to turn it on and have it play the audio!
I have no knowledge of computer programming or anything like that! Thank you for any and all help![/font][/size][/color]
You are right they don't give you a lot to work with but it does work via TTL/serial so you I believe you can connect it to the serial port on the EZB4.
15 - RX
16 - TX
17 - Audio out R
18 - Audio out L
19 - grnd (both voltage and ground to the EZBv4)
20 - 12v power
Others have used the SparkFun MP3 Player which might find easier to use because their is a control for it. I'm not sure if the control is compatible with the MDFLY.