Meet Squeegee , The Flooring Mopping Robot , Modified Radioshack Robie Jr

Ok first we need to see what we are working with..... I took the robot apart and removed most electronics and ran it through the dish washer. Now the robot looks very clean. I would like every ones opinion if I should use the dome or not.

I have a small problem , one wheel has damage to the rubber. I am going to consider using continuous rotation servos and the tires with them. Well see if I can work my magic and make these wheels work. Somthing very important is that the drive train is quiet as this is really not a entertainment robot.

Now that the robot is generally clean we can take a look at how much room I have to work with. A huge section of the robot is dedicated to 8 AA batteries from the original manufacturer. We will see but that could be a possible mountingamounting area for a big lipo battery.

We see if you dont count the AA battery box there is 7 inches high of space and 4 inches to the collar from the factory pcb.

Test fitting ezb ? Sure why not

Looks like ezb fits right at home dead center of the robot. I may use a different position if I eliminate this AA battery box that is taking up soooo much room. I took a look at possible ez cam mounting positions as well.

I like the dome Josh. And it goes along with his bigger brothers.

Cool pics and nice job ! Congratz ! Now some vids ?

Greetz, PhG

Probably no vids till something can move. I dont believe I will do any kind of pan or tilt on this robot but we will see.

Ok so far I have planned how the robot will perform the cleaning task. I will get a shammy and the front half of the robot will have a velcro underside. The robot will slowly squirt a fluid on the floor only while in forward motion. The front brush should loosen particles and shammy mostly soak up and catch the dirty stuff. Right behind the shammy I have a dc blower I have had for years and never used so I can aim this downward to dry the mopped floor.

Hey Josh, I was thinking that since this is really just a little service bot that will run on sensors, do you really even need the camera? If you wanted to use it to see what he's cleaning or so you can control what he's cleaning, maybe you should put it low and pointed at the floor. Just a thought.

I was also thinking maybe you could use a swiffer wet jet. That way you would have a refillable cleaning solution and pads.

Yea your probably right on not actually needing a camera. It could run blind with a sonar. I will consider using swiffer pads but they do not work as well as one would think. So lets scrap the idea of the cam in the dome and I will just mount the ezb inside the dome like a brain :)

Ok I ditched the cam idea. So far parts list include

Velcro ezb dc blower for drying floor ezb cooling fan Liquid tank 6V water pump Absorbant reusable shammy Servo ext cables 6V 4.5 ah battery Squeegee right behind shammy One servo Ultrasonic ping sensor L298n h bridge @6v Possibly replace original motors with continuous servos

Man I like this design a lot. Do you need any of these parts? I have the sonar, some PIR detectors, and a squirrel cage type cooling fan from a computer that may work for your drying unit. I will take a pic and upload it. I also have some servos. A nice mini-servo would work well for that sonar and I do have some quality ones.

Found the shammy I think will work. It is made for the shark steam mop and is washable. On the back is Velcro which makes attaching fresh shammies super easy.

That pack should make a weeks worth of shammies using it every day.

Ok im putting the cam idea back on the table. I saw the glyph video and realized it would be useful for self charging after cleaning for a designated amount of time. Also im considering having 2 batteries instead of one. Hmmm next step is making the water tank and mount for ezb and cam.

I think I found the pump I want. There are a few reasons it is ideal. First is that it runs on 6 volts , second its very small just a inch wide and third is the pump is submersible so I can mount the pump inside the water tank to save room.

Ok revamping the sketch. Pump is inside the tank and cam readded.

Tonight I may start modding the base.
-cut original battery box out -glue battery door in place -cut out the caster -cut out the rear slider and fill with epoxy -slice the damaged tire off

• carefully remove good tire in case I will use it later

At this time I am considering using 4 continuous servos and 4 of EZ Robots tires to replace to old loud drive system. Lucky me those can also run at 6 volts. Two wheels on each side means the robot no longer is balancing on one wheel on each side. I will update the sketch of more smaller wheels to reflect this idea.

I like the mods. Your goody box is shipping out tomorrow. Box includes: 2 - continuous rotation servos with 2 tires Cooling Fan 2 - HC-SR04 sonar 1- PIR sensor (adjustable range) 2 - TIP120 transistors (for making the switching function on EZ-B Digital Port 1 - 6V LED Battery Monitor 1 - Lazy Susan Bearing (acrylic) some 18ga heat shrink tubing 1 - mini servo 1 - rubber boot 1 - miniature gearhead motor 2 - long shaft dremel bits for shaping/removing

Thank you brett , I will make good use of the parts ;)

Now comes the modding for Robie Junior Rx , I like the dome but not the face. I believe that some changes will really add to this pint size robots personality. First I must remove the face with 8 cuts using a ceramic dremel bit. I marked the areas to cut with marker.

