Project Questor

The original wheels I used were for a push mower. I added sprockets and chain so he would have skid steering. However, I soon found that the rubber tread had to much traction when trying to make turns or pivot when Questor was on a rug or carpet. Rugs would bunch up around the wheels and when pivoting on carpet amperage levels were too high for the Sabertooth.

So I gave him a new set of 8" wheels with a slicker tread surface, moved the drive motors down beside the wheels and installed another deck. This deck use to be a video surveillance system used at my workplace. It went bad and they threw it out. So I gutted it and used the shell. I am hoping to hack the buttons on the front of it to control a music MP3 player.

The new wheels are great! They allow Questor to turn or pivot nicely on carpet....now for the unexpected and somewhat funny thing that happens now blush......when Questor travels on a wood or tile floor, the wheels make a sound that sounds like he is sick farting...LOL. It is especially bad when he executes a 360 turn.

Any ideas on how to make this stop would be appreciated

@Antron007 May I ask why the name Questor is dear to you?

@Josh

Yeah I'll bring Questor to the Maker Fair. Does he have to be registered for me to bring him?

Here I have added the DVD drive and the 128GB solid state hard drive.

Waiting for more parts to arrive. I have ordered a Sparkfun FTDI Basic Breakout board as mentioned by Niek in
this thread to connect the EZ-B directly to the Mini ITX Mother Board.

Items on my list of things to do:

1. Get the Mini ITX working with the EZ-B. (I had previously hooked it all up and loaded Windows 7 on the SSD and loaded ARC.)
2. Get the CF Sound amplifier and speakers working (60 Watt)
3. Get the voice light working with the sound servo feature on the EZ-B.
4. Build and mount the circuit for the LED sequencer on Questor's neck area.
5. Install another longer range camera for steering when beyond the EZ Robot Camera Bluetooth range. (range for this camera is 700 ft.)
6. Get the IR LEDs working.
7. Purchase and install more Ping sensors and IR range sensors for better navigation.
8. Install bumper switches all around.
9. Install a MP3 player.
10. Build and install a sound mixer circuit.
11. Re-route / hide the wires to the Ping Radar sensor on the front.
12. Install two arms. I already have one arm that I purchased from EZ Robot. Need to buy a second one.
13. Purchase and install a second EZ-B.
14. Train my Questor Pandora Bot A.I.

and on and on and on

@rgordon

Fantastic robot! great job.

Tony

Thanks Toymaker and to everyone else for the nice comments.

The following is from another thread but I wanted to move it to this one....

I am also in process of making bumpers for my robot Questor. Questor is large enough so that if his ping, ping radar or IR sensors fail to see an object in his path then considerable damage could occur to furniture or other items. Or, heaven forbid, if he bumps into a person, I want a switch to actuate and shut down the drive motors immediately. Then, based on which bumper switch is actuated, Questor would make a decision on which direction to move to get clear.

So, I searched the internet for ribbon switches, tape switches, etc. and found that they are very expensive (aprrox. $25.00 per foot). I decided to set about inventing my own but was unsure of what to use.

I had an old tape measure that would not lock any more. I was going to throw it out. Then I thought..hmmm.maybe I could cut off two pieces (what ever length I need) of the metal tape measure, strip the paint off of it and make a bumper switch out of it. The prototype I made functions as expected and it seems to perfect for this app. The only thing I may need to worry about is rust

The next step is to figure out what to use to cap the ends to make it better looking and for mounting. Also maybe some sort of rubber covering. Or I could just paint the top piece of tape measure.