Narobo Blog

Need Me to Design and Create Projects?

2011-08-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been wanting to take on another project or two.

So I'm available for hire to design or create any project or product. I usually charge fair rates, sometimes don't even charge at all. Its usually just a matter of how interesting the project is to me ;)

I live and breathe electronics and microcontrollers, especially PCB design and microcontroller firmware coding.

Email eric at narobo dot com if you have a project or idea in mind.

Final Project - Knock Lock

2011-08-29T17:09:00.001-07:00

Heres my final project for digital logic design. Video after the schematic. Notice how little chips were used, not a single microcontroller, all logic design. And if you're experienced with electronics you'll pick up on the little tricks I used to save chips - using a XOR as an inverter, using slower chips so that I could keep a single MRST signal, some other tricks hidden on the page.

New Post - my lab

2011-08-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

Been a while since the last post, been developing a secret product and a few not so secret projects.
More posts will be following.

Anyways, here are some pictures of my home workshop for the curious or interested. Check out my space

DroneCell Update

2011-05-02T05:46:00.000-07:00

The new DroneCells are available and on sale at DIYdrones.com
http://store.diydrones.com/DroneCell_p/br-dronecell-01.htm

They cost $120.00 and come with an antenna and antenna cable included.

If you're considering using the DroneCell in an industrial application or you're considering to incorporate it in a product - please email me! There are significant price breaks for industrial users and applications!

DroneCells Available Now!

2010-07-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

So I just released the DroneCell at HOPE this past weekend. I also made a cool demo of the DroneCell for the hacker conference:

They're $100 and come with antenna and antenna cable included. They come preset to 115200 baud and you can easily set it to whatever baud rate you'd like over UART.

Buy it here: http://themakerspace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=6

Let me know of any cool projects you guys make!

Configuring Microcontroller Settings on DroneCell

2010-07-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Simple tutorial on configuring DroneCell for microcontroller interface
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObfD645UhnM

New DroneCell Video

2010-07-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

DroneCell Video Tutorials

2010-07-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

DroneCells are making their way to the proper distributors, and I've been working hard on software and documentation.
Here are some video tutorials showing how easy it is to utilize the DroneCell.

Introduction to DroneCell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71IFZ8_cvEI

Hardware Setup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmDN1qngPTE

Phone Calls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7is4PnLacCA

Text Messages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD8DLryzSL0

Enjoy!

DroneCell Final Description

2010-06-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

The DroneCell is a cell phone for your robotics/electronics/minicomputer/anything project. You can make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, communicate over the Internet, and do nearly everything else your regular phone can do.
It has a simple UART interface that can easily connected to any 3.3V or 5V device, like most AVRs, PICs. All the necessary voltage level shifting is done onboard, so there isn't any headache. Connect it to your Arduino, your STAMP, your Gumstix board, your Axon, your whatever.
It is completely breadboard compatible, so its perfect for any prototyping rig. Plus it comes with two neat little LED indication lights, so you can visually see and understand whats happening. Additionally, there are several pins that give you extra functionality.
No more stupid Xbees that have limited range, use DroneCell for nearly unlimited range! It will work anywhere you have a cell tower. Control your robot in Los Angeles from your laptop in New York City.
Imagine sending a text message to your custom circuit which starts your car. Or sending data wirelessly over the Internet to your UAV that flying over Afghanistan. Or getting GPS and weather data from your high altitude air balloon. All this is possible with DroneCell!

FEATURES:
LED indication for both network status and power
Small footprint (5cm x 5cm)
Pushbutton power up
Lots of filtering capacitors for smooth voltage supply
Breadboard compatible for easy prototyping
5VDC-16VDC power supply input
3.3V to 5V UART Interface (voltage-shifting is done on board)
High serial data rate (up to 115200 baud)
GPRS communication rate (86.5 kbps downlink) – cellular to server communication
CSD (up to 14.4 kbps) – cellular to cellular communication
Software configurable baud rate
Works with any SIM card
Built-in SIM card holder
Quad band cellular connectivity
Internal switch to detect SIM card presence
Dial and receive phone calls (however, no microphone or speaker interface setup)
Send and receive text messages
Send and receive data to any Internet connected computer
Send and receive data over TCP or UDP sockets
Send and receive emails
Communicate with FTP servers
Super long range (anywhere there is cell reception)
High altitude (at least 10,000 feet, up to 30,000)
Phonebook entries and storage
Software libraries for AVR
Real time clock, synced to cellular tower time
User set alarms

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
UAVs and Balloons – live data reporting – GPS, pressure, altitude, streaming video
set waypoints, camera commands, etc.
Cars- remote start, car alarm notification, GPS tracking
Security systems – cars, boards, sheds, etc.
Home automation – thermostat control, lighting
Robots – data transfer, remote commands
Processors and computers- data transfer, wireless ssh, telnet
Wireless Industrial Systems – reset computers, activate pumps
Wireless Asset tracking – GPS track your car, your spouse, your cat

DATA TRANSFER METHODS:
iPod server/client socket app
Hyperterminal
Custom socket server/client – Perl, Python, C#, etc.

New DroneCell - Pictures and Updates

2010-06-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hello All,
I am happy to say that progress is moving along nicely, I have enough parts for a batch of around 50 DroneCells, so they should be in stores in the very near future!
I'm working on compiling a Getting Started Guide, as well as filming some video tutorials of the DroneCell in use.

So as promised, here are some pictures. Note the addition of the pushbutton, SIM card holder, and the tons of additional filtering capacitors.

DroneCell Updates

2010-05-12T14:10:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry for all the delays.
I had a batch of DroneCells that required external SIM card holders. After conferring with some friends in the industry, I've made the decision to release a new version of the DroneCell, a version that has a built-in card holder. This obviously has resulted in some delay, so expect the final release in stores to happen within the next three weeks.
As of now, DIYdrones will be stocking the DroneCells, as well as one more electronic hacker oriented store.

Some stuff I added to the new DroneCell:
Built in SIM card holder
Better power supply regulation
Power on/off button for manual turning on

Pretty much everything else is the same, so all coding samples I have will work exactly the same way. Final price on these babies will probably be close to $100 retail.

I'll have some more posts as they become available. I'm also considering some sort of preordering thing set up, because the demand for this has been higher than I expected, and we may run out of DroneCells from the first batch.

DroneCell Update: Ring,Ring Video

2010-03-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

I've taken a short demo video of the DroneCell interacting with my laptop and uploaded it online to Youtube.
The video shows how easy it is to get things running with the DroneCell. I demonstrate how easy it is to receive a phone call and to dial the DroneCell. In the next series of videos I'll be detailing how to send text messages, send emails, download info from a website, transfer data with a personal server, and more!

Enjoy the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcSa60gpv-E

BattleBots Documentary

2010-03-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

I got this in my email today:
I'm working on a documentary on high school BattleBots. I've been following multiple teams around since August, leading up to the National Championship.

I'm trying to raise funds to film the championship with a multi camera crew, as well as travel to San Francisco to interview the BattleBot creators and builders.

The project is at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jdaoud/bots-high-documentary-on-high-school-combat-robo

If you would be able to post something about this, it would greatly help me reach my goal and make this the best film it can be. Plus it'll raise awareness of the film at the production stage, so people can be involved in how the film turns out.

I think its great that there is more awareness with regards to robotics, especially high school level robotics competitions. If you have a couple extra bucks to spare, you should consider donating some to his worthy cause. You even get cool promo items like T-shirts and the like.

DroneCell Promo Ad

2010-03-10T13:00:00.001-08:00

Announcing my New Product: the DroneCell

2010-03-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

Announcing my new product... drum roll please..... DroneCell!

Picture Album: http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj202/erobot/DroneCell%20-%20March%202010/

What is it? Its a cell phone for your robotics/electronics/minicomputer/anything project.

It has a simple 3.3V to 5V UART interface, so it can be easily connected to any 3.3V or 5V device, like most AVRs, PICs. All the necessary voltage level shifting is done onboard, so there isn't any headache. Connect it to your Arduino, your STAMP, your Gumstix board, your Axon, your whatever.
It is completely breadboard compatible, so its perfect for any prototyping rig. Plus it comes with two neat little LED indication lights, so you can visually see and understand whats happening.
No more stupid Xbees that have limited range, use DroneCell for nearly unlimited range! It will work anywhere you have a cell tower. Control your robot in Los Angeles from your laptop in New York City.
Imagine sending a text message to your custom circuit which starts your car. Or sending data wirelessly over the Internet to your UAV that flying over Afghanistan. Or getting GPS and weather data from your high altitude air balloon. Or even having your butler robot( like my own Chives, look on Narobo.com for details) dial your cell phone and email you when he detects an intruder. All this is possible with DroneCell!