Right after the cuts we must carefully seperate the plastic boogers and clean the cut so the parts separate.

After the boogers were cleaned off which is this pic

The part is great! I carefully removed the original radioshack stickers and fitted the new dome mount.

Cleaned the base up and getting ready to plug some holes with epoxy.

I removed the flaking bad tire of the rim and tommorow I will make a cast of the good one.

Nice, I like the changes.

Thanks man im going to stop early tonight so I can get plaster to make a mold of this tire so I can make new copies that wont dry rot and softer compound for better grip on wet tile floor.

Tiny update on squeegee.

I bought the high temp 6v submersable pump....

Also I ordered windshield washer squirters that light up with adjustable nozzles

So far so good....

cool

Ok I started modding the robie jr body to make a large water storage tank. I used pvc which is high temp resistant and two tubes of epoxy.

Alright as I may have posted before this robot build is a mini project to see if I can mix water storage and electronics safely. So if im going to make any mistakes I want it to be on this little guy instead of dusty or even Jarvis if I entertain that option. If I can make a simple and reliable pump and tank system I could duplicate this quickly within a few hours on Jarvis and dusty. Also with the addition of a onboard water tank is the option of a squirt gun or sprayer meant to put out or slow down a fire Jarvis or dusty detects.

Anyways now that ive made a tank from pvc and epoxy I must check it for leaks. I put in the hottest water I could get from my kitchen which is about 160 degrees and filled the tank. This is a 24 hour test. If by tommorow there are no leaks I will make a top for the tank that can unscrew just in case I need to clean it r or replace a bad pump. The battery seen is the mounting location in my original plans but I will get to mounting the battery later.

Great news! 16 hours later the tank is still water tight!

It might still leak over time due to vibration and flexing as it moves?... but you could also use a water bladder inside the hold. Or even spray coat a rubber substance all around the interior.

Looking good Josh

Yes I may spray the inside with liquid rubber sealer.

I think that's a good idea.

Tiny update - I recieved the goody box from brett that had the blower fan from s cpu cooling setup in it and I also recieved the pump. Its soo tiny!

Ok the stock gearbox works but one box makes lots of racket. Like grinding rocks but visually the gears look fine. So I found another robie and its on its way. It was just 26 dollars.

Besides the spare robot im waiting for I am also waiting on tubing and the windshield washer nozzles I will use to spray mopping solution. They will arrive Nov 9. However I can finish up the water tank since the pump arrived today :)

6V pump test fit. I also tested pump speed and it has much more that I need so I may reduce the voltage or add a restrictor to slow down the amount of water. Without restriction this pump would empty squeegees entire tank within 30 seconds.

Ok i have been doing some testing on the blowers for some reason I couldnt get the dc blower to work without pulsing the power. I couldnt get it to as well as I thought.. weird? So I picked up a dc blower from radioshack with the same specs and hooked it up to 6 volts. It worked much better but I felt like it might not be enough to dry a floor. I then tried the blower with 12v and. Wow what a difference! It really moved some air. Because of this I came up with the idea to jump the voltage up from 6v battery supply to 14 to 16 volts so that it has plenty of gusto to clean the floor. Here's the pic of the two blowers tried and test fits into the base between the gearboxes.

I must have ordered enough power sonic batteries to get a discount code , the code is in the picture.

To bring the voltage up to where I need im going to use a lm2577 based board that claims to be good for 3 amps output but the blower only draws. 1.6 and after voltage hike around 1.9 amps.

That fan looks like it was meant to be there.

Yea once agian I got lucky on the design fitting just right. Even though this is a simple project that I will have working in a few days it should really spank some of the retail robots you can buy. Specifically the scooba and the newer scooba like bot from I robot.

With the fan inside I wanted to check clearences. Looks like I need to shave 1/4" so every thing fits in the front half.

Brett sent me this lazy Susan bearing. I might take it apart hmmm test fitting and theres a tiny gap.

Wow! Moving really quickly and looking good Josh! You might have to buy up all the Robie Jr.s out there and convert and sell them! haha The Starnes Squeegee matic!

Thanks man! I had to "make a little room" for the blower. I trimmed 1/8" off the bottom and remove 1/4" tab from the top.

After clearing away plastic I made plenty of room for both the blower itself and also a air duct which I still must make to direct air to the back and angled down.

Now its time to fill some holes. I opted to use cheap fiberglass polyester resin for this. I backs small holes with tape and large ones with a plastic sheet.

Unlike epoxy fiberglass polyester resin will shrink about 1 percent. So pouring this into the area is fine. When it hardens it will have a couple millimeters gap all the way around. I believe I will sand this a bit too. I can use ca glue to adhere it later.

THat looks cool. Where do you get that stuff?

