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...
Today was the day, a road trip to pick him up and bring him back to his new home...
In his new home (with Omnibot and Wall-e in the background totally unaware they are next in line to be opened up)
It wasn't long before this happened...
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.
Other robots from Synthiam community
DJ's Myo Gesture Tutorial
Joseph4760's Project X-Men Juggernaut
Very good progress! Do you mind linking where you got Melvin's ic2 LCS kit from?
It's a Devantech 4x20 LCD from Robot Electronics. I'm sure if you googled for the Devantech LCD05 it would come up for sale in the USA.
If anyone plans to use one on an Omnibot I would highly recommend fitting it in the lower of the 2 areas on the front (the tape deck area) since the top one is pretty much the same size as the display.
Really simple to use too. The documentation is all there and covers everything. Tony (@toymaker) recommended it, and I can see why after using it for only a couple of days.
JOSH here is usa dealer that sells it
LCD05 SERIAL DISPLAY
RE-EDIT its robotshopusa.com is the dealer
Wow that takes ages to charge a 5000mAh battery at 80mA!..
As suspected, the diode on the LiPo board drops the voltage of cell 2 by 0.2v. Both cells were balanced at the full 4.2v when I unplugged the charger, threw it in the robot, started it up and it's showing 4.2v on cell 1 and 4.0v on cell 2. Think I'll be removing the diode and risking the over voltage (which I have fed in to the EZB accidently and did no damage so the risk is small)
@Josh, Robot Shop do the LCD, product code RB-Dev-13 $43 for one.
Same post i did but has direct link to the LCD
Rich,
Thought I'd pass this on to you. I charge lipos daily. On the back of the battery you will see a "c" rating. If that rating is 5 (we'll say), times that by the mah, (or 5x5, drop the zero's) of the battery, and that will give you the max amps you can charge that battery at as long as the charger can push it out. My 5000 mah lipos have a "c" rating of 5 so the max I have charged them at is 25 amps. Normally I just charge them at 15 amps, and it takes about 16 minutes.
Den
I only have an 80mA balance port charger, it's built into the robot (well it will be, currently it's removed since I need to plan the insides a bit better), it's all I can find that doesn't need any switches or buttons to push etc. so it suits it fine. It's not a problem taking around 6 hours to charge, I plan to do Auto Charging with a base it'll find by itself when it needs charging or every night if it can last long enough (I have another 5000mAh which I may add to it and charge both at once with 2 chargers if it needs more power - I think I can fit 4 in there but monitoring would be an issue since it would need all 8 ADC ports, 3 of which are used on IR sensors).
Plus slow charging means it's much safer and can be left unattended. I also read it extends battery life too, however always take that stuff with a pinch of salt.
Updated. Although it may be possible to charge that fast it would most likely reduce the life of the LiPo from what I've read. With that being said, there are some manufacturers having safe 5C charge rates in their specs. Standard safe charge rate is 1C so in his case 5 amps. That's still a big reduction in charge time. Here is a clip on it.