I actually used a slightly different version of the DroneCell in a major commercial product, so I have tons of code available. All the hard work is done, so enjoy it in your different projects!

Videos and software to be uploaded this weekend and next week. I'll post up the new info as its available.
Currently, I am sending out samples to several retail stores and very few personal friends. Expect DroneCell in a robotics store near you in about 2 weeks. If you absolute MUST have a DroneCell, email me and we can work something out.
Heres a laundry list of the features and possible applications:
FEATURES:
LED indication for both network status and power
Small footprint (5cm x 5cm)
Breadboard compatible for easy prototyping
5VDC-16VDC power supply input
3.3V to 5V UART Interface (voltage-shifting is done on board)
High serial data rate (up to 115200 baud)
GPRS communication rate (86.5 kbps downlink) – cellular to server communication
CSD (up to 14.4 kbps) – cellular to cellular communication
Software configurable baud rate
Works with any SIM card
Quad band cellular connectivity
Internal switch to detect SIM card presence
Dial and receive phone calls (however, no microphone or speaker interface setup)
Send and receive text messages
Send and receive data to any Internet connected computer
Send and receive data over TCP or UDP sockets
Super long range (anywhere there is cell reception)
High altitude (at least 10,000 feet, up to 30,000)
Phonebook entries and storage
Software libraries for AVR
Real time clock, synced to cellular tower time
User set alarms

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
UAVs and Balloons – live data reporting – GPS, pressure, altitude, streaming video
set waypoints, camera commands, etc.
Cars- remote start, car alarm notification, GPS tracking
Security systems – cars, boards, sheds, etc.
Home automation – thermostat control, lighting
Robots – data transfer, remote commands
Processors and computers- data transfer, wireless ssh, telnet
Wireless Industrial Systems – reset computers, activate pumps
Wireless Asset tracking – GPS track your car, your spouse, your cat

DATA TRANSFER METHODS:
iPod server/client socket app
Hyperterminal
Custom socket server/client – Perl, Python, C#, etc.

Divide Bits into Bytes

2009-10-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Another useful Python script. Divides text of bits into 8 bits at a time, so you can see everything byte by byte.

Python Code:

>>> string = raw_input('String = ')
String = 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
>>> " ".join(string[i:i+16] for i in range(0,len(string),16))
'1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0'

Thanks Keith and #python IRC

Reverse Text in Python

2009-10-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of work lately dealing with bits, and many times I've had to reverse the bit text in order to actually see what was being submitted ( most significant bits are first not last). I used to do it by hand, but I now use a handy one line python script.

The raw data from my microcontroller:
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1

The one line Python script :
print raw_input("Enter String to Reverse: ")[::-1]

Open up terminal and go into python. Type in that script and press enter.

Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Feb 6 2009, 19:02:12)
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5465)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print raw_input("Enter String to Reverse: ")[::-1]
Enter String to Reverse:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1
1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

The reversed code:
1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Special thanks to Keith!

The truth about leaving light bulbs on

2009-09-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

A common piece of urban folklore: Its better to leave a light on than to turn it off and turn it on a half hour later. The theory is that the bulb takes more energy on startup than it takes while in regular operation.
Time to debunk this foolish folklore with some math and specifications.( for incandescent bulbs)
Cold resistance of a tungsten incandescent bulb is usually around 1/10 or 1/15 the hot resistance of the bulb.( depending on the bulb). The startup time for the bulb to get from cold resistance to hot resistance is at maximum 1/5 of a second.
So when the bulb is starting up and turning on , it has cold resistance. After the the bulb is all turned on, it now has the higher resistance.
And we all know that with great power comes great current squared times resistance, or power = current* resistance. So Power = Current^2 * Resistance.

Lets take a common incandescent bulb with the following specs:
100W power consumption
120 volt source
Hot Resistance of 150 ohms
Cold resistance of 10 ohms
Startup Time(cold to hot) of .20 seconds

So that means that during that startup time , you will spend 3.16 amps(100 = i^2 * 10) for .2 seconds . Whereas with the hot resistance you will spend 0.81 amps(100 = i^2 * 150).
So lets see: upon startup you are spending around 4 times(3.16/.81=3.9) as much energy as you would spend , but only for 1/5 of a second.

Lets solve to see how many seconds of hot current draw equals cold current draw.
3.16 amps * .2 seconds = .81 amps * X seconds
X seconds = .78 seconds

Conclusion:
It takes less than one second to compensate for that startup current "surge"! Urban myth is busted!

Working at BugLabs

2009-08-28T12:41:00.001-07:00

I've been working at BugLabs - buglabs.net for the past few weeks. Its been lots of fun and I got to play with a lot of cool stuff.

RFID Module I made: http://bugcommunity.com/wiki/index.php/VonHippel_RFID_Reader

I also took my bipedal robot and mounted a BugBase onto it. BugBase talks to my custom Serial Servo Controller.

CMUcam Line Follower Tutorial

2009-07-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

I built a vision line follower robot a couple of months ago and haven't got a chance to document it. Anyways, I wrote up some documentation today - http://www.narobo.com/robots/line_vision/line_vision.html

I have more than a dozen projects and robots to document , so expect a lot more documentation to be upload this week and next week. Also, I'll be uploading a ton of videos to youtube, most of them old stuff I've never gotten around to uploading.
Heres my Youtube Channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/Erobots

Linear Actuator Demo Video

2009-06-08T04:24:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with linear actuator solenoids lately. They're a lot of fun and have tons of applications. Here's a quick video:

Omniwheel Robot Driving Around

2009-06-08T04:22:00.001-07:00

I added on some L298 Motor Controllers and wired up everything. The robot is wicked fast! Have a look at this video of it driving

Omniwheel Robot Chassis

2009-06-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

A lot has been going on the past few months. I have dozens of articles and documents to post up about new projects, and I hope to upload them all when I'm bored and have free time.

Meanwhile, here's some photos of my omniwheel robot that I designed. It boasts 4x4 drive and holonomic motion. I should be able to get speeds of 3 ft/second with this robot. I used HDPE for material( buy at McMaster-Carr) , motors are Copal 50:1 Motors, and omniwheels are from Kornylak.

Dance robot torso finished

2009-03-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

I designed a dance robot in Google Sketchup and then had the parts cut out of Sintra.
Then I mounted my servo robot arms onto the body.I still have to add on the robot head on top, the drive chassis on the bottom, as well as make the dance robot look cooler. Expect updates this week!

New video of Line Follower!

2009-03-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

I improved the algorithm a bit and eliminated the need for the camera to pan back and forth.

Source code and CMUcam AVR libraries will be released tomorrow.

Fun with servos

2009-03-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

I was building two robot arms(3 DoF per arm) for a dance robot I've been building and decided to mount it on my BRAT biped, just for looks. It looks awesome.

LIne Follower following a Red Line

2009-03-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

I finished up some coding and finally have the robot following a line!

Here's a video:

Line Follower Using Vision Update!

2009-02-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

Finally an update on my newest line following robot. This robot has 4x4 drive and has a CMUcam and an IR rangefinder mounted on board. A spotlight and a servo assist the CMUcam. All the processing is done using the Axon microcontroller.
I wrote up my own code for controlling the CMUcam from the Axon, and I will post source code in about a week.

Here is a quick video I made of the robot tracking a red box.

Speed Simulation

2009-01-20T18:08:00.001-08:00

I wrote up a simple Javascript web application to simulate the speed of your robot compared to other well known objects ( a bike, a car, etc.). There is also a football field in the background so you can see your robot's speed in relation to a football field.
Right now the simulation only supports whole numbers and only only operates in the feet per second resolution. I will add on support for meters per second later.