Home depot , lowes , walmart , autoparts store or even boat supply store. Its polyester based for general fiberglass work but you can use it for other small things too. You gotta put liquid hardener in it. Its a liquid version of bondo..

Very interesting and cool build. I can't wait to see the end result.

Thanks LJ , I hate mopping so I descided to make a gadget. All im waiting on now is the windshield washer nozzles which they tried to deliver today and I missed them.

Tiny update : the windshield washer sprayers arrived today as well so all I need now is hose to run from the pump to sprayers . :)

I had to ext the wires and create a waterproof connection.

First three water sprayer tests...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzigqFAXEA0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hey Josh, what if you moved the sprayer nozzle further around toward the front of the bot? The natural curve of the bot should help to direct the water flow. Also, maybe you can find more of a misting nozzle so you don't use quite as much water. Just some thoughts. But it is looking soooo cool.

Ok I added the external fill cap from another milk jug I had...

I sealed the seams of the tank with epoxy and filled it up. Im now going to give it a overnight test with hot water to make sure there are no leaks and the new fill cap is water tight. I did find one hiccup.... the windshield washer nozzle broke while doing the last test and nozzle fell out... wow how cheap. Ill buy a new set.

12 hrs later great news! The water tank and both water caps are air and water tight..

You can see the water level through the cap..... I am considering making a clear strip that you can see fluid level and also a led inside to backlight it...

Looking really great Josh! You are really flying on this build.

Thanks brett! The second robie jr arrived which I will use to swap gearboxes and I may cast a copy of the front bumper...

Ok new gearboxes and tires are in place! Thats progress kids!

Sprayer mounted dead center . Possibly I may use two sprayers off center but one helps limit the amount of fluid coming out to just one set of nozzles. One nozzle was pointed straight down. Once I adjust that its all good.

That's good placement. Good idea. And should put out plenty of water.

Test video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Xdz8ctYxM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Glued in the topper insert that the cam will eventually mount to.

Wow, that sprayer works great! Have you figured out how much run time you will have on 1 tank?

I will test constant run time before I go to bed. My idea is to pulse on and off the pump to save water though. I fitted the head with the ez cam and made a video. Lol had a tiny accident.

Ez cam in squeegee head test / demonstration video . I used the original base plate and attached it to a servo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob1gRsaUTuM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Water tank duration test - I ran two nozzles full blast at 6 volts to the pump and it maintained a steady stream for more than five minutes continuously. If I use pwm to slow down the pump or pulse it on and off I should have plenty of water to mop with. Best part is the pump is silent!.

Servo successfully installes with 4 screws

LOL... best line... "Robot seizure" then crash Almost like you planned it. Your "weee" little bot is looking good there Josh!

Ha ha ha I know right , I couldnt have timed it that well if I tried! Thank you for the compliment.

That was funny! Looked like a droid getting hit with the Force. I love the neatness of this build.

The windshield sprayers already broke so im getting another set from autozone in a minute. Hopefully I can get a ezb in there tonight..

5Th test with 2 nozzles . Money!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBnMRFBMxxs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Nice!

Ok so maybe I might not have ezb in tonight but ill do what I can...

You like I wired the lights to power on when pumping?

Ok for reasons I dont know the pump now makes some noise , not a lot but I do wonder why its making the noise. You can hear it in the most recent YouTube video where the previous ones where silent.

Ok squeegee gets a led array , I may use all of them for IR or maybe have a couple be visible spectrum. This is so squeegee can see at night or in my homes case low light... I may also have a battery indicator light on the back as well right above the tank..

Mounting in h bridges , one is to operate the left and right main drive and second powers the 6 volt pump and maybe the blower. Now I still need to find a good mounting position for the battery , ezb and step up booster to 12 volts for the dc blower.

I mounted them upside down. I was going to mount one on each side of the camera but I was concerned about air flow for the heatsinks. Mounting them like this I believe I can fit in a small fan to keep them both cool.

I love this little guy. It makes me think of MO the sweeper bot on Wall-e. :)

Alright found a problem the h bridges heatsink cant be in the same place as the battery so I may very well need to put the h bridges on either side of th battery or on either side of the camera. Right now im cleaning out a junked up closet and rearranging my room so I can work on robots more in my personal space instead of the kitchen.

@ troy thanks man! Im still trying to get ezb , the h bridges , battery , and ultrasonic in there now. Im considering using a 12 volt sealed lead acid I bought a long time ago but I think its only rated 1.2 - 1.6 ah.... ill research it but there are no markings on the battery.

Ah Ha! I have 6 x 12 volt 1.4 ah lead acid mini batteries. 2 of these batteries are 2.8 ah and that just might do the trick of giving optimal power to my blower hmmm well before I get excited I need to measure and also charge /test these batteries. They are nee as far as I know but ive had them almost 2 years.

