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
DJ's Mobile App Developer Tutorial
Jstarne1's Levi Rover Modular Robot 3D Print
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coC9cwOJGrE
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 !
Poor Glenn, eek tired
We will all now have a moment of silence right after our sponsor
I will follow in your foot steps. I look forward to your posts. Your build details are always great to see.
It looks like a fun build.
Ron
Looks interesting. I look forward to your posts
BTW, also available new and used on Amazon
Hi Josh,
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?
Hi Android, yes I will show pictures. It doesn't have a ton if room, but really there is enough for everything you would want once the original controller board is removed.
As far as navigation, the entire project will be costum with the intention of using it for education.
Sounds good. Thanks Ron
Initial teardown, more specific pics will come but these are the basics.
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.Thanks for the pics.
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
Gearbox:
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!)
Will you try to keep the feedback sensor? and incorporate it into your nav. script?
Yeah, because of your application for educational use they need to be cost effective and repairable.
Built in encoders:
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.
Thanks for the added info. I will watch for your future posts.
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!
So I am considering making the head move , it would make it more fragile but would add visual tracking capabilities. I imagine that would be more appealing. What do you think? Leave the original neck and just put a cam in or animate the head with some small servos?
Oh my. Poor Glen. tired
Nevermind, I guess I answered my own question... Fragile lol
A new neck of pipe ( 3/4 inch schedule 80 will do it) lol or tubing & a mini servo on the base to turn l or r.... Still fragile....The neck is fragile looking now. You will need to strengthen it anyway. A moveable neck would look cool.
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
Hey Dave,
Glenn is besides himself,,,, and here, and there, and over there.....
Poor Glenn
Hi Josh,
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 @ [email protected]
Thanks, Ron
Poor Glenn
Sure I suppose I could sell the brain if you would like. what would you want it for by the way? Today is my friday. I am off the next two days. I plan to fully remove the various electronics from glen and see what I can do with my L298n and ezb mini ect.
I was thinking about using it as a sequencer. If I find a plc I have stashed away at the old shop, I won't need it and will probably pass on it. I also have 3 IoTinys on order, and if I don't get them or the plc in time I may want it for controlling a Christmas display I am working on with a friend of mine. It is a full size mockup of Clark's cousin Eddy's RV. We may have some animation where Cousin Eddy is emptying the Sh**88r. I will let you know by the end of the week.
Looking forward to your progress on Glenn.
Poor Glenn !
Ron