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By MechGeek2000
@ Fri, 2009-11-20 16:21
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Well did some testing on the arduino and it seems the PWM part of it torched. After I get some more work on the new drive board I will start on the freeduino clone I've got planned out. It's basically an arduino that has screw terminals instead of female headers.  I specifically designed to survive the shake test, IE pick up your bot, shake it hard, put it back down and see if it still functions. Yeah, I got frustrated putting wires back in the holes and decided to fix it. Also my design is a bit in the direction of being able to embedded in something and not have direct user contact, can we say sweet or what?

 

5x5,

Mech Out 

By MechGeek2000
@ Wed, 2009-11-18 21:27
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Well, got word that the china shipment, which is actually from Thailand(my fail) is at the post office. And basically starting over with Leo. The Tamiya dozer body is getting cramped on the inside and I still have more to I want to put in. I have two choices, build up and out and skew the center of gravity upwards or design a new body for him.  The latter would be easier, because it's just a box with holes big enough for the tracks, front idler and drive wheels to go through. His body would grow to 6x8, he'd have enclosed tracks, I would not be performing surgery when I started mounting all the stuff inside of him.

Got the stuff from Thailand, good stuff and now to test some stuff woot!!

By MechGeek2000
@ Mon, 2009-11-09 03:35
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Well Fedex anyways. They should be here on the 11th. I ordered 14, to make it worth the shipping. I figure with the popularity of the tamiya gearboxes and using dual H bridges like the L293D and the like, that some may want to swap for sensors or something.

 Still no word on the China shipment of stuff though.

 

5x5,

Mech 

By TotoroYamada
@ Thu, 2009-11-05 10:14
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If you want to have your robot listen at door knocks, you should have a look at that.
By MechGeek2000
@ Mon, 2009-11-09 03:31
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Very cool idea, but a bit far for me right now. I did think of a picaxe hooked up to a blue tooth, that way I could msg my door to unlock and open...a bit silly right now though when I just got Leo's motors running again. On to my next post with that
By MechGeek2000
@ Wed, 2009-11-04 21:24
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Well still having problems with the drive board.  Not sure what to do next, I have the parts for another arduino in, as well as another drive board. So half tempted to build those up and skip the trouble shooting process
By MechGeek2000
@ Wed, 2009-11-04 10:27
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I couldn't resist and put in the new chip tonight. The left side works great, the right side has a bad connection that is going to need some work with the iron to fix, other than that I think Leo will be fine in a few days.
By MechGeek2000
@ Wed, 2009-11-04 05:58
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Ok got the parts in today, though not going to do anything with them tonight, a bit warn out and don't want to smoke a chip because I was too tired. I still forgot to order a push button for Leo. It's primary purpose will be for filming, ie set up camera, pushbutton, get in position, hit record right before the delay function times out, delay function times out, Leo starts and the filming begins.  Oh well, next order or when I go by a radio shack. 

 Yay! That I got the parts in :) Now I can start building again! 

By MechGeek2000
@ Tue, 2009-11-03 06:04
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Ok to keep Leo moving in the direction he's supposed to be I'm going to use:

A1302 Hall Effect Sensors on his front idlers coupled with magnets to give feedback on his track speed.

2125 Mesmic Accelerometer is used to detect and calculate drift on carpet, smooth floors, track skidding and bumps in the floor.

Even with those, there is still going to be a lot of error from track skidding, carpet nap, bumps in the floor, track wear, and from not being put back down exactly where he got picked up.

Going to use a PING(or other sonar type sensor) and a sharp or two map out his local environment to cross reference with his internal map. Basically, trying to program Leo in a fashion that biologicals think or at least my poor understanding of how I perceive my self and others do things.

Voltage monitors will be implemented as well so that Leo just doesn't 'die' in the middle of the room. He will know when to return to his base(home) to re-charge(to eat). So will have to figure out how to get a charging circuit into his little body as well as everything else.
By MechGeek2000
@ Tue, 2009-10-20 12:34
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It seems that the short is in the board. Either things got really hot and melted the plastic coating off the wires or the soldering iron got too close and heated them up.  Time to redesign that board and start again on the accelerometer coding.  I haven't checked the chip yet, but maybe it's still good.
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