Finally im migrating projects to my creative desk so I can cook in the kitchen agian. Maybe I can make it presentable enough to bring a girl over.

Ok I accidentally got a drop of superglue on the dome. I wiped off most of it and took 2000 grit to it to get the glue off. Hopefully I can polish this dome and bring it back to its original luster (and before I dropped glue on it)

Hey Josh, maybe the headlight repair kit sold at auto parts place will bring it back.

Well all those are is high grit sandpaper wheels and rubbing compound. Those kits are pricy so I think I will just buy the pieces individually I need. I headlight restore kits at walmart were 40 dollars wow these poor customers getting way overcharged.

What about the dome off the other Robie Jr. you have? Or you could cut a slot there for where the camera pans.

Noooo slot cutting thats tacky (no offense ofcourse) I will just fix it the right way. 2000 grit wet sand , buffing compound and polishing compound. Anyways I brought the little guy with me today to work to brain storm how I will mount some stuff and wire things....

Oh yes , wet sanding and polishing at my desk... dedication

And a tolerant employer... that is very nice to have!

Lol long as I get my job done!

Yep, and if you do sales on the phone, then it is either polish or knitting :)

Ugh ok a few tests and I ive come to the conclusion the dc blower is not an efficient use of power. It would use more than any other motor or pump in the robot . On the bright side this increases runtime and makes the robot more quiet than with the blower running. Not having a blower will also improve the battery and ezb mounting options. I was very upset when I did the tests , but after I sleep it off I will look at the bright side tommorow.

@brett yea I did nothing but make the dome worse trying to polish it so I will need to use the other robie jr dome...

What happened? Did it frost it entirely? Save that dome though! You never know if you might need it. Paint it over for something else.

Yea its frosted and I buff it and polish it and it stays cloudy. I must have spent 4 hours buffing it and then came home and tried using the polishing wheel for the dremel and that was worse than hand buffing it. Your right though ill just paint that bad boy later I believe. I planned on doing two mop robots so I guess the next one just wont have a clear dome. No big deal.

Paint on the inner surface and have random placed flashing leds inside against it. Might work. :)

Mua ha ha . Squeegee number two.... or whatever I call the second one sounds like he will have a painted dome.

Ok work continues , I robbed the caster off the other robie because its heavier duty than my other casters I have on hand. I cut it out in a square to make it easier to splice into place on squeegee. I placed the caster in the rear where most the weight is due to the battery and water tank. I imagine the front will float along with little actual load.

Remounted the h bridge..

YouTube video of squeegee ultrasonic radar movement test. This is a tiny servo that brett sent me..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffwx222ZOMY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thanks for the shout out - I'm glad that little servo works for you. He is really coming along now. What color are you going to paint him?

Yea I couldn't fit a standard servo so it was literally just what I needed. Color? Hmm im really not sure. I love red but it also looks great white. What do you think? I will make a second robie jr robot I believe but im not sure if it will be just like it or not. I may do a different drive system. I really want to buy a rover to do somthing with.

Ok im pretty sure im painting squeegee white tonight using my favorite rattle can brand. Rustoleum. Its 5 dollars a can vs 3 but ive always had a great finish that resisted chipping , peeling , and light scratches. I will do this in a mono color and I believe ill make a vanity cover for the ultrasonic so the paint color matches as well.

Painting begins.... first I had to sand down the water squirters because the finish was horrible. Sprayer on the left is prepped with 600 grit

I sprayed just the sprayers and dropped them in place to dry a while. I took this pic to show how bright and clean this finish looks over the original white.

Dude, you've been busy Squeegee is looking good, can't wait to see him in action :D

Yea super busy lol..... more pics

I want things to match. I got the bright idea to paint the case and antenna of ez cam. Once I did that I figured I would paint the servo and ultrasonic too.

I carefully cut circles from tape and covered the grills of the sender and reciever on the ultrasonic rangefinder to protect them. I only sprayed the front which Does not have any open electrical tracings. I would like this robot to be clean and neat as possible.

I took the wheels apart and the outside half of the wheels I sanded and sprayed as well.

The only piece I cant spray is the front torso because I need to fill pin holes and sand it well. Because the sprayer nozzles are sitting in the holes of the torso drying I cant really get to that till tommorow. Its 335 am now so my puppies and fish are ready to go to bed...... even puffer fish is tired of watching me work.....

Goodnight everyone..

I checked the painted parts. They were very tacky still but looked great. This may be because of the low temp last night and this am. I can tell I need to stick these in a warmer a while or somthing. Otherwise it looks pretty good. Im so inpatient! I want this little dude together now! I may drop the parts in the oven @ 100 degrees F for a couple hours to harden up this painy quicker. While thats drying I can bondo the front of squeegee. Im considering completely filling the lines accross the front too. I need to purchase another sander from where I accidentally threw mine away.

