After receiving the Ez-B V4 development kit I was able to advance the build of my Wall-E with the insertion of the supplied continuous rotation servos and attachment of the the two tracks to the body. I'd spent a few months earlier gutting Wall-E and fitting servos for head rotation & tilt, eye twitch and two-way arm movement. I took a shortcut with the head movement by using a tilt/pan servo assembly that I got off ebay - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/PTZ-Pan-Tilt-Camera-Platform-Anti-Vibration-Camera-Mount-RC-1-2G-2-4G-5-8G-FPV-/161176233437?pt=AU_Toys_Hobbies_Radio_Controlled_Vehicles&hash=item2586da25dd
Once I attached the tracks I could not wait any longer and connected all servos to the Ez-B and powered it up with a 4 x AA power pack to bring Wall-E to life!. I was greeted with the now very familiar "my battery is low" greeting but eventually got around that after connecting Ez Builder via WiFi.
I've been toying with Wall-E & the Ez-B for over a week now, with some success but also faced many frustrating problems. The main ones I think are being caused by power supply. The Ez-B goes into Birko mode for no reason, moving servos to extreme positions & even reversing them. I also get Unhandled Exceptions in the software with a reference to a non-existent D:/directory. This could be Windows 8? I will elaborate more after further testing and list somewhere.
My first aim is to replicate some DJ's Wall-E by studying and adapting scripts from the Legacy Wall-E robots. This will take some time as I'm new to Ez-Builder. I've had success with auto positioning, voice recognition, simple start up scripts and even some face tracking using the camera blue-tacked to the top of Wall-E's head! I've also been able to use the mobile Interface on my Android phone.
I'm having problems slowing down the servos. The worst are the continuous rotation servos supplied in the Development Kit. Their speed is not adjustable by the ARC software, so Wall-E spins his tracks and travels at virtual "break neck" speed making him pretty unmanageable. It's also almost impossible to smooth out the movement of Wall-E's other servos via the software, It's either full speed or very jerky movements.
There are quirks in the software which I would like to list somewhere without getting flamed by the Elite in this forum. One example is the Voice Type. All 3 voices installed in my version of windows get listed in the Speech Settings Panel but the Voice type can't be changed from 'Hazel" even if changed by Windows, ARC insists on using "Hazel"
The Ez-B speaker is very muted inside the Wall-E body. I might try to re-connect the original speaker, although Its ohm rating is not displayed on the case
So, overall, I'm pretty happy and satisfied with the Ez-B V4 and the ARC software. I'm surprised how far I've come in a week of tinkering. If I can do it, anyone can!
Other robots from Synthiam community
Boon's Boon's Robot
Kazobond's Dude (Another Inmoov)
@Tony.... LOL... Had the same trouble with the arms as you did even before reading your post... Anyway... thanks for the tip, bought me some of those GS-9025MG servos....
Cheers Richard
I just got the V4 kit and the camera is quite noisy as well.
Hi @jstanley,
What kind of noise are you seeing? Is it static across the entire camera frame, or is it a grey bar at the bottom every once and a while?
What kind of lighting conditions are you in?
Could you post a screenshot if you don't mind? Thanks!
Oops maybe I misunderstood, do you mean that the camera adds noise to the speaker?
Yes @Jeremie, I think @jstanley means noise to the speaker (as I mentioned in my post #47 and attached video)
I've been away travelling for a few months but I'm back now, catching up with what's happened/happening on Ez-Robot
I see that noise from the inbuilt amplifier of the Ex-b V4 is now a known an accepted occurance on this forum and the "fix" is fitting an external Amp (as pioneered by Dave S!). I'll eventually get around to doing that
Besides the @jstanley comment I note there is no other mention of the speaker noise being accentuated by turning on the camera. I wonder what others are experiencing now that more Revolution robots have been shipped and built?
I have a couple EZB V4's and have 5 more on the way. The couple that I have don't have that issue. I will see if any of the coming 5 have the issue and post. I haven't seen any posts about it as if it were a prevalent issue.
it may be something as simple as adjusting how your wiring is in your robot, using a ferrite bead, or breaking out your power differently. I have one in a wall-E that is not much different than your build other than how power is ran. just a thought.
Thanks for your feedback @d.cochran. Good to see that you do not have this issue!
I did fiddle with the power extensively including different batteries, connectors and mains power supplies, use of ferrite rings, shielding of power and camer wiring, etc, all with no difference, inside or outside the Wall-E. There is definitley some feedback coming from the camere when switched on.
I have another Ezb-V4 and camera on order. That might help narrow it down? I did get one of the "first 100" hand built development kits