Also I am 75% done with the simulation portion for slow speeds in the inches per second scale. That part has a yardstick in the background. That should be ready in a few days.
Heres the link to the simulation , just enter the speed in feet per second in the text box above
http://www.narobo.com/projects/software/speed/speed.html

,Eric

New Layout for Narobo.com

2009-01-13T09:22:00.001-08:00

Just finished the new and improved layout of my main website - Narobo.com
Put in some javascript and also put up the Narobo Logo.

Roboduino on MAKE !

2009-01-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

The Roboduino was featured on MAKE: Blog.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/roboduino.html

Been busy with the Roboduino lately, so not much more updates.

I am working on a simulation to see relative speed in relation to a well know object in the background(ruler, football field, etc.) . It will be useful when you are trying to figure out relatively how fast an object should be going . I would also add other moving objects that would move alongside the object ( a car, a person running , bicycle, etc.). I plan to add text boxes to enter in speed and also checkboxes to select which objects would show up on screen.

,Eric

Implementing RF Modules Tutorial

2008-12-30T19:44:00.000-08:00

I finally wrote a tutorial on using those pesky RF link modules. When I first started out using the RF modules there were only two tutorials available and they weren't so clear. After a month of struggling with the RF , I managed to get it to work. I had some spare time on my hands so I wrote up a giant tutorial on using the RF modules - its filled with code, schematics, and helpful tips.
Link : http://narobo.com/articles/rfmodules.html

2008-12-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

The Roboduino is finally on sale!!!

Its $40 for a kit and $55 for an assembled version

More info and sales information here:

http://curiousinventor.com/kits/roboduino

Features / Specs:
* 100% Compatible with Arduino software.
* Power buses along side pwm and analog pins easily accept standard servo and sensor connectors.
* Powered can be supplied from USB, barrel plug or 3-pin male header. You'll need a suitable power supply when driving multiple servos.
* dedicated UART 3-pin male header
* 6 PWM outputs with neighboring unregulated power pins
* 6 analog pins
* 14 digital pins
* Reverse polarity protection for board circuitry (not for unregulated power pins)
* Optional I2C pull-up resistor locations

Looking for Beta Testers for the Roboduino

2008-11-26T07:56:00.000-08:00

I'm currently looking for some beta testers for the Roboduino
Roboduino Specs: http://erobots.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-robot-product-roboduino.html

Beta testers get a special discount on the Roboduino - $30 for the Roboduino kit ( thats 25% off of the retail price) and $50 for assembled board
(no discounts on an assembled Roboduino)

Beta testers are expected to use the Roboduino on robots or some electronics. Testers are expected to take pictures of what they used it on and also must report all malfunctions, any errors, etc.

If you are interested please contact me through email : airman00 at gmail.com . Include how you plan to use the Roboduino, any robotics/electronics experience you have , and if you want the kit version or the assembled version. Space is limited and I will be picking the beta testers I think are best for the job.

Thanks
,Eric

EDIT: No more spots left for beta testers. It all got filled up in a couple of hours.
Expect the Roboduino to be on sale in late December

First Roboduino Assembled!

2008-11-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj202/erobot/Roboduino/

The first Roboduino has been assembled and brought to life!!!

I tested out everything there - UART, PWM, status LEDs, etc. and all is working perfectly!!!

First Batch of Roboduino PCBs !

2008-11-20T07:34:00.000-08:00

Heres a quick preview of the Roboduino PCB . More updates after its assembled and tested.

New Robot Product - the Roboduino

2008-11-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

I've seen people use the Arduino on the robot and saw what kind of hassle they had. Servos and sensors were a pain to plug in and everything seemed to need a shield. I decided to go ahead and make my own microcontroller board - basically a modified Arduino that is geared for robotics. This microcontroller is entirely plug and play. No more stupid shields needed to plug in a servo. Each pin has its own power bus, so it couldn't be simpler.

I've teamed up with Scott from CuriousInventor.com(soon to be the sole supplier of the Roboduino ). Prototype boards should be ready in about 2 weeks and I'll make some demo videos of the first Roboduinos. Expect the first Roboduinos to be on the market in less than 6 months.

Heres an overview of it:

Features:

Both power jack and 3 pin connector for Power input
Male header pins that have GND and regulated power ( unless otherwise specified)
UART dedicated pins
I2C pin headers
Reset button
USB bootloader interface
ISP pins
6 PWM pins with unregulated power
6 analog pins
14 digital pins
1 LED dedicated digital pin
Power bus of male headers for 5V,Gnd,and 9V
Polarity Protection

Line Following Robot With Vision

2008-10-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

I will be building a line following robot for a competition and I'll use a CMUcam to do vision processing.

Heres some basic pseudo code for line following with vision:
Locate Middle Mass of Line
Turn scan servo till CMUcam is aligned with middle mass
Have chassis align with CMUcam "head"
Go Forward if Middle mass is aligned with CMUcam

The line following robot with vision uses a CMUcam , four 150:1 Micro Metal Gearmotor HP motors , Axon microcontroller, 6V NiMH battery pack, and one panning servo for the camera. Chassis is HDPE (spray painted blue) and is two decker - deck supported by four hex spacers.

I haven't decided yet if I am going to make a step-by-step tutorial or just documentation. Also I'll be making a tutorial on interfacing the CMUcam to the Axon.

More updates to follow.

Update for Giant Bipedal Robot

2008-10-19T08:32:00.001-07:00

I was recently contacted by a team of computer science seniors to help them out with their senior project. They wanted ideas and some guidance with their project. I suggested to make a bipedal robot and they decided to make a BRAT biped robot solve a maze. I agreed to help as long as they sent me a copy of their code and final report when they were done. This is great for the Giant Biped project because now I don't have to spend so much time playing around with the algorithms and have time to spend on other projects. And since we have the same setup ( same robot, same sensors, same microcontroller) their code will work right away on my robot. Once I get the small scale working perfectly I can use the data gathered from that and just scale up.

Updates after a while

2008-10-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

OK its been almost 2 months since my last post. I've taken upon myself a lot of new projects and I'll be detailing them in my following posts.

More Pictures of My Butler Robot

2008-08-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some more high resolution pictures of my completed butler robot.

http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj202/erobot/Chives%20Reloaded/Completed/

,Eric

Bluetooth Controlled Lights

2008-08-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Today I finally finished my wireless colored lights that are controlled with bluetooth. I used the BlueSMIRF Gold on one of the Axon's UART lines and wrote up a program that "listens" on the BlueSMIRFs Rx line ( the line where the incoming serial data is) for the key presses. There are four colors of LEDs and each is controlled by the first letter of the color ( the code for white is "w" ). I used ZTerm on MacOSX as the terminal emulator . It has extremely long range as well - I can control the lights from the second floor when the lights are in the basement.

Here is the code used:

Defines:
// *************** Bluetooth Lights ****************
#define blue_on PORT_ON(PORTC,0)
#define yellow_on PORT_ON(PORTC,1)
#define red_on PORT_ON(PORTC,2)
#define white_on PORT_ON(PORTC,3)
void all_off(void)
{
PORT_OFF(PORTC,0);
PORT_OFF(PORTC,1);
PORT_OFF(PORTC,2);
PORT_OFF(PORTC,3);
} // end routine
// *************END BLUETOOTH Setup******************

Code (example show is for blue only , just change the letter and color for the others):

char cByte = uart0GetByte(); // get byte from UART0 on the axon
if (cByte == 'b') // if character received is b then
{
all_off(); // turn all LEDs off
blue_on; // turn only blue LED on
}

Update for Servo Position Calculator

2008-08-26T09:53:00.001-07:00

I fixed some bugs and also added option buttons on the side of the servo wheel so that you can just click for the following angles = -90 , -45, 0 , 45, 90 .

For manual control just enter the value in the proper text box and press Calculate to get the other values.

Here is the download link for the newest version:
http://rapidshare.com/files/140300072/Servo_Calculator_Setup.zip.html

BRAT Bipedal Robot Update

2008-08-25T17:18:00.000-07:00

I played around with the BRAT biped robot and the Axon and I finally got it to walk. The gait is not perfect yet but its a start. The servo position calculator program the I made really helped me out. The entire program was made in C and the timing for the servo is cycles based. The Axon is a really powerful microcontroller board and its extremely easy to use.

More updates to come within the next week when I perfect the gait and add on an accelerometer.