I'm digging on puffer fish...and squeegee

Thank you ok here is finished product of the paint on the cam.

Maybe I will paint the camera reciever white to match. Hmmm I need a label maker lol

That colour coordination will look really sharp :)

Thanks gunner. Im a big fan of a clean looking bright white robot. The paint is still tacky to the touch after 24 hours. Im sure its a temp issue. I turned the oven on to 120 f my lowest setting and left the door open. I will check it often but the parts need warmth to cure.

I filled the holes and wet sanded the front of the torso.... now all the painted parts of the robot are in the oven for an hour.

I did a test fit and found the battery is in plain view so I painted the bottom half to help clean up the look.

Squeegee is together for the first time! I will need to replace ti base but no problem because I bought the spare robie jr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5W6Cgve3yE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Because I cut up the base so much and reglued it , the base warped a bit. I will cut the battery box off the spare and move the caster bearing over so it is a farely simple fix.

I brought him to work to brain storm how to connect a sponge to tohe bottom and the microfiber cloth.

He looks awesome Josh! What about velcro for the sponge?

Because so far ive used velcro for everything else right? Lol the hard part would be sewing the velcro pad to the spong and shammy which I would sew by hand. Im considering gluing magnets inside the base and the shammy and let magnets do their thing.

Ooooh tiny idea here but I have 4 unused roomba brush motors and gearboxs. Maybe I could install one or two and just put the brush mounting screw through a washer and screw it directly to the gearbox. Then maybe it would having a spinning / scrubbing action.

Ok I picked up supplies to pursue this rotating shammy idea. I picked up the coolest looking microfiber shammies I could find. I tested the roomba motors on 12 volts. They seem to be strong enough to rotate a small 4 to 5 inch shammy wheel. However I researched this and the roomba battery powers the roomba motors at between 15.4 and 17 volts. This means I can use the voltage step up modules I purchased to raise the voltage as high as I can reasonably get it. Probably 16 volts. Is what I will go for because thats "happy medium" between what the existing roomba models run at. That being said I will be increasing the voltage from the batteries 6v 2.5 times meaning whatever current this motor draws at 16 volts is actually 2.5 times as much from the 6 volt battery (even more because step up or down transformers are not 100 percent efficient).

Thats great that the roomba brushes have enough torque for it.

Nice fix!

Ok heres the motors and gearboxs being used...

As you can see installation of replacement pads should be easy. Just one screw. Painted the usb receiver to match and I will be getting a label maker soon. Trying not to mix these guys up. This is the microfiber material I am thinking I will use to cut smaller pads from that can spin.

Cool. Should clean really well.

Ok I think I scrapped the motor idea due to limited space. I will just do one solid mop. Im prepping my backup base and making it strong as possible to reduce chance of flexing or warping. Filled the front hole where a caster once was and glued the battery door shut.

You could start a TV show. "Pimp My Bot"

Lol I could take requests like a radio station.

I removed the battery box and epoxied in the battery door but this time I didn't dremel out the little ridges in the plastic andbi left a 1/4" lip around the door from where I cut the battery box away. I did these things to make the frame much more rigid.

Ok I spent a couple hours playing with shammy ideas. It appears the thinnest option a plain sponge will work the best. Its funny how some if the best solutions are low tech. ::shrug::

Thats true. It's going to be cool to see your crew of bots having the run of the place.

If I get lucky squeegee will have his first movements tommorow. Well less luck and more me buckling down to do it and ignoring distractions.

Josh! Cute fish. What is his/her name?

Can't wait for video! Squeegee is awesome.

The fish. I just call him puffer.

@brett im hoping I can get the hbridge and ezb on tonight.

Sounds like an appropriate name. I used to have one. He was a little bit smaller. He got eaten by a largemouth bass. It killed both of them. I did not expect the large mouth to eat him. Yours is a beautiful one. Your Aquarium is so big, maybe we could all go on a fishing trip one day. We could fish out of your aquarium. ha!ha! It seems to work for Snoopy very well.

In all seriousness. It is a nice aquarium.

Thanks mel , its a work in progress like everything else! Lol

No real work today. I just got some warm air on the ez cam reciever to cure the finish.... ta da!

I spent the day celebrating my step dads bday and moved the files over to the new computer. Afterwards they gave me the pc woohoo another potential ez robot brain? We will see I will clean it up and install win 7.

Update :

Ok first day on morning shift at my job has left me a bit drowsy but i wanted to make progress. I switched the base out with the spare which fit like a glove with no problems. I cut away the original bumper and modified it for a flushed in cleaner look. I learned this with years of custom cars. The bumper cover now fits tight with no gaps on the edges or the top.

