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 Vision Tracking Robot
Ezang's New Update Mr. Roman
It takes about .6 volts to about .7 volts to turn on a transistor,when a cap going to ground as it charges it slowly ramps up the voltage,mostly a mosfet is a little better,but a transistor as voltage is apply to it ,acts like a resistor and slowly turns it on DIODE is not really needed ,only needed on relays for back emf spikes very rare that transistors are used any more for switching,mosfets are much better,lower RDS ON and more
Looking Really Good! I am anxious to see your arm tests.
Me too Bret! I just hope they work as I can't get a stronger micro servo than I fitted and really want to avoid having it on the outside of the arm. I calculated it roughly and it's pretty much on the limit of the servo, and I think that's when horizontal so lifting the hand above horizontal may be a struggle... We will see...
If everything goes as it should (i.e. if my milliput and plastic card turn up tomorrow) I should have one of the arms fitted some time tomorrow for a test.
The arm is fitted and connected up, and I just did the first arm test (see video - it's pretty much unedited so excuse any long gaps of nothing happening while I was changing settings in ARC)
It needs stronger servos for the upper arm joints but I think that's a pretty good result. The hand rotation is perfect and smooth. The elbow servo is borderline OK but it's as good as it's going to be.
The hardest part, fitting the arm! The servo horn for the upper arm is inaccessible with the arm put together but needs to be accessible for fitting to the robot. The arm needs to be together before it goes on the robot. What a nightmare it was feeding the cables through the tiny holes made just about big enough...
So anyway, need to order some heavy duty servos now, the one used was the standard servo from the EZ Kit, so I know I can get much stronger ones.
In the mean time I can firm up the arm, which will add more weight but not that much more so it should still be OK once done.
Are you running 6 volts to the metal gear MG90 servo? It can take 6 Volts and that will be the best torque you can get from it. All of mine are that same servo and run on 6 Volts. A separate power source than from the EZ-B - this will be the optimal for those little servos. Just tie the power to your 6 volt battery and only run the signal wire to the EZ-B
No, until about 2 hours ago I didn't realise I could give them their own supply, it's now on the to-do list for at least the elbow servos (if not all servos) to give them a bit more torque and reduce the chances of brownouts. Although I'm using a 7.4v lipo now so I guess a voltage regulator will be needed but that's no problem.
i would use a LDO (low dropout) regulator,i use them in every robot design,and we use them for all the test equipment we sell at work. there is DC-DC converters too,but they waste more power. 7.4 volt battery is near the border line of a circuit using 6 voltswnen near low battery voltage 7.4 VOLTS mostly good for 5 volt circuits, IT will work only you will have the battery drain fast from servo's
Battery drain isn't a major concern to be honest, if it drains too fast once it's done I'll change the battery for a bigger/better one, or throw more in there (plenty of space and they are very light compared to the old SLA which was in there).
I don't know if something is out there but what I picture using is some kind of servo bus, a supply in of 6-12v, regulated to 6v and then a strip of connectors with the Vcc and Ground... Like the EZB but without the processor etc. I haven't looked yet but that's, if they exist, what I'll be looking to use. Otherwise I guess I'll have to make my own (I may do that anyway)