Yet Another Wall-e

Outstanding!!

Very nice. So since this one isn't the U-Command could you tell us the actual dimensions of him. I think my son may have the same one. If so, I would know that when he is "done" with it I could steal it and do the upgrade like yours.

Thanks

@LJ - you be bad

lol

@LJ

If you check out my thread in the general discussions asking anyone for a spare Wall-E Track you can see a couple measurements.

Let me know if you want some more in depth measurements and I'll get them to you. It was unfortunate as the seller advertised as a U-Command, but I honestly don't think he knew. Ah well not worth arguing over. I was still happy to get my wall-e!!

Just wish his track wasn't messed up!

Actually I.bet they did. Link me to.your auction. I bet you got the same seller I got mine from. They.figured out demand for u command walle and were selling lesser.models in replace.

@DaMan

Looks like your is bigger than my son's.

As for the messed up track, try soaking it in new power steering fluid. Power steering fluid is engineered to prolong the life and elasticity of rubber. Some restorers claim it can rejuvenate any kind of rubber.

Good luck!

Hey sorry for the late reply.

@ jstarne1 The item number is: 280824992291 To be honest, I was just happy that he was willing to ship to Canada even though his post said "Only USA". It was worth asking because he cancelled the auction, reopened it available to CA and I was able to "buy it now" at the exact same price. Maybe he was scamming me, but maybe not. No hard feelings form me. I got my Wall-E. Life's too short to waste it being angry ;)

@LJ That sucks if yours is even smaller. I mean it can probably be done, but will be tough.

Thanks for the tip for the track! I will definitely try to pick some up today while I pick up parts for my DIY sprinkler system.

You know I was considering incorporating EZ-B to control my sprinkler system, but that's for another season lol I just need to get this done this spring ASAP.

I have bought two U commands and both are different. The small wheel on the base is on the back on the model I did my Wall.e with and in the middle on the one that is waiting to be done. On the small interactive one (which looks like the one you have) the remote was a dinky little thing, forward backward speak and two other buttons. The U command one has a dump load of buttons that fail to impress :(

I must say, when you slap an EZ-B up Wall.e's bum he never fails to entertain!

I think this toy is the Interaction Wall-E

I just picked up one of these for $10 - pretty good deal if the retail is $120. No remote control at all and I guess most of the goodies come if you also have others in the family like an interaction E-Va.

He is about 5/6 the size of u-control Wall-E but the details are quite similar. (I have just unpacked him at work and won't turn him on till I get home.) He has a more articulated neck, with a proper hinge bend in it - too early to say if you could easily automate it.

There is no drive for the tracks at all - just a single axle running across under the main case.

This clip -

There's also this guy for about $50 retail, but no info on what he does if anything. Wall-E 'figure'

JOC

Here he is alongside u-command Wall-E -

• probably more like 4/5 size.

And a view from the rear -

• shows the driveless axle.

I think the gear hubs might only detect the toy being rolled back and forth to trigger a response - he's quite chatty.

The battery door hides 3 AA cells horizontally.

Now - dare I take to him with the screwdriver?

(No rush - plenty of other bot-work to finish first.)

JOC

i have both of them to modify,you job on your looks good, looking to do the same with some other added stuff,but using almost no hot melt glue when you want to replace or fix a robot with hot melt its a little hard so i use brackets or pieces of plastics super glue to the robot then use screws to mount the servo's same with mounting the web camera right working on my roomba project,then a little more work on my brookstone rover project then maybe omnibot 2000 or wall-e since all my parts came in

Hey guys,

So I tried the power steering steering fluid as recommended. I left it for one day. Felt it and decided to go for another day.

The verdict.... Nothing. No change at all. Well except that it is a little shinier. Oh well I was thinking of tearing him down and making something else. Something with less personality and then DJ releases all these cool new features like RSS feeds.

Now I'm toying with the idea of modifying it to just use the round wheels, but glue the tracks to the front permanently to give the illusion that he still has tracks at least. I just don't know.

@thefoolmonty & @robotmaker

as long as you have 2 god maluable tracks, I say go for it. It's a bit squishier and you will have to likely strap the EZ-B to his back like I did, but he makes a great little compact wall-E! Just be glad you didn't spend $125 on it like I did thinking it was a U-Command... That will teach me to be more patient!

FYI Cost breakdown for me was messed: item: $60.00 shipping: $24 UPS FRIGGIN BROKERAGE FEE: $41 !!!

Lesson here is if you live in Canada, DON"T let a US seller ship via UPS. Try your luck with USPS. Much less likely to get charged for brokerage and if you do it's like 5 or 6 bucks.

PS: @thefoolmonty That is exactly the one I have I believe. Giv'er a go! :D

@daman ,whats wrong with your tracks,if not in good condition there is liquid rubber or spay on rubber that would help you fix it i know whats it like to get parts or robots from other countries,when i check to buy a ezb from DJ site postage very high

Don't forget the little hidden feature shown in the video - that little pull down flap at the front could be used for accessing the internals after a little cutting.