Heres a video of it walking:

Servo Position Calculator

2008-08-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my biped for about a week now and it was getting annoying to figure out the amount of cycles needed each time. So I developed a servo position calculator that calculates the angle, cycles delay,milliseconds delay, and microseconds delay for a servo when given at least one variable. It even visually displays the turn of the servo onscreen.

Note: this version is for 16mhz only

Download it from here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/140067901/Servo_Position_Calculator.zip.html

Updates in Robotics Projects

2008-08-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Heres a quick list of what I am currently working on and what to expect from me in the next couple of weeks.

1. I'll be writing a tutorial for interfacing the CMUcam with John Palmisano's Axon microcontroller board (available at SocietyofRobots.com)
2. Brandt Daniels and I are gonna team up and write a tutorial on interfacing the BlueSMIRF gold to an AVR based microcontroller board
3. I'll be documenting my small scale BRAT biped robot. I was shocked to see that not one person posted up any documentation on using that biped robot with any microcontroller board besides the included Atom Bot Board which uses BASIC. I'll be documenting how to use the BRAT biped with the Axon microcontroller which uses C.
Heres a pic of my biped robot with the Axon microcontroller board mounted on.

New Parts

2008-08-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

I just ordered a whole lot of new parts I have been aching to get ever since I started doing work in robotics. I bought a BlueSmirf Gold Module, an RF link Module , 3 axis accelerometer , digital compass, USB to RS232 Adapter, RS-232 to IDC adapter, some high power LEDS, and a BRAT bipedal robot kit.

Can't wait until I get to play with all these parts.

Also, if any readers have any cool projects they've built lately , send me an email and I'll post a link to your project from my site.

,Eric

New Project: Giant Biped Robot

2008-08-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

My latest personal project is a giant biped robot for me to ride on. This is probably the most ambitious project I have ever undertaken and I expect it to be done by next year. The biped robot will be a dynamic balancer and will be 5 to 6ft tall , plus another few feet taller with me sitting on it.

It will be loosely based off the BRAT robot biped . By loosely based I mean it will have the same joints and will use motors not pneumatics. More updates to come

Contest Prizes

2008-08-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've last updated this blog - way too busy with designing projects.

Anyway my robot butler robot tutorial was a finalist in the Instructables Contest and was also a finalist in the Trossen Robotics Contest. Basically I won T-shirts and a Gift Certificate.

I'll keep on entering Chives into more robot contests that turn up in the future.

Mailing list

2008-07-11T14:34:00.001-07:00

I've added a mailing list feature to my website . Every week I will send out a robotics bulleting . It will include updates to my website ,a robotics related article, a list of cool robots that people built, and some links to interesting robotics related websites that I found.

To join this mailing list sign up with the forum on the upper right side of this blog.

,Eric

Video of Chives , My Butler Robot Version 2

2008-07-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

VOTE FOR MY BUTLER ROBOT IN THE INSTRUCTABLES CONTEST!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Your-Own-Butler-Robot/

My Butler Robot: The Software

2008-07-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

The software that Chives runs off was created in Visual Basic 6 and makes heavy use of Microsoft Vista's Speech Recognition Tool.

The minimum laptop requirements for the butler robot are as follows:
1. Runs any version of Windows Vista
2. At least 512 MB RAM
3. Two USB ports
4. Wifi Adapter ( Built-in or USB)
5. Speakers (Built-in or USB)

You will need to install/ setup the following programs and drivers:
1. Microsoft Visual Basic 6 ( if you want to edit and run the butler robot's program)
or if you want to only run the butler robot's install this runtime filesoftwareinstall this runtime file
2. Setup Microsoft Vista Speech Recognition
3. CCRP Timer Object
4. Phidgets 21 Installer Package
5. Free Voip Calling from Robot
6. RoboRealm

Verify Connections

After installing everything verify that the Phidgets Interface Kit Outputs are connected to their appropriate components. If something is wrong then just make the proper connections.

Output(0) = Relay for Left Motor to turn forward
Output(1)= Relay for left motor to turn in reverse
Output(2) = Relay for right motor to turn forward
Output(3) = Relay for right motor to turn in reverse

Output(6) = Left arm motor
Output(7) = Right arm motor

Output(9)= Bottle Cap Opener motor
Output(10)= Bottle tilter

Output(15) = Gripper Motor

Downloading the Code

The code can be downloaded from this page . Just download it and unzip.

http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/F01/57FK/FIHVKCYW/F0157FKFIHVKCYW.zip
This is version 1 of the code. Look on my blog ( eRobots.BlogSpot.com) for the most updated version.

This code has the following features:

Voice Control Over the Following:
1. Drive in all four directions - distance in "units"
2. Speak the Current Time
3. Speak the Temperature in Your Area
4. Speak the Weather Conditions
5. Pour a Drink
6. Raise Right Arm
7. Raise Left Arm
8. Close gripper
9. Various Sound Effects ( gun shot , load gun , laugh , etc.)

Text to Speech Warning of the Following:
1. No internet connection
2. Low Battery
3. Being Remote Server Operated now

This code is a stable release . My program with Voip and Roborealm interface has some bugs , so I'll only release that when I get all those bugs worked out.

To run my program do the following. Launch Vista Speech recognition and get it out of sleep mode and have it listen. Then launch my program . Now speak the commands and Vista Speech will click the commands that are in my program.

In the next few tutorials I will be explaining parts of the code so that you will be able to edit it to your liking.

Explanation of Subroutines and FunctionsI have included in the code a lot of subroutines and functions to make the code easier to use and easier to understand .

Here is a list of the major subroutines and functions

1. Speak
The Speak subroutine will play the sound file which is specified . All sound files must be in the "Voice" folder in order to play.
The syntax for the Speak subroutine is : Speak (filename as String)
ex: Speak "File1" - this will play the sound file "File1.wav" which is in the folder "Voice"

Note: For variables such as weather conditions make sure that the proper sound file exists for the condition.

2. Pause
The Pause subroutine will as it's name implies pause the code for a certain amount of milliseconds.The Pause function uses the Sleep function( a Win32 function) , but before sleeping it makes sure that all prior commands were fully completed.
Syntax for the Pause subroutine is : Pause (milliseconds as Integer)
ex: Pause 2000 - this will sleep for 2000 milliseconds a.k.a 2 seconds

3. Drive
The Drive subroutine is responsible for controlling the drive motors. The subroutine requires two variables to be filled in order to work. The two variables that it relies on are strDriveDirection and strUnits. strDriveDirection is a public variable because that way the direction can be set separately and in a different procedure than strUnits.

strDriveDirection tells the subroutine which drive relays to activate and strUnits tells the subroutine how long to activate the relays.
Syntax for the Drive subroutine is:

strDirection = (direction as String)
Drive (milliseconds as Integer)

ex: strDirection = "Forward" ' set the Direction to forward
Drive 3000 'Drives for 3000 milliseconds or 3 seconds

4. Get_Time
The Get_Time public subroutine returns the current time in a variety of variables. It has the ability to separate the time into the singles and tens place, set the time to 12 hour time, divide the day into AM and PM, and even divide the day into day phases(e.g. afternoon).

The syntax for it is either Get_Time or Call Get_Time

It returns the following public variables:
strDayDivider - this is either AM or PM
strHours - the amount of hours in 12 hour time ( maximum is 12)
strRawHours- the amount of hours in 24 hour time ( maximum is 24)
strRawMinutes- the amount of minutes ( double digit)
strSinglesMinutes- the amount of minutes in the singles place only ( single digit)
strTensMinutes- the amount of minutes in the tens place only ( e.g. 30 , 40 , 50 )
strDayPhase - either "Morning" , "Afternoon", or "Night"

5. Get_Weather_Info
Gets the weather information( temperature and conditions) and returns public variables.

The syntax is either Get_Weather_Info or Call Get_Weather_Info

It returns the following public varables:
strTemperature - temperature in degrees farenheit ( double digit)
strDegrees_Singles - temperature in the singles place only ( single digit)
strDegrees_Tens - temperature in the tens place onle ( e.g. 10 , 20 , 30 , 40)
strFeels_Like - feels like temperature in degrees farenheit ( double digit)
strFeels_Like_Singles - feels like temperature in the singles place only (single digit)
strFeels_Like_Tens - feels like temperature in the tens place only (e.g. 10, 20 ,30)
strWeather_Conditions - the weather conditions outside ( can be anything from herehere )

There are many other minor subroutines and functions , but the average user will not need to use them .

