Robie Junior

Wow! you must be from Louisiana or Florida!

No never in any of those areas I've always lived in Pennsylvania lol. Caiman head yea I got that when on vacation in Maryland lol. Added it to my collection.

Completely disassembled. First thing first, work on getting the motors upgraded. And perhaps a new paint job.

Hello Orwnic82,i have the same Project, but i have a Omni JR. The Robot works perfect, but the speech regocnition dont work.

Sven

The original board and motors worked with him when I got him. I tore them all out and might reuse the motors. Still need to get a motor driver though for him, I am sure I have the components to build my own H-bridge but I'll prob just purchase one to add to my collection. I seen a new text to speech module that I am thinking of adding to him. For now all I have done is cleaned up the outside and scrubbed down his shield, got rid of the scratches and scuffs on his clear plastic dome. Need to go get some paint but haven't figured out a scheme for his new look. Also getting rid of the red filter in his eyes, replaced the LEDs with white super brights.

Wouldn't it be neat of you could animate that Camine skull to be the head of a robot? It could open and close with the voice.

cool!

Here a Picture from my Omni, its my first Projekt with the EZ-B. At next i make a Omnibot 2000. I have a Robotik Blog, but at the Moment not enough Time, at the Autum i have mor Time.

This is the Link for my Blog: http://richter-robotics.blogspot.de/

and here the Picture from my Omni

Sven

I seen an Omni Jr on sale in the Ebay International about 2 months ago. They are the same thing and since I am going to change his scheme either one would work. I will probably add the distance sensor then even though they have a push plat on the front. It would of been nice if the elbows wouldn't have been connected to the upper arms, one plastic piece. I still go a lot I am thinking of adding but I will see when it comes to it. Nice Omni JR got any videos of it working.

I've got a omnijr if anyone wants it.

Hey Josh, I really like the little Jr. bots. I'd be interested in yours. Let me know what you want for it? What condition is it in? Working or no? Course that doesn't mean much to us intrepid robot builders now does it? LOL! I'm thinking about mounting one of the Jr's on a RAD base. That would be different. Thanks, and let me know. Lloyd

I took the robiejr apart to clean him , both.the.tires.on.his.wheels had flat.spots like they were melted. He was a little yellowed so I cleaned.him really good, he's in priced in a box. I bought him without a controller so I never knew if.he really worked or not. So he's a box of parts right now lol. I could let him go for ten bucks plus shipping

Sounds good to me. Would you mind holding on to it for me until this crisis passes. If I lose my wife robots, or anything else, wouldn't matter. Thanks, Lloyd

Welp here you go the voice for this little guy. He will be saying anything I decide to store in the program I write for him, by anything I mean what ever I can think up. This module will allow me to send phrases or strings through the serial port on the EZ-B and he will gladly state it. Whats holding me back? Unfortunitely the bluetooth unit I received as replacement is defective thus no implementation. Already contacted Amy and awaiting a response but I thought at least I could make the annoucement.

Welp still waiting to hear back from Amy must be on vacation. Either way took the liberty of putting together a nice interface for the device that way when I get a working bluetooth I can just plug and play lol. Everything the device offers in one little program along with a help option for fun.

Good news I have taken my past bluetooth module and removed it from its lower pcb and replaced it on my replacment bluetooth that stopped functioning for some reason. This has allowed for me to use the bluetooth and not have to purchase a new one. With this I was able to test my c# program I created above and with a couple of tweeks the program works beautifully. I will upload a sound bit very soon displayng the capabilities of this portion of the project, most likely before the day is out.

Update on the interface:

-Added the character count -on string values greater than 8 characters send each character in the string seperately *this is due to what seems to be an ez-b limitation as multiple string lines with characters reaching this limit black out the ez-b, simple solution.

Thinking of adding the ability to pick .txt files to insert in the text to send box

Any opinions?

Here is a wma file for what the module sounds like:

soundbit.zip

Settings: -Beautiful Betty *this probably isn't the voice i'll be using for the project -6db -189 words/minute

There is exactly 1023 characters used in this string, anymore and the module will clip the rest of text off.

Now added is the motor driver interface with capability of using the directional arrow keys.. Also if you check out the button next to the parser check box on the main form, Emic text-to-speech module, you will see a button with three dashes. This button is for loading a notepad or txt file directly to the speech module. Simply click the button browse for your file select open and the text contained in the file will be read to you by the module or if this feature gets added for you fine folks your robot can have infinite speech texts, no more limits of an SD card. I been thinking have having the text be loaded to the window then the user could click convert to have it spoken but for now I think this is great the way it is.

Anything anyone would like to see added?

Welp since theres no ideas anyone wishes to add, I guess I will show you the finished interface for the emic 2 as a stand alone item.