I just missed out on picking up another one of these for $10 + postage -I'll continue to keep an eye out for them.

JOC

For rubber to restore some of the elasticity and also good for plastic I use Mothers Back to Black. Made for car bumpers . Looks like 50w Armor All! The best stuff I have ever used. I do auto upholstery and also have restored several motorcycles . I use this stuff all the time .

JW :)

thats about what i paid for each one of mine ,i think i need my tracks but if i dont can send it to you if you pay postage,i needed to buy a 3 one because one of the hands missing

if they are rubber tracks i would renew it with liquid rummer,can get it at homedepot,walmart or anywhere else its called plasti dip,same kinda jstarnes using to fix his ominbot tracks check his post

DaMan Take those tracks and wash the oil off with dish soap and rinse well . When they are dry put them in a bag with the Back to black . It will take a few day to soak in good. Since I found this stuff I've probably used 30 bottles of it restoring different things. The last thing I did was some rock hard auto wire loom grommets. After a week or so I could see they were getting softer. By the time I needed them they were soft as new ones. JW :)

Hey guys,

So I tried the "Back to Black".

Left it for 1 day... no change. Left it for 2 days... no change. Still too stiff. So I've resorted to removing the track assemblies and replacing them with the wheels.

Had to use Q-tips to hold him up and allow Wall-E to slide around on the dining room table without scratching it. That way I could at least use him to dog-sit while I'm at work!

Good news is no dog-fights broke out!

But I'm thinking I'll stop trying home remedies and just keep an eye open for another Wall-E or something else to build. Spent $15 so far so we'll see what Ebay turns up.

Thanks again for all of the help!

By the way. Here's a video showing the stiffness in the track. In this video I have the speed of the motor running the soft track (right) turned down a little to try to even him out, but it wasn't perfect. When I had it perfect he walked sooooo slowly.

Click To Watch Video

In the next video you can see just how stiff the track really is. I shot this today. After all of the previously mentioned attempts to soften.

Click To Watch Video

I wonder why just? one got stiff? Leave it the Back to Black though, it will eventually soften it. It probably didn't get hard in 2 days! so I would think it will take time to soften it . Be patient! , cause like I said "this stuff works" I would go on with other things that you want to do to wall-e and keep a eye open for another set of tracks.

thanks for the video. :)

I took it to the local hobby shop and he said it almost feels like it's not even rubber, but plastic instead. He had no suggestions.

That would explain why all my attempts to soften did nothing though. I will try the Back to Black stuff again, but otherwise I might just wait and see if either another goes up for cheap on E-Bay or I can get my hands on a cheap U-Command. A bigger Wall-E would be awesome, but I'd hate to have to burn another $100 bucks!

But you're right about continuing for now. I mean the wheels look goofy, but work lol. I can still write his personality scripts and work on getting a Wall-E voice integrated.

What would you guys suggest would be the EASIEST way to get him to play a few MP3 tracks out of the bot himself rather than my laptop? Do I really need a sound board or can you hook up a speaker? I know the MP3 playback feature used to be disabled and I haven't checked to see if it's back.

When I can shutdown and boot back into Windows (Boot Camp)I'll take a look, but I'm open to suggestions. Cheapest solutions = best. Tough talking my wife into why I should be buying robot parts and not finishing painting the basement haha

I suggested a bluetooth speaker inside him before, there is a link on here somwhere in one of the older posts. I also splashed out and bought an MP3 trigger, but by the time you put that inside, an amp and a speaker your Wall.e starts to look like a junk bot instaed.

You know, that is one thing missing from this site is a search function! Or click on a user name to bring up all of their posts. Either that or I am missing something....

Anyway, going back in time a few months and back to page 22 in the general discussion thread..

My old post about speakers

See how you get on with one of those, they also cost a lot less than the MP3 trigger!

Or my old post

Bump wireless speaker

#5

here is one i found very small and bluetooth speaker

bluetooth wireless speaker

I wonder if these would work ? Probably not but may be worth looking at tracks

looks like they would work real good,pololu has a lot of good stuff takes awhile to get to usa robotshop canada also carries pololu tracks too ,hwtech canada does also might be a place in the UK that carries pololu too

How would I use those? Replace the whole underbody with this? or try to shorten and then wrap these around the Wall-E wheel assembly?

I don't see them fitting the current wheel assembly. I'm thinking I might just either start over with a new actual "U-Command" Wall-E or build a different bot. I realized, I wouldn't even have room for a sound board.

And I'm weary about using a bluetooth speaker just because the Bluetooth on the EZ-B tends to disconnect and need to be reconnected once in a while. I worry that then I'd have to reconnect the speaker every once in a while too.

We'll see, but thank you everyone for the advice!

Spam above it seems

More spam, unfortunately.....