6. HighOutput
This subroutine sets the assigned port number a logical high or on.

syntax HighOutput(portnumber as integer)

ex: HighOutput (9) - Turns on Output 9 of the Phidgets

7. LowOutput
This subroutine sets the assigned port number a logical low or off

syntax LowOutput(3) - Turns off Output 3 of the Phidgets

VOTE FOR MY BUTLER ROBOT!!!

2008-07-07T08:53:00.001-07:00

I entered Chives into the Instructables Robot Contest.

I made an extremely detailed tutorial on him so that anyone can build their own butler robot.

To vote for Chives you need an instructables account
If you have an account already then go to the link below
http://www.instructables.com/contest/robotcontest/?show=ENTRIES&sort=USERVOTES

Then look for the post titled Build Your Own Butler Robot. Then click the Vote button underneath it. After this just click the picture of the butler robot to see the entire tutorial

Please vote for mine only , because if you vote for someone elses also then your vote by me is negligible.
Thanks!
,Eric

My Butler Robot: Building the Robot Arms

2008-07-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

The robot arms will consist of a gripper and an arm which makes 90 degree revolutions.

The gripper that I used came from one of those robot grabber toys.

You will also need the following PVC parts , I believe one is called a threaded PVC connector and the other is a 2" length pipe with a piece of plastic sticking out in the back.

Put the threaded connector over the pipe piece and connect the end of that pipe to the gripper. Hot glue the end of the pipe to the gripper.

Now take any piece of PVC pipe that is threaded on the end and cut the pipe around three inches from where the threaded part begins.

Hotglue that piece that was just cut to the end of a different 17" PVC pipe.

Now take both pieces outside and spray paint them black.After its dry you can attach the gripper to the pipe by just twisting the threaded connector on top of the threaded portion of the long PVC pipe.

Now take one of the two Power Wheels motors and mount the long PVC pipe of the robot arm to it , using some small L brackets.Use hot glue if you want to secure it more. The small L bracket that I put was 7" from one end and 10" from the end with the gripper.

Now attach the motor to the body using two screws.

Your robot should now look like this

Take another piece of the same 17" PVC pipe and attach a threaded connector.

Spray paint that black and mount it to a motor with two small L brackets(one on top and one on bottom) as we did before to the other arm. Use hotglue if needed to secure the arm.

Make sure both arms are secured in place .Here is what you should have so far by the robot's body:

And the back view for those who need it:

There should be two wires coming from each motors. Connect the red wires from each of the motors and connect those red wires to the positive terminal of the 6V battery pack.

Connect the Negative terminal of that 6V battery to the negative of the 12V battery ( which is common ground) then connect the black wire of the left arm motor to Output #6 , and the black wire of the right arm motor to Output #7.

Solder on wires to the existing wires connected to the gripper and connect the red wire to the positive terminal of the 6V battery and the black wire to output #15.

Open up the servo and solder on longer wires to the motor terminals. ( the red and black wires pictured)

Attach the connector featured to the servo

Attach the servo connector to the pipe connector and tighten them together.Then mount the servo the PVC pipe arm of the right arm using screws or hotglue.

Hotglue the motorized wheel to the bottle holder on an angle so that the wheel brushes against the cap of the bottle.

Solder on longer wires to the motorized wheel . Connect the red wires of both the servo motor and the motorized wheel to the positive terminal of the 6V batttery. Connect the black wire of the servo to Output #8 of the Phidgets. The black wire of the motorized wheel should be connected to Output #9.A cup can be attached on a L bracket if you want to add one.

Everything should be wired up now and now you should clean up the wires - that means tape them up, wire tie them , etc. Just make it less messy to work with. Heres what you should have :

My Butler Robot: Building the Robot's Head

2008-06-28T22:19:00.001-07:00

The robot head for your butler robot can be whatever you want . I decided to make a dome shaped head with one eye. Here are the instructions for the robot head that I made:

Get a 12" diameter cake cover and if its not silver yet , then spray paint it silver.

Now find a soldering iron that you don't mind destroying. ( you can actually just clean it up afterwards it doesn;t really destroy it)Plug in the soldering iron and wait for it to heat up.

Now find one threaded PVC connector ( 1.5" diameter is what I used).

Hot glue that piece to the silver dome in the place where you want the eye. Now the soldering iron is nice and hot you need to slowly melt a hole inside the PVC piece you just glued. Make sure you don't melt the actual plastic piece.

After you made your hole , wet the soldering iron with a sponge and unplug it , letting it cool. Take some PVC pipe ( I used a 7" , 1.5" diameter PVC pipe) and hot glue it to the bottom of the cake cover as shown. Make sure the PVC is attached securely.

Find that webcam that you will dedicate for this butler robot ( I used Quickcam Pro 4000 ) and glue it so that the lens of the camera is looking through that hole we melted.

Now the glue the other end of the PVC pipe to the center of the top piece of the wood platform we made.Cool head isn't it?

My Butler Robot: Building the Upper Body

2008-06-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

After the bottom is completely assembled and the robot is actually starting to like like a robot, we have to build the upper body , which is the part that will really define the butler robot.This stage will also require the most amount of materials.

I used:

one 5.5" x 9" plywood and 3/4" thick
one 5" x 9" plywood piece and 3/4" thick
two 10" x 21" plywood piece and 3/4" thick
one 9" x 11.5" plywood piece and 3/4" thick
one 9" x 21" plywood piece and 3/4" thick

Cut those materials and lay them outside on the floor. Take out a canister of black spray paint and prepare to paint!

Now take your canister of black spray paint and spray all the boards with a nice layer of black paint. Be sure to wear latex gloves so that you don't get your hands dirty.

Let the painted wood dry and now get ahold of the mini -fridge. If it isn't black already then spray paint that as well.

Attach the 5.5" x 9" piece to one of the 10" x 21" pieces as shown in the picture below.

Grab the other 10" x 21" piece and attach it to the other end of the 5.5" x 9" piece.

Now attach the 5" x 9" piece to the other end of the wood.

Stand up the wood that was all connected together so that the 5.5" x 9" piece is on the bottom end.

Take the 9" x 11.5" wood and screw it in to the top as show in the picture.

Take two L brackets and connect it so that the top of the bracket is 5" above the floor.

Take that mini-fridge and lay it down on top of the L brackets we just put up.

To secure the mini-fridge in place use a hot glue gun to glue the sides of the minifridge to the wood.

It should be secured and shouldn't wobble in there. Make sure that you have enough clearance to opne the fridge door.

The mini-fridge should have two black wires coming out from the back. Connect the end of one wire to the positive terminal of the 12V battery and the end of the other wire to the negative terminal. Now whenever the robot turns up the minifridge will be on.

The laptop that I dedicated to Chives was an old one I had and had a 17" screen. Lay the laptop that you have vertically on the space that is in back of the chassis and secure it with L brackets.

Unscrew the plexiglas cover that we put on the motor enclosure place it on the floor . Now put the wooden box we just built on top of it ( aligning it so that its in the center). Secure the wooden box to the plexiglas using two L brackets.

Building the Lower Body

2008-06-23T19:36:00.002-07:00

After you have finished the whole motor control part its time to make the body for the butler robot. This is the "essence" of the robot so be careful.

STEP 1: Create a box for the relays and Phidgets

When we ended off in the motor control section , the robot had no enclosure and was entirely open and prone to damage.

To make a box for the phidgets and relays you'll first need to measure it out.

If you followed my template then you will need:

Two pieces of 14 1/2" by 8 " plywood and 3/4" inch thick
Two pieces of 11 1/2" by 8" plywood , 3/4" thick
One piece 14 1/2" by 13" plexiglas piece

Assemble the wood pieces only for now as shown in the picture, it should be a rectangle. Just take some regular 3/4" drywall screws or some nails and attach the wood like as pictured below:

Now to see if its the correct measurements put the box you just made over the batteries, relays and phidgets. It should fit around them perfectly , as demonstrated below.

STEP 2: Paint the enclosure silver

Take the the wood enclosure off the chassis and lay it on the floor in a well ventilated area. Now get a canister of silver spray paint or just a bucket of silver paint and a paintbrush. It would also be a good idea to wear gloves right about now. Spray paint the entire outside of the wood in an even coat of paint. Then let it dry for about an hour or two .

