Hello everyone, I am sharing this as I will take lots of pics of the tear down of this guy. On ebay I came buy 7 working units and I thought they might be good donors robots to put a IOTINY board in and a camera in for educational purposes. When it comes to kids and even high school age it makes me nervous to let them really have control at the risk of damaging a project I have worked a long time on so instead I will demonstrate projects I have done ,but the "hands on" robotics missions will have more durable and less invested units.
I have 6 that came basically new looking and 1 looks like it has been around smoke with the heavy yellowing. I will probably make that one the guinea pig. I shall name him Glenn because he is taking one for the team !
( Too soon... ? )
I bought mine used to save money but You could buy one from barnes and noble for 38 dollars shipped
Other robots from Synthiam community
Wallekid1's Wall-E Made From Scratch
Jstarne1's Holiday Video U Command Wall-E And Sled Buildup
Here is a video showing it in action, it is not very fast and the options for programming are limited, so I think EZ robot could spruce up these little guys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma5OqHo564I
here is a DADDOES video of how it works, it is very tedious for kids, so additional features would be a plus !
It looks like a fun build.
Ron
BTW, also available new and used on Amazon
Will you be showing the teardown of "Glenn"? I am curious as to what is inside.
I also will want to EZ-ize one when I get it.
Ron
P.S will you be using your old navigation script to run him/it?
As far as navigation, the entire project will be costum with the intention of using it for education.
Thanks
Ron
1st point! The tracks have a billion (maybe 12) screws to remove and 6 on each side are hidden under cleverly placed plugs that look like rivets. The only way I found to remove them was with a utility knife blade, the sharp edges can grab the top of the rivet.
Side view once the track is removed , very clean and there is only one gear that meshes with the drive pulley.
The gray section of the body has an upper and lower half. The lower has a battery compartment for 3 C cell batteries and a sunken pocket for the brain.
Well this is the inside of Glenns Eye socket, its all popped out. There is a fairly large speaker in the eye stalk. I think that this could be a good place to mount a light ring and a EZ camera.
I was curious how they counted the distance moved. I think I see a disc with a sensor?
Is "Glenn" getting a total Lobotomy? Will you keep the drive? and misc. lights and speaker?
just curious?
Have fun!
Ron
My initial impression on the gearbox was mixed. There appears to be two versions of this robot, the first version appears to be faster while the second is slower. The purpose for the slower box was for accuracy. there is also a calibration option to make 90 degree turns accurate and drive straight.
My goal here was CHEAP and durable! I can see it would be pretty easy to pull the gear off the axle and put it on a continuous servo so that you would not need to use an L298n H Brdige driver. For me a h bridge is cheaper, about 3 bucks. Continuous servos are going to be nearly twice as fast as this gearbox but around 25-30 bucks. I keep telling myself ( lower cost josh!)
Hey , it does have a basic encoder. I likely will leave that out of the mix because it makes the concept of programming more difficult for a beginner. ( even more difficult for a regular user) However I will not remove them in case they are useful later, they really are not in the way of anything.
I hope to have one soon.
I have 2 continuous servos, so I will need to see if I will be able to incorporate the encoder with them, if I don't go with your H bridge idea (which I also have 2 of which I can steal from an old project).
Ron
Have fun!
How about a camera and an ultrasonic on a servo where the touch pad is / was ? 3D print a housing to make a safe enclosure? (keeps out fingers.) ?
Have fun!
Ron
Glenn is besides himself,,,, and here, and there, and over there.....
Poor Glenn
How is Glenn doing ?
I am looking forward to your updates. I plan on getting one soon, maybe Santa will surprise me.
If you do a full lobotomy, would you consider selling his brain ?
Contact me @ rtnron@att.net
Thanks,
Ron
Poor Glenn
Looking forward to your progress on Glenn.
Poor Glenn !
Ron