I have decided to hold up on Project Magnus
I have been working on this build for several years now and it looks like it will take several more to get it to where I want. I got so excited that it turned into something very complex. Takes soooo much time and money to build such a large robot from scratch. I wish I had started with something smaller and more manageable. I want something simpler I can experiment with NOW
....
I took an inventory and found enough stuff laying around the shop to do this.
A new robot is born! Meet T.E.C.H. (Tractable Electronic Computerized Humanoid)
T.E.C.H. will be a very basic robot made mostly from wood covered with Formica. No complex shapes, contours, or special effects (at least not yet
). Two wheel tank style drive with caster wheels in the front and back. Using Banebot ESC's with PWM inputs. Basically he will be a couple of wooden boxes bolted together with an EZ Board for brains, 12 V lawnmower battery, scooter wheels with chain drive, waist motor, two arms, and a dome covered head. I looked around for something to use as a head and came up with this mini boom box. What do ya think? Kinda gives him an alien look 
Plenty of room for the camera.
Anyone have any ideas on how to make this into a pan and tilt????
I have already hooked up the EZ Board and tried out the drive section using voice control and it worked great! Thanks DJ for such a cool controller!
My basic goals are for him to be able to follow me around while avoiding obstacles in his path and for him to be able to roam around autonomously without bumping into things or anyone. Hopefully, I will eventually give him a voice but, just want something simple for now. Here are a few pictures: What you see took about three weekends to throw together.
So let me know what you think.....
Other robots from Synthiam community
Mickey666maus's UNITY LINK / ARC
Justinratliff's Ez-Robot Bb-8 Hexapod Body
I like the head a lot!!!! Im sure you could back light the "eyes" with leds or EL tape. Have you tried researching on servocity.com and lynxmotion.com for pan and tilt hardware?
I made a pan n tilt the other night , buy three pan B kits , three high torque servos , o used 645mg buty head only weights like 2 pounds. You could move into a higher 220 oz in servo if needed just weight your head. The pan tilt with 133 oz in is rated continuous for 3 pound head. Lynxmotion.com
Can you help me?? can you explain me about the weels?? and the motors of the weels??
Yeah, but not exactly sure how to attach it to this boom box...still working on ideas.
@edison2 The wheels are from scooters that I use to drive at a place I worked about 11 years ago. I was an electrician there. The facility was so big that we used three wheel scooters to go from place to place. The wheels have a sprocket already bolted to them. They have built in bearings. It uses a #25 chain. The place that sells the scooters is out of business now. However, someone else on this forum found a great site that has all kinds of neat scooter parts. I will see if I can find out who it was and point you to the site.
The motors I ordered from Robot Market Place
one is a left hand version and one is a right hand version.
Left Hand
Right Hand
The brackets I had to make from a piece of angle iron. I drilled holes and slotted them so I could tension the chain as needed.
The electronic speed controllers I ordered from
banebots.com
They use PWM input and can be used with the EZ Board horizontal or vertical servo control. I'm still experimenting with controlling them. Need to be able to start them slow and ramp up to speed.
@rgordon - I love the look of the bot. Kind of a retro movie bot. And I really like the linear actuators for the shoulders. Could you maybe post some drawings of how those rotational shoulder pieces are made? And where did you get the cool head? Is he going to have imbedded computing or just run off bluetooth?
I understand your frustration of working on a robot for months only to discover you are SSOOOOO far away from finishing and using it. I have recently disassembled two turtlebots and it felt good tearing them apart. I finally gave up on ROS and decided to build an EZ-Bot because it is available in THIS lifetime. I used some of the parts and said "Heck with it" on the Turtlebot. I have accomplish more in a week with the EZ-Robot stuff than Years with the ROS platform. I even tried Microsoft's Robotic Studio. But, if you are not an Engineer, it is Hard to understand the whole picture. I started off great, but got bogged down. Leaf was one of the best robots that I have built from scratch. But EZB may surpass in the long run. I can't wait for Synthia to come out. We need a good chat program to tie all of this stuff together. Too bad we can not Clone D.J. I am very tired of BUILDING robots, I want to operate and ENJOY them!
Sorry to hear about Magnus, that was going to be an Ultra-Cool Robot. I LOVE B9. They sell for a high price. Maybe someone would give you a pretty penny for what you have already done. This would give you more room in your workshop to work.
Good Luck, you robot looks promising.
Mel
Please please dont use the "L" word. eyeroll If you search for it on this website there are more hits than there are videos about it on youtube!
@rgordon You know what? The head reminds me of a full sized robot Ive seen someplace....years ago. I just cant place it.