Vanilla Ice

HAHA I love those pics!!!! The second with his arms up is my fav!

I haven't tried this yet, but there is a mixture called Retro Bright that you can make. Information is here: clickity click

If you try it, i'd love to hear about your experience and results

Oh boy, a good excuse to play with potentially lethal chemicals - don't think I can pass this up! I'll try to get all the ingredients together this week and I'll be sure to document the results...

Actually pretty excited to see how well it works!

It's alive!! First signs of life from Vanilla's tape player after a long night of intensive surgery. Good thing Grampa was a TV/VCR repairman...

1984 tech! mmm mmmm good...

Click To Watch Video

HA! Wicked! Are you going to keep the tape player around?

Absolutely! I have plenty of friends (relatively speaking) with tape collections they can no longer play. Planning to set it up so you can easily transfer tapes to CD/DVD/MP3; re-purposing the original PCBs wherever possible.

I'm thinking pretty much anyone about 35 and older will want to pop in one of their old favorite tapes!

What did you do with your tape player/internals? I'd gladly pay for shipping/handling if you want to get rid of it!!

Working on replacing the connectors and wiring for the microphone input right now...

HAHA That's hilarious! I have my original tape player. I keep all the parts i take out of these robots in case i need to scavenge them for a roller or gear or something. You can gladly have it ... I also have one from another robot Robie Sr, that I haven't started hacking yet.

Did you try the whitening mixture?

Awesome! If I submit an order for another EZ-B can you include the tape drives/internal goodies with the order?

Had my son this weekend and was waiting for when he wasn't here to break out the toxins. Was shooting for later this week or this coming weekend to get all mad scientist up in here...

That's a good idea. I'll bring the tape drives to solarbotics tomorrow for your shipment. hold off until tomorrow to place the order.

I'm excited to hear the results of that whitening stuff

First Blood: Removed excess material from front and back of head to make it perfectly round. Used Dremel at low speed with EZ Lock plastic cutting wheel. Finished edges with X-ACTO knife (very carefully) and foam sanding block

Things were still a little on the dirty side so we went ahead and thoroughly cleaned the boards, knobs and switches and ultimately replaced most of the wiring/connectors. Add in a second low voltage supply for the LCD and let's don't forget the eyes!

haha dude that's aaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome!!!!!! i love the little guy with the plyers!!

you did a much better job at cutting the head then i did blush

Barely had time to complete the "stereophonic" sound upgrade after all the time I spent replacing those sorry excuses for eye LEDs with my own secret noodle soup! And then he passes out...

'Nuff said...

Whoa that's creepy to watch at 1 AM

Is the time right to submit my EZ-B order?

It sure is! I'm not going to have time to bring the casette by today to solarbotics. I will send it in a seperate package. Can you send us your shipping address on our Contact Us (under the FAQ section) please?

A little nip here... a little tuck there... and one Dremel-powered lobotomy later we have an open window to the inner workings of a mad man... man...

Little help here!

Frankly sir I'm baffled...

Shut'er down Leon she's spittin' mud!

Bleep blork...

That, my friend, was the perfect video for the evening i have just had. Thank you

Retr0bright sneak peek:

Yo Duck, you're doing it wrong!

WTH mate?

man u make some creepy videos!

Why thank you!

So I enlisted the boys over the weekend to help whiten Vanilla's aging shell. Oh, and my son informed me that Duck is actually a Platypus - explains a lot about his behavior but makes his name rather confusing.

Anyway, we were all set to create a fabulous Retr0bright Pictorial in the Tutorials section when our little experiment with eye-burning chemicals went a tad awry. No one had to go to the hospital or anything but one of us wound up needing a little more than his usual tops n' tails treatment:

In truth, we experienced multiple points of failure (i.e. lapses in judgement) that ultimately resulted in a failed, though very instructive, first attempt. Vanilla's exterior is several shades lighter than it was prior to the treatment but I'd say we're only at about 50% of our goal of Whitey McWhiteness. I think the primary lapse in judgement was relying on the availability of the sun rather than digging my UV lights out of storage.

So we're planning on round two this coming weekend with a few upgrades. I'll be digging my UV lights out of storage and I'll also be upgrading the 12% Hydrogen Peroxide to a concentrated, skin-melting 35% formula (although I'll be using about half the amount).