STEP 3: Fasten the wood enclosure to the chassis

Fasten the (now silver and hopefully dry paint) wood enclosure to the chassis using L brackets.

Now it should look like this after you fasten it down with L brackets.

STEP 4: Now take some 1/4" plastic spacers

You will need 6 plastic spacers that look like this:

Nail two or three spacers to each side of the top of the enclosure as show in the picture below:

STEP 5: Put on the Plexiglas Cover

Take that piece of plexiglass that we cut before and put them on top of the spacers. Then drill holes in the plexiglas so that the holes are over the spacer holes and screw the plexiglass through the spacer into the wood.

Building the Motor Control System

2008-06-23T19:36:00.001-07:00

After the chassis is complete we have to make an interface to the motors so that we can control it from a laptop.

The two best methods to control a motor are using a MOSFET motor driver or using a relay. Since I am all about making a robot from common parts and taking advantage of everything available , I used relays. The only downside of a relay is that they cannot be PWMed , which in plain english means you can't have speed control with relays.

For those who have 125 dollars to spend on motor interface , they can get this

For the majority who dont have that cash to spend, you guys will use automotive relays. The relays I used can be found here. Make sure that you get this socket also. The socket is awesome because it has color coded wires AND it allows you to replace relays easily. You need a total of 8 relays and a total of 4 dual relay sockets.

The motors will be powered by either one or two 12V lead acid battery(ies) OR buy two 6V batteries. The battery(ies) that you buy must be able to provide at least 20AH each. If you decide to go with two 12V batteries you wire the batteries in parallel, if they are two 6V batteries then you wire them in series. If its only one 12V battery then obviously you just directly connect wires to the battey without any hitch.

The relays need their own separate supply of 12V to actuate them ( not really needed, you can use the lead acid batteries for this also but its not really good practice to use one source for driving and and being actuated at the same time on a relay ) . What I did was just use eight AA batteries wired in series and then later I switched out the AA batteries for a 12V rechargeable NiMH battery pack . Just make sure they give out 12V total after wired in series.

Step 1: Know what everything does - the relays ,Phidgets interface, and the batteries

Before we actually start making the relay motor controller circuit let's examine what a relay is and how it works.

Read the HowStuffWorks Article on Relays.

You should now understand that a relay is an electromagnet and a switch, and when the electromagnet has electricity running through it the switch closes, but otherwise the switch is open. The switch in our relay will turn on or turn off a motor. You need 4 relays to make a motor be able to go forwards and reverse. If you want to understand how that works have a look at this page.

The electromagnet will be turned on by a neat piece of hardware called a Phidgets Interface Kit. That is the hardware that will interface the computer to the relays. The interface board consists of 16 inputs and 16 outputs. Right now we are interested in the digital outputs. The outputs are just digital switches that switch to ground.

So lets look at the schematic below. Lets pretend that the switch was on the lower line and not the upper one. If the switch was on the lower line then when it was pressed it would let current flow and the LED would light. The Phidgets electronically "press" that switch and close the circuit. Instead of the LED we have a relay and so we always apply power to the relay but the ground part is left open. Only when we want to turn on the relay to we send a command to electronically close the ground switch.

***NEED TO UPDATE SCHEMATIC***

Step 2: Wiring the relays for Motor A

You should have 8 relays and 4 dual sockets. Put each relay in its designated socket.

The following steps are only for two dual sockets ( four relays). The other two remaining dual sockets will get a different wiring which will be detailed in step number three.

By the way whenever I say to connect the wires , I mean to solder them together. Also, the wheelchair motors should have four wires coming out. There are two thick ones and two skinny ones. Leave the skinny ones alone for now. The thick ones should also be different colors, usually blue and red. If its different colors then just know that I refer to one of the wires as the blue wire and the other one as the red wire.

You can either follow the steps below or just read this schematic and follow it. Make sure you follow the shematic by color code.

A. First Dual Socket:

1. One of the relays in the dual socket

Here is the color code key for the wires for the one of the relays on the socket , do this for only ONE of the relays:

BLUE- Connect to power( the positive ) of the motor's batteries. This is the motor's battery's , not the batteries for the relays.

BLACK- Connect to the ground(negative) of the relay's battery

YELLOW- Connect to the blue wire of the motor

WHITE- Leave alone for now

RED - Not used in this project so you could just rip it out or whatever

2. The other relay in the dual socket

Now for the OTHER relay thats in the same dual socket as the other one we just did:

BLUE- Connect to ground( the negative) of the motor's batteries. This is the motor's battery's , not the batteries for the relays.

BLACK- Connect to the ground(negative) of the relay's battery

YELLOW- Connect to the red wire of the same motor used above

WHITE- Connect to the white wire of the other relay in the same dual socket

RED - Not used in this project so you could just rip it out or whatever

Now that we are done with that dual socket , so set it aside. Pickup the second dual socket.

B. Second Dual Socket:

1. One of the relays in the dual socket

Here is the color code key for the wires for the one of the relays on the socket , do this for only ONE of the relays:

BLUE- Connect to power( the positive ) of the motor's batteries. This is the motor's battery's , not the batteries for the relays.

BLACK- Connect to the ground(negative) of the relay's battery

YELLOW- Connect to the red wire of the motor

WHITE- Leave alone for now

RED - Not used in this project so you could just rip it out or whatever

2. The other relay in the dual socket

Now for the OTHER relay thats in the same dual socket as the other one we just did:

BLUE- Connect to ground( the negative) of the motor's batteries. This is the motor's battery's , not the batteries for the relays.

BLACK- Connect to the ground(negative) of the relay's battery

YELLOW- Connect to the blue wire of the same motor used above

WHITE- Connect to the white wire of the other relay in the same dual socket

RED - Not used in this project so you could just rip it out or whatever

STEP 3: Wiring the Relays for Motor B

Now we have finished the motor control for one of the motors. One motor down, one more to go. The other motor will have the EXACT same wiring as the first motor except that YELLOW wires will go to the second motor and not to the first motor ( which we just finished wiring above) . So follow the exact steps for wiring it again , making sure to wire it to the second motor and not the first.

After you are done wiring both motors , locate the white wires. From each wire joint ( point where the white wires were soldered together) you need to connect some wire ( NOT ONE OF THE RELAY SOCKET WIRES) to the joint and then leave the end of that wire alone. If you followed the schematic and not the written steps , then you already did this step.

OK so if you followed all the steps correctly you should have four wires(one per dual socket) which are connected on one side to the relays, but are not connected to anything on the other side. You should also have a ton of wires everywhere. A good idea now is to organize the wires. Grab some labels and start labeling whatever you feel is important to label. Also get some wire ties or string and tidy up.

STEP 4: Enclosing the Relays and Labeling

I put both my relay circuits in a nice plastic box and closed it up. This protects the relays and also looks nice as well. Notice how neat it looks! I labeled each individual relay. Disregard the words "forward" on the label for now, we will deal with this all later.

STEP 5: Mounting the batteries

If you haven't done so already , mount the batteries. Use L brackets to hold the batteries in place. L brackets are 90 degree brackets of metal that can be found in all hardware stores ( like Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) Just use the L brackets like I used it below to fasten the batteries to the chassis. Make sure the batteries are fastened tightly and don't move, because while the robot is moving you don't want heavy objects like batteries falling out. Also, notice that I put duct tape to cover the battery's terminals. You should do the same because you want to have the battery's terminal covered at all times to prevent short circuits.

STEP 6: Connect the wires to the Phidgets

Remember the four wires you have from the wire joint from the relay? Now its time to connect them to the Phidgets. Connect the wires to the Phidgets output ports 0 - 3. Each wire getting its own terminal, order doesn't really matter. Also , connect a wire to the relay battery's ground connection ( negative side) and connect the other end to the two Phidgets terminals closest to output terminals 0 - 3 , they are marked "G". This assigns each output of the Phidget to its own dual relay.

STEP 7: Mount the Phidgets

To mount the Phidgets just stick screws or nails through its mounting hole and into the top of the plastic box which encloses your entire relay circuit. If you don't like that , then just mount it anywhere as long as the wires aren't getting to tightly pulled.

