Robot Name: RedBender
Purpose: To be used as a small test platform for testing ideas and developing my software ideas for use with ARC.
Parts Used: EZ-b v3, firmware 16.6, 2 continuous rotation servos for drive wheels, servo for neck (up/down), wireless camera (EZ-Robot 1st generation), HC-SR04 sonar, servo controller BigGripper (from www.BudgetRobotics.com - discontinued)
Power: 6xAA batteries
Body: The main body is a very old frame built of wood which includes the torso down to the base where the wheels mount. It's something a childhood friend made 20+ years ago. I revived it with a black base coat, Plexiglas front and back panels and aluminum side panels. The arms are for decoration and come from an old 80's "RoboFan". The drive wheels are old Lego Technic wheels with servo horns screwed into them. The head is a plastic box from a dollar store with a printout of Bender's face from the TV show "Futurama".
On the back of the head is a label which includes the firmware revision and date, along with the pin assignments. This is handy since I use him as my testing platform. There are also two caster wheels in the back. I have found two caster wheels make small robots like this more stable.
He is currently decorated for the 4th of July (I had to copy cat what MovieMaker did).
Other robots from Synthiam community
Nomad's Remix Inmoove Head
Jstarne1's Diy Awesome Project Case Made From Netgear...
Justin, Neat test robot. It is great you could recycle the robot body, probably gives special meaning. The Robofan arms look awesome. It is a great idea having a diagram pinout on your testbot. Looking forward to videos.
Thanks for sharing,
Steve S
very vintage,cool :D
Very Cool Justin! Hey, did you get my email with pin out info on Mini B?
Bret
Yep love the old flavoured look... reminds me of the robot J5 (made out of a water heater) in the movie Blank Man :)
JustinRatliff, very cool evaluation and feature application robot. Happy testing.
@RichardR HAHA! I bet you've seen every movie with a robot in it; I know I have. J5 in BlankMan was pretty funny.
@bret.tallent, Yes I did, thank you. I have not had a chance to check the pin outs, yet. I'm going too soon though! If you come across any other notes please save them for me. Your help has been very appreciated! :)
@SteveS If you are like me and have several robots in dev at any one time labeling everything and keeping detailed notes is a must. Even if you have one robot it's a good idea. I get 3 hole folders for each of my robots so I can keep my hand scratch notes, diagrams, pinouts, and ideas one spot.
Never underestimate good note taking! :)
Crap... it was a washing machine.... Still funny movie.. :)
:D
cool!
Justin R, Just checking on your latest updates. You have been a great resource with your programing skills on the community. EZ Face is also great. Steve S
Thank you Steve. You've been a great resource and community member yourself. RedBender has had a lot of updates. He now has a scanning sonar unit, PIR human motion sensor and a red dot laser.
I use him for experiments and research because he is so much small than my other robots. I've incorporated a lot of sound files from Futurama. I was even able to make him say my name "Justin" which we never said any show (that I could find) by splicing sound bits from the word "just" and "in"....you'd think that would be easy, but finding two files to match up with similar pitch and what not is time consuming.
Bender also curses now (as he did in the show). He can answer some questions about himself. From the AI Thread Rich started I started down a path to convert some arduino code to ARC (did not succeed), but it started me down a path of working on many new AI scripts.
Mostly just a lot of learning for myself and not a lot share and show just yet. Hopeful soon some new videos of what I've taught him.
Looks like a cool build. Would like to see some videos of him showing his stuff.