Round two here we come...

We needed to blow off a little steam after our Retr0bright fiasco so we thought we'd pick up our spirits by putting humpty's head back together again and mounting his new-fangled stereo speaker/LED backpack (it was either that or a fanny pack).

Music is currently being piped into his backpack speakers from a laptop headphone jack.

The 7 light pipes and LEDs that comprise his brain are connected to an internal WiFi 7-antenna array by Ruckus Wireless, currently mounted in the base. The LEDs visually represent the activity occurring on each antenna. It seemed like it would be a good approximation of brain activity with the added benefit of a roaming WiFi access point. My smartphone and the laptop playing the music were both connected to the Internet via this roaming "Ice Ice Baby" AP during the filming of the video...

We're about 4 hours into our 2nd application of Retr0bright... The shell is definitely getting whiter but I think we may be looking at one more application for the parts that had uber yellow spots. Good thing I made sure to purchase enough chemicals for one more round!

I also gave the Retr0bright treatment to an Interaction Eve from 2007 that was left in a window and had yellowed quite a bit on one side. I just checked and she's already back to pure whiteness!

About 4 more hours left to go in this round...

For those of you just tuning in, check out The Retr0bright Project for more info...

Do you soak the parts in the mixture or paint them on?

I'm looking forward to your experienced result. If you end up with a perfect suggested mixture, I'd like to get the recipe off you. I have Robie Sr that is waiting for a dose of Retr0bright

The stuff is the consistency of snotty paste - not unlike rubber cement that bubbles in the presence of UV light. A cheap horse-hair brush works great to apply (synthetic is ok but don't use foam). I'm actually half-way through the 3rd treatment right now. Thankfully, it's hazy today and UV rays are out in abundance, as my burning skin can attest to.

If I were to do it again (which I probably will for other items) I'd definitely go with a liquid mixture in a medium-sized tank. I have an old square fish tank that's just the right size - just need to pick up a few gallons of 40% H2O2 and dilute it with purified water. It's not too expensive if you get it in bulk but be prepared to answer questions as to it's intended usage...

Here's a quick look around hour 7 of the 3rd treatment... I've kept the tray untreated for proper side-by-side comparisons. Note the white ring around the tray where I peeled the sticker off - I want everything to look that white!

Can you see the difference?

Taken around hour 12 - past 3 hours under the UV lamp...

No flash:

Flash:

18 hours in: 9 sunlight | 9 UV lamp

Bonus! Condensation has re-hydrated the Retr0bright gel over night so it should be good to go for further exposure. I'm going to leave everything out while I'm at work to get every last bit of whitening wonder.

Don't mind the bug build-up...

How'd it turn out today?

27 hours total exposure time: 9 sun | 9 UV | 9 sun

I'd say it was (eventually) a rousing success! Once I get him all cleaned up I'll post more details in a dedicated thread...

A quick side-by-side comparison with the untreated tray:

Geez that turned out VERY well!

Great! I have a new robot that will be getting the treatment very soon... I'm waiting on my order of cameras and hbridges from ebay......... excited

Oh boy, lots of yellow to get out of those arms and his back-side! I'll try to put up the Retrobright tutorial for you sometime over the weekend...

I still think using liquid rather than gel is the way to go if you have access to large quantities of H2O2 and a decent amount of items to whiten. You don't have to deal with the mess of mixing and multiple applications - just soak in the liquid under UV rays and pull out when white. That's how the guys that came up with the process originally did it - then they created the gel to cut the costs associated with the liquid method. Perhaps I should just fill up my 28 gallon square fish tank and have a whitening party or something. Anybody interested in coming to Lancaster PA for chemical cocktails?

LOL @ chemical cocktails!

You could provide a whitening service We can mail you parts to be whitened lol

Here's a quick pic of Vanilla on his first car ride to visit mom. At this point he's barely more than a whitened shell with WiFi and flashing lights so his "real" first ride has yet to begin. Either way, looks like he'll need a booster seat to see through the Magnum's windows...

For pics and progress on Vanilla's Nixie Tube Eyes, Click Here One Time!

Your robot is really cool. I love the lights in his head.