STEP 8: Connecting the Kill Switch

Wheelchair robots are very powerful machines, if something goes wrong and it doesn't stop or something it WILL DO DAMAGE. This is why we need to install a mechanical kill switch. All the switch is , is a standard light switch. The switch should have either two wires or two terminals on the side of it. Just cut the negative wire that is going from the motor's battery to the relays. Now that it's cut , connect a switch in between the two wires. Very simple.

Building the Chassis

2008-06-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

The first step to building a butler robot is to construct a chassis.

The chassis is probably the most important part of the robot. If this fails than the entire robot is practically pointless. This is the foundation of the robot. The chassis is the mode of transportation of the robot.

For motors I decided to use preowned wheelchair motors since they were pretty cheap ( ~$70 on eBay) and since they can handle a very heavy load .

What to ask when buying a wheelchair motor:

Do the motors actually work?
Do the motors come with wheels attached?
Do they draw more than 15 amps per hour?
Do they have too high RPM? ( this is relative to your application )
Do the motors have bad gears that make a lot of noise when turning?

RPM stands for rounds per minute. Now lets examine that further. That means that at 1 RPM a 12" wheel will turn exactly once , which also means that the wheel traveled 12". Now if that number was higher , say 60 RPM , then that would mean the robot would travel 12" per second. Now for me thats too fast , but it all depends how fast you need it to go.

STEP 1: Choosing the right material

The material we need for the chassis needs to be strong and able to support massive pounds. I went along with wood , though plexiglass will be okay. Make sure you use 3/4" thick wood . Any thinner will not really support the weight. 1" is okay also, but its just extra weight.

STEP 2: Mounting the Motors

You then mount each wheelchair motor to a piece of wood or plexiglas using the mounting holes as shown in the picture. Use washers and the appropriate sized thread when securing the motors to the material. Try to align the sides of the motors with the wood so that the wheels are aligned straight.

STEP TWO: Mount the Caster Wheel

Get a caster that can support 250 pounds . I purchased one from Home Depot, but any caster that can support 250 lbs. is good.

Attach the caster to the base as shown in the picture.

Now you should have a base looking something like this:

A Sketchup CAD of the base can be found here

CHASSIS IS COMPLETE!

Chives Reloaded - My New and Improved Butler Robot

2008-06-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

I am going to redo Chives , my butler robot and I am going to extensively document the building process.

I'm gonna take him apart and build him up in a new design.

The old chives looked like this

It boasted voice commands, remote web control , web cam used in image processing , arm to pour a drink ( not pictured since its already taken apart for the new design), and manual drive with a joystick. Oh yeah , and a minifridge that kept drinks cool .

The new Chives will be 100 times better . I'm planning for HUGE advancements, I'm talking about more sonar sensors, three microphones to track direction of sound, better robotic arm for pouring , cooler design, and anything else that you guys suggest that is feasible. all of this in addition to the old features.

Here is the basic design for Chives :

It will follow that design , and that after I have that basic design all finished I will attach my robot arm , some sensors, etc. So when its done it will resemble that CAD .

So far I've finished improving the chassis , making it more secure. Now I'm waiting for some pieces of wood and plexiglas to close up the batteries and relay system ( which I made). Hopefully I'll be done by the end of the week with the chassis.

The album is located here
http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj202/erobot/Chives%20Reloaded/Chassis/

This will be the official forum thread for improvements to Chives, I'm abandoning any other thread that dealt with this.
My intention is to enter Chives in the instructables robot contest , but I am not sure if I have enough time since I only finish exams a week before the deadline.

Written documentation will be posted next week or the week after.

Feedback is appreciated.

,Eric

I'm Compiling a Book! - The SoR Book of Algorithms

2008-05-08T08:11:00.001-07:00

I will be organizing and compiling a new book which will fully explain a ton of algorithms .
The book will be geared towards the robotics beginner and will have sample code in pseudo code, C , and BASIC. Circuit schematics will also be included for each algorithm

The Main Page for the SoR Algorithms Book

If you are interested in submitting an article email me!

I plan to make it into an ebook first and then into a paperback book

L298 Modification for Breadboard

2008-04-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

I got an L298 Motor Driver in the mail yesterday and was really disappointed that it looked like this

and not did not come in a DIP package like this

The reason I was disappointed was because the L298 cannot fit directly into a breadboard and was meant to be soldered. My simple solution to that was to bend the pins of the L298 so that its in a DIP package now and can fit in my breadboard.
Heres a picture of it :

And I also made this diagram for the "new" L298 DIP package :
Click the picture for a better view

Electronic Book Combination Lock

2008-02-28T20:37:00.001-08:00

I'm sure you have all heard of the trick in movies, where someone goes into a hidden room , which can only be opened by pulling out the correct book from a bookshelf.

I decided to change this movie cliche a bit. I took a sharp IR sensor and mounted on a bookshelf. It measured the distance to any book that was pulled out, and checked to see if that was the "key" book. After getting it to work with one book pulled out. I made it a combination of books. It has to be 7-9-5 in that order, any other books are ignored. It resets after 15 seconds.

Pay attention to the characters on the LCD screen in the video!

Finally Done

2008-02-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

I finally finished all the documenting on my robot for the Robocup Junior Rescue Contest !!!

All the docs are over here:
Line Following, Obstacle Avoiding, and Victim Finding , Oh My!

Cheers,
Eric

Instructions for Setting Up PICBASIC PRO, MicroCode Studio, and the U2 Programmer

2008-02-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

On the web there is supposed to be everything . Well I was looking for a guide to installing PICBASIC PRO, U2 programmer , and MicroCode Studio, but couldn't find any. Zero. None. Nada.

So here I go and write my own!

I originally posted it in my 3 in 1 robot tutorial here : http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/84

I used PICBASIC PRO to make the program , but PICBASIC generates an assembly file as well.I will post that assembly code up also. If you know assembly language and do not need PICBASIC, all you need is the programmer. If you don't know assembly then just use PICBASIC PRO.

Now the first thing we need is a microcontroller . We will use the PIC16F616 PDIP microcontroller. PIC is the brand( which is manufactured by Microchip), 16F616 is the part number , and PDIP is the package type. PDIP means it will look like this .

The microcontroller holds the program , which is a list of instructions for the robot . The language that I will use in this tutorial is a language known as PICBASIC PRO. Here is some sample code to blink an LED.

loop:   High 0          ' Turn on LED connected to PORTB.0
       Pause 500       ' Delay for .5 seconds

       Low 0           ' Turn off LED connected to PORTB.0
       Pause 500       ' Delay for .5 seconds

       Goto loop       ' Go back to loop and blink LED forever
       End

The compiler software transfers the basic code into assembly code and then into robot code( called hexadecimal code) . Assembly code of that same program would be over a page long of almost incomprehensible MOVLW , MOVWF , EQU , $128 , and other various commands. From the assembly code , hexadecimal code(the robot code) is created, which is TOTALLY incomprehensible. Here it is , in case you are curious:

0000- 2828 01a3 00a2 30ff 07a2 1c03 07a3 1c03
0008- 2823 3003 00a1 30df 200f 2803 01a1 3ee8
0010- 00a0 09a1 30fc 1c03 2818 07a0 1803 2815
0018- 07a0 0064 0fa1 2815 1820 281e 1ca0 2822
0020- 0000 2822 0008 1383 1303 1283 0064 0008
0028- 1405 1683 1005 1283 3001 00a3 30f4 2002
0030- 1005 1683 1005 1283 3001 00a3 30f4 2002
0038- 2828 0063 2839

The compiler costs $250 dollars retail, but there sometimes are cheaper versions online -- however, those versions are pirated copies , and any free torrent downloads of PICBASIC PRO are also illegal copies . Buy the retail version from here

The following instructions are for installing and setting up MicroCode Studio with PICBASIC PRO and the U2 Programmer. I was surprised not to find any instructions to do this online, so I went ahead and wrote my own. Enjoy!

Now once you have the compiler , you need hardware that can download the robot code onto the microcontroller from the computer. There are many options available for this piece of hardware.

I recommend this U2 Programmer since it can program almost any PIC micro out there

There are other USB programmers out there , as well as Serial Port Programmers for cheaper.

OR you can buy the code preprogrammed on your chip from Microchip Direct . However, if you go with this option , you will not be able to edit or debug the code . If you do this then skip all of the steps below.

For the next steps you should have a microcontroller, the PICBASIC PRO compiler ,and a programmer hardware.

