Project Hearoid.

@Dave, he apparently isn't all that good at understanding what people say either from what I've read about it. And on occasion gets confused and sets off the alarm clock in the middle of the night... I only received the head (plus a nicely detailed email regarding powering the LEDs and operating the eyes) so no electronic brain at all Something of a blessing I think.

Had a good day at it today and got the eyes sorted

Originally I was going to throw in a TIP circuit or H-Bridge to control the eye movement but when I took it all apart (after battling with mountains of epoxy) it was easier to replace the eye motor for a micro servo (which fitted almost perfectly!).

No pics, it's nothing special. But here we go with a new video of the blinking and eye movement.

You'll notice the mouth is missing, since there is no place for the camera on the brain, and when taking apart it looks to be pretty simple to bung the camera in to the mouth, it seems like a good idea. I've not done it yet so we will see come tomorrow.

All back together, camera fitted too which worked out great, you can barely see it. However I have lost the lights in the mouth, but a sacrifice worth making (especially since I'm low on spare ports)

I do have another video of it but for some reason it fails to want to play ball once it's off my phone and on my PC, I assume corruption in the transfer.

It's the tiny details that matter. At least to me

While it may not sound impressive or even look that impressive, now when the head turns left or right the eyes move to suit. So turning the head left the eyes move left while moving then center when done, moving right the eyes move right and center when done. Now I just need to figure out how to work that in with the camera tracking...

He has 3 pre-set scripts for moving the head (well 5 but up and down don't matter). Looking forwards was a little different as it depended on where the head was for where the eyes needed to looks. But it makes a good example of the GetServo(port) command.

The scripts;

# Look Left
Servo(D8,75)
Sleep(100)
Servo(D1,65)
Servo(D2,60)
Sleep(100)
Servo(D8,45)

# Look Right
Servo(D8,20)
Sleep(100)
Servo(D1,35)
Servo(D2,60)
Sleep(100)
Servo(D8,45)

# Look Forward
IF (GetServo(D1)<50)
  Servo(D8,75)
  Sleep(100)
ELSEIF (GetServo(D1)>50)
  Servo(D8,20)
  Sleep(100)
ENDIF 
Servo(D1,50)
Servo(D2,60)
Sleep(100)
Servo(D8,45)

D1 being the head pan servo with position 50 as center. D8 being the eyeball servo with position 45 being center (it moved on me when I fitted it and since I needn't use the complete range it was easier to have 45 as center).

Also a little video, although I'm not sure on how clear it is on the eyes, it may be too quick (just realised I have slow motion on my camera, might try that out);

Yes, I document everything and this topic is as much for my use as it is anyone else's. I know I will be referring to it to find out how I did something on him sometime in the future.

Melvin is so cool

Hey now you just need that clear bubble for the helmet. Very cool. Are you keeping the LEDs inside to get the brain to glow different colors?

I had to sacrifice the LEDs for a couple of reasons, however there is always space to add them back in if I need to throw a second EZ-B at it (which may happen - so much for the budget, keep as stock as possible ideas) or if I can get a good deal on a couple of I2C BlinkM LEDs.

The helmet, I have a couple of ideas about but they will come once all of the servos, motors, lights, arms etc. are finished. Basically it's one of two things, which will ultimately come down to if one of the ideas works. That is a Iron Man style visor, motorised of course To cover the whole front, hiding the eyes, brain etc. I have a few plans sketched up for it but it's really tight around the edges and I'm not sure if I'll fit in the servo for opening/closing it without having to cut away at the brain (which is not going to happen).

The other option is a quarter visor along the top so it looks like it's open and slides in above the brain. That's an easy one to make since it'll be painted either black or have a mirror finish on it. And fill in around the bottom either side of the mouth to hide everything that's visible if you put your face too close (alternately I could put in a sharp IR sensor to detect a close face and then scare the life out of whoever is looking)

Wow, he acts real. Nice touch.