If you take a look a previous pics and videos the base and bumper is poorly aligned. A hour or two of trimming and glue put the bumper and base in the position it should be...... in not having a fit about the base anymore . lol

just like it was made for it...lol

Tiny update: i woke up at 1am and had some ideas to make the front and rear pads and also include a flexible rear squegee as well. Here are several pictures. The pads are made from 4 scotch / 3m sponges , velcro , flexible rubber squeeze blade, microfiber cloth material.

The front is 2 scotch springs with a velcro backing and a stiff white mesh gives a non scratching scrubbing action on the door. The middle is microfiber fingers to catch dust particulate. The rear pad is the same sponge on the front but the front leading edge has a flexible squegee blade. I will cover the rear sponge with a microfiber mesh as well..

That looks awesome!

https://www.radioshackdiy.com/project-gallery/meet-squeegee-floor-mopping-robot-powered-ez-robot

Squeegee was added to the Great Create Radioshack DIY projects gallery EZ-Robot got a shout out!

Nice work Josh!

Very cool. Post a video!

Sure will! Ive just been so busy shopping and wrapping for the holidays. I will get the little guy moving autonomously and take a video soon..

Extra Robie Jr just arrived! Since squeegee is meant to be dedicated to one room it only makes sense that he will have a sibling. Some parts may be swapped but for this robot I may leave some things like the bumper switch so it may get closer to objects when cleaning. Anyone need a good Robie Jr remote?

Im not sure if I will make another build thread... well see.

Nice Josh...you are a robot man man!

Thankyou sir! The robie jr tires are in rough shape so im casting new ones in blue silicon

It takes 2 -4 hours for a tread to fully cure. I would have matt make me three sets but I cant afford him. So I just gotta do it myself for about 2 dollars a set. ;)

For anyone repeating this on a larger item the thicker / deeper the silicon the longer it takes to cure. 3 to 5mm is 2 to 4 hours. Twice the depth give twice the time. Silicon is soft in comparison to 60 shore rubber so it has plenty of grip even on smooth floors.

In the morning... the first blue tread I went ahead and filled the mold for a second tire

Those look really nice Josh, and I love the color. That should be really grippy for those damp floors after he cleans the floors.

Ive found that the rtv silicon is stretchy and grippy. Molding them in the plaster of paris molds gives a smooth yet textured surface. Ive considered making custom tracks for rad base so they would fit tighter, but thats just an idea.

Ive made 4 replacement treads which seem very grippy

Ok so I wired up the ezb and a hbridge , I tried to use the Movement Panel and no luck. Firmware has been updated and I followed the tutorial video like my life depended on it. At first only the right wheel would turn then nothing at all. Any suggestions? I have been working on the little guy the past couple of hours and its late now so hopefully ill figure somthing out. Anyone think there is somthing different about this hbridge?

Hmmmmm - that's the H-Bridge I use and it works fine for me. But it did take a lot of trial and error to get my motors to do what I wanted - trying to figure out what wire went where and what ports I needed to have for what. I can check MiniB tonight and see how mine is wired up for comparison.

i got mine to work but had a lot of trial and error with that H-Bridge... I converted my robot to esc's and used the servo Movement Panel instead.

Ok im concerned there is somthing wrong with this h bridge that makes it work different. It has a stepper motor option and I believe that may be a problem. I bought 4 more standard l298n controllers without the stepper option and will swap them out.

Looks like the rear may drag too much so I may utilize a ball caster to prevent him from dragging. Perhaps one in the front and one in the back centered sounds good to me.

Ok excellent news! The small plastic ball casters I ordered arrived and now I can mount a couple on squeegee to make sure he can move without too much resistance. I will install these and then start troubleshooting this h bridge. If I don't have it moving in about 20 minutes im just going to swap this l297 out for a standard I one sold in the ezrobot store.

I also purchased a new digital Volt/ohm meter and new standard l298n h bridges for this project. Because the soldering iron I was using was an old 15 watt I purchased a new variable wattage iron more suited for this project. On the list is to purchase a digitally controlled and isolated soldering iron and station. This 30 watt variable will be fine for now ;)

I understand now, I am using the H-bridges that DJ sells and it works fine. I think those casters will work great.

I tried two different h bridges and I still could not get it moving. Hmmm times like this make me wish I had a oscilloscope. I tried using different sets of ports , like d0 -d5 and still no change , its weird. Anyways maybe I can test digital port by watching for 5 volt positive coming off the signal pin. That sound right? Just trying to verify ports are pushing the signals they should. I have two more ezb on the way but I would love to have him running before that I inserted this small ball caster with included screws on the rear of the chassis. Works very smooth :)

Weller digital like mine is the best soldering station you can buy if you buy cheap it wont last very long.

looking at the best in meters is FLUKE they are always #1

ultra high precision is H.P 6 DIGIT METER and they make 10 digit meter also 6 digits i use for calibration.

