Robot Baneblade
@ May 30, 2010
- Actuators / output devices: Tamiya gears and tracks, tamiya dual motor gearbox, Micro 9g servos (the little blue ones), quite a few LEDs
- Control method: semi controlled, IR receiver
- CPU: Picaxe 28x1
- Power source: 3x AA
- Programming language: Basic
- Sensors / input devices: SRF005 Ultra, MLX90614ESF-AAA Infrared Temperature Sensor 90, SE-10 Passive Infrared Sensor
- Target environment: indoors for now
A remote-controlled Baneblade for a HSC Software Design and development project, already done by BobPanda, thanks for the inspiration, but now with a little more functionality. This is for a school project, by the way. The idea is to get the tank to navigate by itself through ultrasonics, track body heat with the sensor mounted on a rotating turret (which will be a bitch to program, from what I've heard), and basically look awesome with LED cannons. Also, it can receive commands via an IR sensor, and because my classmate is making a universal remote for his project we can have an RC baneblade. It's very ambitious, but I'm hoping that I can do it and maybe even make it a Golden Daemon entry :-). P.S. sorry for image quality, taken with my iPhone.
@ Sun, 2010-08-15 04:15
almost done
here is another work-in-progress image. as you can see, the tank is nearly done, and if I can get the gearbox right (maybe uograde it with some more powerful motors of some electric kit) then the tank will run fully within a couple of weeks.
the white stuff is modelling paste, which i have used to simulate dirt (once painted) and hide some of the glue/cracks. I know the tracks are a but thin, but I am hoping to buy a kit from an M113 APC model from Frontline Hobbies
@ Tue, 2010-07-20 12:04
flashing lights
so i was looking up some other baneblades that had been lit by their builders, and I noted some lights such as targeters that flashed every second or so, as if scanning for targets. I know i can say something like, high 4, pause 500, low 4, pause 500, and loop it but there must be a better way to do this. Assuming the voltage drop across the LEDs is 4 volts, a power supply of 4.5V and all the proper resistors are in place, is there some way to put a capacitor in place to produce the flashing effect?
@ Sat, 2010-07-24 01:54
Nope, the capacitor will
Nope, the capacitor will just smooth out the supply to the LED, so it fades on and off instead of switching immediately.
If you really don't want to control the LED with your micro then you'll need some active components to make it flash - search google for "led flasher", "led blinker", etc, to find some of the easy ones that just use 2 transistors or an inverter chip.
Even easier would be to find some LEDs with built-in flasher circuitry. They're pretty common and cheap now, and you connect them just like a normal LED (power, resistor, ground), but they flash at a pre-determined rate all by themselves.
@ Sat, 2010-07-24 10:34
thanks, time to build a flasher
Thanks Telefox, im a real amateur at robotics and electronics. I have some transistors from an old electrical kit i bought, I'll see if I can build my own flasher unit with them or buy some stuff If i can't. :-)
@ Mon, 2010-07-05 09:41
more questions, RE the temperature sensor
ok, so finally got the drive system mentally sorted, but now for the next bugbear; the Melexis temperature sensor. I know how to mount it, I have the wires, but thats it. The sample code is only for polulo controllers, so is there any chance that someone knows how to program this in basic, and wire it to a picaxe 28 project board? I would find this myself, but I have to go out now, and I have exam prep to handle for the next couple of weeks. :-(
@ Mon, 2010-07-05 03:00
The tank body, with servo
The tank body, with servo for the ultrasonic sensor, PIR on the upper body (left) and turret with some lights (top)
What the track system should look like (except it wont be as out-of-line as it is here)
Jesus christ that is bright! (green targeting light, red main cannon light and cool white searchlight). I even put the lens from an old optical mouse inside the turret so it looks extra bright from the front (the front view was way to bright for my camera to handle)
@ Sun, 2010-07-04 06:00
its not moving!
hi again, long time since my last post, but most of the body is done (picture on the way), and I have even mounted some of the lights. However, I have a problem. The Tamiya Twin Motor Gearbox I have been using (with the motors it came with) is just not powerful to move the tank, so I have been rather frustrated trying to get things going. Any suggestions as to track tension, correct gear ratios or what kind of gearmotors to use?
@ Sun, 2010-07-04 21:54
Before you go shopping for
Before you go shopping for new parts, have you changed the gear order for the maximum reduction to increase the torque?
@ Mon, 2010-07-05 02:45
yeah I thought of that
yeah, I was using 203:1 and that didnt do much, but then I realised that the tracks were getting caught on some internal cross-bars that are part of the model. I cut them out, and the tracks should run fine now. I say "should" because in my frustration I pretty much ruined the gearbox by running it despite the sticking tracks, and I need a new one :-(
@ Mon, 2010-07-05 03:50
That sucks =/At least the
That sucks =/
At least the photos are looking awesome =)