Project Hearoid.

Rich

United Kingdom
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Now I have the EZ-B kit and the Hearoid it's time to start my Showcase thread.

I still haven't decided on a name for him yet, all suggestions are welcome.

I won this robot on ebay weeks ago, for the past 2 weeks he has been waiting for me to collect him...
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Today was the day, a road trip to pick him up and bring him back to his new home...
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In his new home (with Omnibot and Wall-e in the background totally unaware they are next in line to be opened up)
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It wasn't long before this happened...
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Now waiting to go in the dishwasher to get nice and clean.

The plan is to make him autonomous, running 24/7 (except for when he knows to go charge himself up) but will also be adding in the various image tracking options.

The only other slight modifications to be made to him are to convert the head to tilt & pan which will involve having to give him a small neck.

The head will include the camera. I haven't yet decided to fit it in one of his eyes or to make it his nose. The issue to overcome with this is the blue tint on the bubble head. The mouth will have a light or some lights in which flicker when he speaks.

The arms will be given some life with servos at the shoulder joints and the elbows provided I can get them to fit in there nicely.

Ultrasonic sensor will be in his chest, probably on a servo to give a wider view.

Original drive wheels and gearbox seem to be in very good shape so will plan to reuse those and just replace the existing motors for the modified servos if they can manage the task.

Speaker and microphone will be in the original positions - if it's not broke why fix it?

Not too big a project but enough to give me a test, help me learn and bring an old robot back to life.

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#521  
@RICH I guess i will ask you the same question you ask me,HAVE YOU FINISHED 100% any robots you made using EZB ?
#522  
@toymaker,@Rich,@ Troy........ personalites, character ,behaviour and emotions truly sets great robots apart from toy robots or science robots. Roomba's are ok but totally lack personality IMO... Rich your solution to provide emotions is awesome....@Troy lights also can give a lot of personality...An R2 D2 unit with whistles and lights and a little movement made it very endearing. For me adding a cool personality is a bigger kick then solving an engineering issue...though that can be a pretty big kick...like landing Curiosity on Mars WOW
United Kingdom
#523  
@robotmaker, you can see the progress made with Melvin if you read the 53 pages of posts. You can see he has evolved from what he was once going to be. There is a high chance that he will never be 100% complete. You can follow the progress of Jarvis on his showcase topic also.
Testbot was complete however has now been re-purposed. EZ-BoxBot was completed but was not documented and has since been re-purposed.

@irobot, thanks.
#524  
SAME on my omnibot design and my lynxmotion johnny five very big projects
#525  
You should try and put these on Melvin. LOL

United Kingdom
#526  
I was looking at some similar to that before the brain transplant. Unfortunately Melvin has kind of ground to a halt for a while now.
#527  
@Troy
Those eyes are cool but cost more than a 3d printer!
Better to just make your own. They cost more than $1500.
Just buy eyes from China and print the rest unless you are good at painting eyes then make your own.
Any Elvis on ebay would be cheaper and comes with the eyes, mouth and more.
#528  
@mcsdaver
It was kind of a tongue in cheek comment because they look kinda creepy. I can imagine that using the video someone can reproduce the way it's done on a 3D printer.
#529  
There is a tutorial on the net somewhere about how to make the eyes Exactly like that. But, it is so much work, I would rather buy them already made.
:)
#530  
Hey , Rich.

I have read through every one of these posts, all 54 of them. You have a very nice robot. I was looking for more information on Jarvis-the software. You seem to have him working in your home in some of the videos. I have downloaded and installed and ran Jarvis. But, my Jarvis doesn't seem as advanced as yours. I just need a link to help find all of the specs.

** I would like to thank you for all of your contributions on the forum. You have made a tremendous difference since you arrived on the forum. ** (please forgive my spelling. This forum doesn't have a spell check and I am not a very good speller.)
United Kingdom
#531  
I was bored... So since he is almost done:)
#532  
Rich,

Hows it going, been sometime! Thought I would pop in, and see how your project is going. Nice job!

Den
United Kingdom
#533  
I was hoping to have him finished this month, which may still happen but I have realised we are over half way through now. Work along with other hobbies seem to have been taking priority lately.

Basically all that is left to do is fit the IR sensors to the base, sort out the arms (going back to simple one servo per arm for now) then strip him down for filling and painting.

I did find I need a couple more BlinkMs in the head though since the new position I have it mounted in doesn't fill the brain with light but focuses on one area, I could move it back but then the light leaks from the head which I didn't want.

I'm also very tempted to upgrade the V3 to a V4 but that will have to wait until funds allow me to do so, by which time they should be readily available (if I keep spending money like I have been we will be on the V57 by then :D)

So yeah, he is getting there slowly. And once all that is done then I need to rewrite all of the scripts since they either have incorrect syntax now or I've figured out better ways of writing them. I don't think the software side for him will ever be complete though as I'll be forever adding features to him as and when I think them up.
#537  
Rich,
I can,t wait to see the new adventures of Hearoid, M.E.L.V.I.N.
My favorite features are the sneeze, mood lights, and brain lights.
I also liked the original blue head bubble.
Nice Bot.
Steve S
United Kingdom
#538  
Thanks Steve.

He should be getting some TLC soon but work has been busy as has personal life.

I did hope to have him finished over my Christmas/new year break but that turned out to be busy and I've not really stopped since.

I have a load more small features like the sneeze ready for Melvin:) It's all in the tiny details as far as I'm concerned. Sure, the big fancy robots are great and all but make them seem real and it doesn't matter if it's a small Wall-E or a huge B9.
#539  
I hope you continue this build!
He makes for a very cool robot.
United Kingdom
#540  
I will do but a lot of other stuff has got in the way this year. I was waiting for the regulators to be stocked in the store so I can upgrade Melvin to a V4 so now they are in stock hopefully in the new year I'll get back on to him.