But if looking for a good meter is should be able to check capacitors,frequency and have min max ,thats a good meter for robots FLUKE MODEL 189 4 1/2 DIGITS is a perfect meter for that i had it for about 10 years never went bad,calibration still perfect

JUST some of mine expert tips on buying test equipment

what would me a cool cleaning robot is to use one of neato,or roomba or ironbot MINT as the base for robie jr and take out most of the parts.

I idea i had for awhile,i have robie jr in mint condition so cant use him,but i think i have another robie jr bought so many many robots are to keep track of them,only reason i remember my robie jr in mint condition is that the box in on one of my shelfs and can see him easy

also that blower fan ,it looks like it was from a neato XV-11 model,i have so many of them over 20 if you need one.

i sell neato xv-11 parts on ebay ,mostly the motors go super fast and LIDAR NAVIGATION SENSOR it also sells fast one guy on here bought one.

@brett , thanks! They look good and wont scratch up a floor and can hold at least 6 pounds. Im considering installing two side by side for durability reasons but it rolls smooth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnioK7sg2s4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Showing how I did my connections... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZyv6MeYIWA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

First movement from replaced h bridge , now I just gotta figure out the configuration and reverse polarity on one of the motors and I should be good. I will update once they move as desired and add pwm control to slow dude down a bit.

JOSH what happen to your omnibot 2000 project ,no updates for a very long time

I want to get time sensitive things working first. Squegee , the three battle bots then Jarvis gets some love.

JARVIS is upset with you i think

YesYes he is lol. But my roommate who just moved out made a point that hit me in my gut. None of my projects are autonomous yet. So my goal is to get squeggee cleaning first then the battle bots because of the up coming faire. I'm taking my time on Jarvis he's much more than a toy for sure.

OK so I've been moved for 8 weeks and its time to get things working. I found the box the squeegee parts were in. I tested the first radar I painted white and it had an issue reading objects beyond about 8 inches... So I had to junk it. I hot glued another fresh new sensor to the servo and it was reading well. Here's a short video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7WDAC4UDMc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Also I have the hbridge issue fixed. I had two bridges in a row that the second channel would only go forward but not reversed. I found this was a hardware issue. The third bridge works great! Lastly I started on the camera and I honestly ask myself.... Does a mop need a camera? What do you think? I am considering just mounting ezb inside the dome and show off the electronics. As far as docking it really doesn't matter because I need to fill it with fluid and rinse the pad once a week so I can just plug little dude up to charge.

Yeah, I think the camera isn't needed. And I like the idea of the "brain" being shown off.

Josh, this little guy is so cool. I am in awe of how you can manage to fit so many things in such a small space. You are inspiring me to consider making a cleaning robot of my own.

Thank you guys for the compliments it really makes my day to have positive feedback. Looks like I will just loose the camera as its not really needed for its purpose. As for future docking capabilities I could use an IR homing beacon just like all the other cleaning devices :). At least till I get the initial bugs worked out I will plug it in manually to charge.

@RGordon - Sure! you should make a cleaning robot or two. Surprised at how many of the home cleaning robots are very basic yet they charge 500 dollars. The only thing I found to hard wood was a robot swiffer called mint. So its still cool to make my own :)

Not impressive first movement video. I have two bugs. Right and left movement is reversed and poorly placed wiring is causing the radar to get jammed in place when it makes the starboard sweep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ZdulTGOn4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Good to see the little guy getting around. I also like the idea of the EZ-B inside the dome. I think you are right, don't need a camera for this one.

@jstarne1 I really like the way you mounted the US and H bridges. I think it's only a small matter of time before your shop will be squeegee clean.

Thanks, I may need to relocate the battery or h bridges tonight so the ultrasonic can turn without anything getting in the way. White is OK but I'm considering a color that's pretty and blends in better since its an appliance.

It was a perfect day to give your little robot independent movement. July 4th!

I bet it was a good feeling to see him move around for the first time after all this time and your hard work. He looks great! I can see myself building one of these. I hate mopping.

Well done! Cant wait to see him move around with the bugs worked out.

Alright after three hours of careful wire trimming , rerouting and soldering I have nearly everything hooked up and out of the way of the ultrasonic. I had to find a screw small enough to mount the horn as hot glue was not doing the job. Things are going well but my controls are inversed and I'm trying to figure out how to get them right. Forward and Reverse are working properly but right and left are swapped. How should I change the port arrangement in ARC. I didn't wanna swap the wiring because I had to cut things down to a needed length. Here's the ports arrangement now..

Its 4am here so I'm calling it a night.

As always, your work is well done!

Looking great.

As for the H-Bridge, I've answered that topic for you, read it from the top without reading the last part and see if you can work out what you have wrong before I eventually get to the answer :)

He's looking fantastic Josh! And Rich's answer is spot on (as always).