I have the tape deck and stuff out of mine you can have it if you would like it?

Hey brw_racing, thanks for the offer but I have 3 tape deck units now so I should be good as I only plan to use them in one of the robots. They take up so much valuable real estate!

Way to show me up dude ... Your omnibot is sick!

Yeah man your bot is looking pretty rad, I love the sideways nixie idea, keep up the good work!!! I've been getting inspired by your stuff and have been building and made a few break-thrus, I'll try to share sometime this week. I always seem to be too busy for posting, hopefully that'll change soon. mad

I hear ya skater_j10 - limited time is a killer! I've been forcing myself to post updates after reaching certain "milestones" in the build process. I try to do it as soon as possible but it can be a challenge when you'd really rather continue on with the building. Just remember:

A finished product is awesome; having a record of all that went into it is priceless...

DJ, I'm just a lowly acolyte with cranial chemical deficiencies, lightning reflexes and a penchant for Swedish Fish (the small red ones please)... And someday I hope to have a fully functioning robot to show off your mad programming skills!

Viva La Robot Revolution!

I love it!!! Did you make that?

I used Robot Fist by mattandrews from deviantART and added the red swirls and text. I wanted to use the Robot Revolutionary Front (RRF) logo from Astro Boy but couldn't find a decent image of it...

VERY COOL WORK!!! Have you thought of creative placement to add a model railroad smoke generator to go with the colored rods? I can imagine a "robot gone mad" script.

Great idea! I have one or two of those lying around somewhere. Could be a good rainy project once I get the eyes finished...

I think i found his half brother! -GLIK-

For pics and progress on Vanilla's Nixie Tube Eyes, Click Here One Time!

I love the wifi lights! the nixie tubes are a amazing idea too.

I would just like to mention that this thread has more posts than any other thread on the forums! A total of 52 very well deserved posts

I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy....Seriously awsome build. And inspiring to noobs like me. I only hope that BOB will be half the robot of Vanilla Ice. Have you thought of micro servos (9g types) to rotate the eyes? Mounting them right onto the servo horns? Just a thought. Any suggestions you may have for BOB would be greatly appreciated as well. Thank you.

wow these robot pics are getting kinda kinky.....

I'm bleaching my omnibot 2000 in the dishwasher , my yellowing was much worse than yours. He must have had a pack a day habit! Lol if strait bleach doesn't do the trick ill do this for the two robots um doing now. Thanks

@radmeck, I miss your creepy vid clips.

Idk why but they are neat and at the same time.....creepy!

Yea more vids , I wanna see him running about the house lol. I love the tube eyes its soooo crazy.

Talk about a blast from the past!!! Good to see he's still rocking

Greetings Earthlings... eek

Vanilla Ice is slowly being revived and just recently mastered the challenge of turning his noggin. His Nixie eyes remain functional but have been temporarily gouged out due to an impending rearrangement of internals. His sporty Speaker/LED backpack, however, was in the way and had to be sacrificed for the cause. We'll most likely relocate and reattach it at some point in the future...

Head-turning Assembly:

Welcome back! We've all been a fan of your work on Vanilla.

Welcome back!

The head rotation mechanism and linkage are now complete!

The final version utilizes a pillow bearing "backbone" mounted on metal plate because, well... over-kill! Teflon washers were inserted in the linkage at key locations to reduce play and friction. We also added a nifty little in-line clutch to protect the servo from any jarring, gear-stripping forces (children and drunkards). And the head rotation is now precise and balanced thanks to the final addition of two LEGO mini racing slicks mounted on the neck as rolling guides!

Finally, the EZ-B has been successfully relocated to the head where the brains really should be, right!?

Final Head-turning Assembly:

Note: Pillow bearings, metal plate, Teflon washers and clutch from VEX Robotics.

Wow dude that's some serious mechanics to turn your head. I havent watched your latest vids yet but I will good work.

That is one COOL robot!

way to go!

Nice workmanship and craftsmanship. Very well thought out and built. Looks like everyone is having fun watching and enjoying the ride!

Just keep the ladies, girls and hippies away from the exposed gears. You don't want to get their lond hair tangled up in the teeth. eek

This has to be one of the coolest Omni's! Great work!