I know I should finish Melvin before starting a new build but Josh's Jarvis has inspired me to give my JARVIS a physical form.
Some already are aware that I already have a JARVIS like system installed in my whole house which carries out a multitude of tasks from being an automatic PVR (like Tivo but better), controlling the heating and hot water system, controlling lights... too much to list really but one day I will attempt it.
Anyway, since it doesn't currently use ARC or an EZ-B I haven't posted much about it on here, but that's changing for 2 reasons...
1. To inspire you guys to open a can of awesomeness and
2. Because finally JARVIS will become a real robot rocking an EZ-B.
Basing the design around a RAD V1 robot
So far all I've done to the RAD is stripped it down - why they soldered every connection is beyond me!..
A lot of the choices I make on this project will be chosen by JARVIS. I will be adding some scripting so that I can ask him things like "What colour do you want to be?" and he will choose... this should make it interesting
Like I said, his brain is existing and has been for around 2 years, with new features being added all the time. You know what, let JARVIS tell you himself a little bit about him
For more, check out Jarvis Youtube Channel or www.JARV15.com (under construction)
Other robots from Synthiam community
Mcsdaver's Ai Dino Robot
Techcrab101's My Robot Keepon
He picked white by the way, which is a little bland but never mind. If that's what he wants that's what he will get
www.instructables.com
The instructables ones are very poor and not anywhere near what I want. Plus the size of it needs to be pretty much spot on and so far nobody has made one that's the right size.
Time to check that box in settings again
I was tempted to get the finned lower section made from aluminium too, but that's going to be inside the robot and barely seen so spraying a nylon printed part should look OK.
I can't find any palladium to use in it, no hardware stores stock it
http://www.providentmetals.com/bullion/palladium/pamp-suisse.html
Only $7745 for .999 fine palladium
Haven't done anything on it for a few days since I've been away but it may help people out.
Although to be honest, Jarvis has turned in to something of a test robot with the TellyMate and MMA (if I can ever get it working) lately. But further to that, he now sports a neat little current monitor.
More precisely an Adafruit INA169 breakout board which took away any complicated circuits, sourcing parts etc. and very easy to fit (fits inline with the power supply, V+ to the battery, V- to whatever you want to monitor - I chose just the H-Bridge, then Vout to ADC signal, VCC to ADC VCC and Ground to ADC ground). 1V = 1A so using the ADC value should be very simple and adding in a script to stop movement on high load current should be a piece of cake.
I'm waiting on more protoboard so I can knock up another voltage monitor circuit then I just need to fix them to the base and the lower portion is completed and ready to be painted.
Also, I have my I2C chip which should, if I have the circuit right, provide independent switching of 16 LEDs through the I2C bus. This is going in the head for the LEDs in there.
And lastly, another small protoboard to house 3 LEDs. One for a power indicator, one for a connection indicator and one for a fault indicator. I'll also be using the same proto board to provide a simple push switch circuit so a push to make switch will latch on with a single push and the same switch will also latch it off for a more professional feel.
It's getting there, while it may be slow it will get there in the end.
I now have the error checking set up with feedback through two LEDs that automatically turn on or off depending on the fault state. Faults so far are;
Low Battery
Disconnected Battery
Fault on Monitor Circuit
Over Current
Disconnection
This quick little video shows a demonstration of the connection status and the battery monitor since they were the easiest to emulate.
Basically, how it works is the LEDs are wired so that a Set(D8,On) command turns the blue LED on and red LED on, a Set(D8,Off) or disconnection turns the red LED on and blue LED off. This is achieved by connecting the Signal wire to the blue LED's anode and ground to the cathode and on the same port wiring the Signal wire to the red LEDs cathode and the VCC to the anode.
When the Signal goes high (or set to on) it becomes the VCC for the blue LED and current flows through the blue LED.
When the Signal goes low (or set to off) it becomes the ground for the red LED and current flows through the red LED.
When the EZ-B is disconnected all signal pins go low. A simple script sets the signal to high on connection. Additionally the Set(D8, Off) command has been added into the battery monitor script in all error checks and Set(D8, On) added to the portion of code which reports the voltages to the LCD display.
The current monitor works in a similar way.
As always, here's the protoboard layout for the LED circuit. 3 pin header connects to EZ-B with jumpers (you could solder wires direct if you wanted).
Throw a resistor between Vcc and an empty track (there are 2 there) and then another LED between that and ground and boom, you have a power indicator too.
What happened to Jarvis?
He has so much potential!
At least the physical robot is shelved. Jarvis still runs my house.