Honestly I don't known if I rushed but I missed the answer in the thread and rich had to simplify it :: face palm::! Lol

Thanks Bret , rich , troy and DC ! I want squeegee running so I have more to show than a fish tank that turns itself on and off. I'm home now so I will make the adjustments and test.

The last three things to work out are the sprayer pump function, IR sensors to detect stairs and lastly the a circuit to monitor when motors stall in case the ultrasonic misses something.

And now I can't connect to my ezb :/ rebooting and removing the Bluetooth profile to start all over. I wish this kind of thing didn't happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcTjQ3ubYm8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

OK so I removed the profile and readded it. I had to try like 20 times but I got it connected. Maybe I need to charge this battery ? Hmm well anyways here is squeegee in the bathroom experimenting with the radar. I may need additional sensors to determine if squeegee is trapped like behind a toilet. Any feedback based on the video?

It does appear for this project to be considered successful a custom navigation and obstacle avoidance script is needed badly. What I noticed in this short test is that only turning one direction Squeegee continues in a loop. Suggestions are very welcome.

The ping roam script I wrote may work better than the radar control - it's been a while since I used it but the latest one had boxed in escape routines in it and should he pretty simple to customise too. I think it may still go in circles but throwing in a few more ifs could easily solve that. I've been meaning to get back on to that for some improvements so if you do try it any suggestions on it would be welcomed.

Copy & paste it from here or from the cloud.

A simple op-amp based current monitor circuit on one of the ADCs should detect if he is stuck anywhere and sensors haven't picked up on in, or a bumper switch around the edge of him maybe?

As for unable to connect to bluetooth, I have that problem on occasion and haven't solved it yet. Power cycling seems to solve it though, but one thing I have noticed is if I power cycle and when plugging the battery back in I miss or slip so it powers it for a fraction of a second, breaks the power and then re-energises it the bluetooth wont connect until I disconnect the power again, leave it for a few seconds and reconnect.

@Josh ..I really liked your vid because it shows real world testing! I think the robot was working a area that really needs it . and not trapped! I was thinking a solution with more IF's in a script as Rich suggested like after not going straight after a number of predetermined turns to send an alarm either audible or flashing lights. @Josh and @Rich The issue of the bluetooth stalling and subsequent power cycling to bring it back happens to a fair number of people....which brings me back to the Watchdog timer thread I start and replied to by Rich with very good ideas. Can the bluetooth "lockup" be remotely solved with an external watchdog timer circuit that can power cycle the EZ-Board? ! just my thoughts :)

OK so I added a circuit that connects to this 3.5mm headphone jack as a charger. I am using a digital Schumacher 1.5 a 6 volt charger.

Alright , I'm charging up this battery right now. In the mean time does anyone have a for sure ADC circuit schematic or drawing that I can use to detect the motors stalling? Once I make that sensor I will start playing with Rich's example to see what we can so to make this an effective little robot.

Playing with IR sensors right now while the battery.is charging. I'm thinking of simple ways that the robot can identify its trapped or in a tight spot and back up. Also I need it not to take a trip down the stairs lol.

Have you tried the circuit DJ put up a while back? Thread link Hmmm, well at second look it isnt as clear a circuit as you needed. I will look around for a better reference unless someone else has one already.

Josh, does your H-Bridge have a current sense pin? Some boards like the Dagu Rover 5 Motor Driver Board has one.

www.sparkfun.com/products/11593

Also check this thread by DJ from last year.

synthiam.com/Community/Questions/11

I like that driver board. Great if youre going with 4 drive motors. I will bookmark it. Thanks!

Josh, will this do what you need? It has a good write up about it.

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1185

Mmmmmm, Pololu.

I love Pololu. Great little boards.

Here is info from www.societyofrobots.com www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=14287.0

Current Sense IC

This ~$5 chip, using a really tiny resistor and a built in high gain amplifier, outputs a voltage in proportion to the current passing through it. Put the chip in series with what you want to measure, and connect the output to a data logging device such as a microcontroller.

This particular schematic below can measure current use of a servo. But it can easily measure current from any other device with no modification - and even multiple items simultaneously too! The capacitor is optional as it acts as a voltage buffer, ensuring maximum continuous current.

Another link to look at that talks about current sensing.

www.romanblack.com/current.htm

Link to a current sensor by DFRobot.com

www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=580#.Udj1fW0rNyk

Adafruit do a board too, I ordered one to test out on Melvin or Jarvis (and if it works well I'll get another). Simple breakout board, nothing fancy, INA169 Analog DC Current Sensor Breakout

Josh, do you still have that extra Robie Jr remote? I just bought my son a Robie Jr and it didn't come with one.
Nadine

Dude I love ur squggie robot its really awesome and very usefull I'd love to have one in my home much better than Iroomba