*This interface is for use with emic 2 only, modifications can be made to include more devices.

Latest additions include the ability to save scripts and recall along with the ability to create new scripts. The second combobox allows for calling of the scripts and creation of new ones. The button labeled with four vertical dots saves scripts. You can even recall a script and change the contents by simply selectioning the script number and modifing the selection in the richtextbox, simply save after modifications and your set. This interface gives the user all they could want. The last mod was having the com port which my ez-b resides on spawn in the connection window for easy connection, no instant connect as I feel there is no need for this option.

Added the ability for at connection enabled robie junior while turn on his eyes and then state that he is online along with his assign serial number.

Placing: this.ezB_Connect1.OnConnection += new EZ_B.EZB_Connect.OnConnectionHandler(this.ezB_Connect1_connected); within the form.design.cs

He speaks anything you type him to. He can drive around, talk and blind anyone who looks at him.

Lol did you make them that bright on purpose?? If not you can hit the led with sandpaper to frost it over and it won't be nearly as intense.

They are high power leds so yea I made them that way. I had even brighter ones but I didn't want to use them. The pics above are just the motor driver and ez-b the voice module I haven't placed in him yet but it works great. Only other things would be perhaps motor upgrades as the motors, original motors, in him now are a bit slugish, servos for arms and perhaps a distance sensor .

Ok slowly I keep adding to this interface so as Ideas come up I implement them. I have seperated the connection window from the project and have made each form a set position on the computer screen, not locked just spawn at the same spot. I also added the ability to have the module speak the weather based on your zip code. Simply choice weather in the script box and type in your zip code in the richtextbox. When clicking save instead of it adding a new script for your use it will send for the rss weather report and then have the emic process the forcast. I believe this could now be a very easy implementation into ARC if the time ever came.

What a cool little bot.

He has more features coming Bret so. Have servos on the way for the arms. I'll upload a video some day here, which will include a look at the interface and the robot itself.

cool!

@orwnic82 this looks awesome! Any chance you could show a diagram of how you have the Emic hooked up? aswell as open sourcing the source code? I've got a project I'm wanting to give a voice to, so this would be a great help.

Working in a small space within the robot has merit, Great little robot!

I have no problem giving out the code however this is all constructed in visual studio c# not under ARC. as for connection to the emic all you have to run wiring wise is 5V, GND and a signal pin, so one d port is used which is configured for serial ouput. The signal line connects to the SN pin on the emic 2 module. I can email you the files for the c# interface for the stand alone emic module however any other things you want to use you'll have to add yourself.

@orwnic82 that would be sweet. I'm a .NET dev by trade so am more than comfortable picking through the code. If you could send to mb [at] gradiation [dot] co [dot] uk, I'm sure it would make for a great starting point. Thanks for the explication too. I'm still waiting for my EZ kit to come through, but am sure it'll make perfect sense when it does

Cheers

Matt

Sent my latest version which includes the motor driver and apon connection speech. I also have mentioned some changes you will have to make for the interface to work properly, due to addressing to my local pc. Any other questions feel free to ask.

I updated the code so all you have to do is add the folder to your c:\ drive and run it.

Also it seems your email account is invalid.

@orwnic82 hmm, strange, I was just about to say I haven't got anything through. Try sending it to me [at] [my ez robot forum username] [dot] com instead. Thanks again.

Seems I can not send the files to your email addresses due to attachment errors as such I have attached it to this thread post. Add to your c:\ drive and run with visual studios.

Since your into .Net have you checked out the Netduino. I been meaning to order one but haven't yet.

Emic2andMotorDriver.zip

Wow! this looks awesome. Thanks for sharing.

No problem any questions just ask. Play around with the interface and let me know what you think. I can easiler make changes and help you with any you may wish to do youself. It's not commented to death but it is seperated into its correct portions and most is held within regions for ease. A little thing I added, which I like, is you can only have one window for the help and motor driver each at a time, if you try opening another it will shake the current one to let you know its open or if minimized will reinitialize it back to its placement. Also I disabled the ability to close the EMIC interface window. Enjoy!

Any updates on robie jr?

Got two Parallax servos for his arms but havn't done much with him. Couple updates on the interface but not much. I'll get back to him then, Just busy with work and my new Car is becoming my current project so got to do some mods on it. Also working a bit with my quadrotor got a 9X controller and have the new motors mounted along with a new layout for the ESCs. I am around though, check in know and then to see what progress DJ has made. He's really out done himself with the GUI, looks fantastic.

Long time no update, Well I recently did a bit of an overhaul to his interior layout and Have fixed his arm servos. Also had to update my interface to the new updates made by ez-robot. Different connection and I found my text to speech commands weren't working due to the space character. Its all fixed and working again though.