Lets begin:

Install the software that came with the programmer

Follow the instructions provided with PICBASIC PRO to put PICBASIC PRO software on your computer

Download and Install MicroCode Studio - a free program to edit BASIC code

Download and Install MPASM Assembly Compiler

Now open up MicroCode Studio. Click View in the toolbar and then select Compiler and Editor Options.

A pop up box should appear . Make sure the "Compiler" tab is selected and then click the button titled "Find Automatically". It should start searching your computer for the PIC BASIC PRO compiler.

After it has found it , select the tab titled "Assembler ". Click the "Find Automatically" button and wait till it has found the MPASM assembler software.

Now select the Programmer tab .

Click the "Edit" button. A box should pop up. Type in the program name of your programmer software. For the U2 USB programmer it is "meprog.exe" .

Click Next. Now click "Find Automatically" and wait until it finds the software for the programmer.

After it has finished finding the programmer software , click "Next". Then click "Finished".

All done with the options for MicroCode Studio !

Now open up the programmer software in C:/Program Files/meLabs Programmer. Click meprog.exe

Now click the Options tag and make sure only the options in the photo are checked. Uncheck the other options

Click the View tab and then click Configuration from the drop down list.

Change the configuration setting to match the settings in the picture.

Exit out of the programmer . You have finished setting up all the software and hardware!!!

Infrared vs. Ultrasonic - What You Should Know

2008-01-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

Over at SocietyofRobots.com , I wrote a tutorial explaining the pros and cons of using infrared and ultrasonic. I compared and contrasted them and wrote a bit of background information on the sensors.
The tutorial is titled Infrared vs. Ultrasonic - What You Should Know

Note: Ultrasonic is basically sonar : Infrared vs. Sonar is a valid title too
Cheers,
Eric

My Google Sketchup Tutorial

2008-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

A Google SketchUp tutorial I wrote for SocietyofRobots.com

Here is the link for it http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/70

Voice Control and Chives 's Software

2008-01-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

So many people have contacted me regarding how Chives works , software wise. So here is a detailed explanation.

When Chives' laptop starts up, Windows Speech Recognition also starts up. Now Chives's software, which I programmed in Visual Basic 6.0 , consists of multiple buttons whose captions are the voice commands. Meaning the caption titled is the command it does. "Get me a drink" is the caption of the button which gets you a drink . By clicking that button , the computer sends a signal through a USB port to the Phidgets controller ( we'll deal with that later, but you can google it if you want .)

Now where does the voice control come in? My first attempt at Speech recognition was that of using the Microsoft Speech SDK , which did not work out well. Accuracy was terrible. Then I stumbled upon Windows Vista Speech Recognition which is amazing. It actually scans the page automatically for the captions of buttons, and when you say the caption of a button it will click the button for you , all controlled by speech. So now all I did was create a program filled with buttons that did different tasks. Vola! Instant speech recognition. Except there is one slight problem now ..... having the robot talk back to us. Now I know you could use Microsoft Text to Speech , but frankly , after using that I felt like I really was talking to a robot . So I found this http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php and prerecorded all of chives's sounds and also created my own Number to Speech engine. This engine I made allowed me to simply slip in a number variable into the engine and then a number would be said in a natural voice, eliminating the need for me to record every single sound from 1 to 1000.
Another issue which emerges throughout this type of program is timing. There are over 50 timers in Chives's program, since this will allow for the words to be said , for actions to last a certain amount of time , you get the idea , you need at least one timer for each function.

Well you get the basic idea of how I got voice control to work and text to speech to work ( in a natural voice, not Microsoft text to speech) . But I warn you, there are hundreds of bugs which I had to work out , causing me a lot of headaches. If you endeavor to create a voice controlled robot , feel free to contact me and I'll help you out of the bugs which I already fixed , give you tips , give you sample programs I made , because this will save you a lot of time and headaches.

Cheers,
Eric

Tips for Modifying Servos

2008-01-22T19:47:00.001-08:00

OK so here I am making my own tips/instructions for modifying a servo. This is my favorite and the most accurate way.

To modify the servo replace the pot with two 2.2K precision ( 1% -2% tolerance) resistors

If precision resistors are not available but you have resistors with the same color-band , get a multimeter and measure which resistors have the closest resistance. Then pick the two resistors that have the closest resistance and use those.

Be careful when desoldering the potentiometer ( if it has leads connected to the PCB) . If the potentiometer has wires coming out of it and not only leads, solder the resistors to the wires and not directly to the circuit board. ( photo courtesy of Seatlle Robotics Club)

When you cut the wires off the potentiometer ( if it has wires) , cut it so that the potentiometer can be reused later on, you might need it in one of your projects.
After you have modified the servo circuitwise, try to remove the pot from the inside of the servo. If the potentiometer is hard to remove , DO NOT USE FORCE, and just leave it in there.

Also, when using servos for locomotion. One servo has to be going clockwise and one has to be going counterclockwise for the vehicle to move forward, right? So on one of the servos , reverse the wires to the motor so that way , both motors will get the same pulse to go forward.
When you modify the output gear for continuous rotation saw it carefully, making sure not to damage the gear teeth, and use a file to smooth it out.
Before putting the servo back together , make sure all the gears can move and that nothing is stuck in between the gears

Last tip: Be careful when opening a servo. Open the screws carefully and don't lose gears, as well as do not touch the grease too much.

Line Following, Obstacle Avoiding , and Victim Finding , Oh My!

2008-01-21T14:54:00.001-08:00

My tutorial for SocietyofRobots.com is 75% complete!!! Everything except programming and the circuit is described in heavy detail on the tutorial

Check it out at Line Following, Obstacle Avoiding , and Victim Finding , Oh My!

And here is a glimpse of the actual robot

My robotics CAD collection

2008-01-21T14:50:00.001-08:00

As many of you know I use google sketchup to make CADs of my robots and other projects. Now usually I make my own parts and sometimes I get lucky and find the parts on Google Warehouse. Today , when making a CAD for one of my robots I was so upset, I could not find a single CAD of the parts besides a servo. This got me very frustrated. So I sent out a couple of emails, posted a thread on SocietyofRobots.com and assembled a collection of robot components. I'm still making more parts myself.

If this collection has helped you , please make a CAD part to add to the collection , or at least leave a comment on this blog expressing your gratitude.

Anyway here is the link to My Robotics Collection

Cheers,
Eric

Servo Mount Template

2007-12-20T19:34:00.000-08:00

A lot of people have been needing a CAD drilling template for servos

So the template I made on Google Sketchup is for standard servos and these mounts.

Click here to get the CAD for sketchup, but be sure to read the instructions and description!

Line Follower for Competition

2007-12-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

As of now I am in this robotics competition in Robocup Junior rescue. I am working on a tutorial/ article which can be found on the Society of Robots forum.

Here's the link.
Line Following , Obstacle Avoiding , and Victim Finding , Oh My!

When the tutorial is complete i'll post a copy onto this blog .

,Eric

Line Following Robot

2007-11-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

Here is version 2 of the line following robot.

Robot Butler Video

2007-11-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of Chives

More videos to come!

Line Following Robot

2007-10-24T03:40:00.000-07:00

The newest robot that I am working on is a line following robot / rescue robot for my school. It must follow a line , avoid obstacles, and find the line after it has discontinued.
This will all be PIC based. I will post a tutorial as well as a ton of documents related to the robot. Things are going well for now.

The butler robot is now my side project. I try to work a little on it every week. I will taka e a video of him in action on Friday. Basically in the video he will talk to me, drive by voice command, drive by online command, and then pour me a drink. Then he will spin and "dance" to Star Wars music.

,Eric

Using Wheelchair Motors

2007-09-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the post which I originally posted it in Society of Robots Forum. My ID there is airman00

A lot of people have been asking questions about wheelchair motors lately so I will just list some of the ideas behind using a wheelchair motors.

Note: I am assuming that you are buying the wheelchair motors along with the gearbox attached.
Why choose a wheelchair motor?
Wheelchair motors are very powerful and can handle 300+ lbs. They are relatively cheap for their size(~$75 ebay) and are very easily found online or in repair stores. Try to buy a motor with the wheels still attached.

Controlling Wheelchair Motors
When using wheelchair motors I would recommend having differential drive( two motorized wheels and one caster in front). This makes controlling the drive system easy and it allows for on the spot turning. To control the motors you can either use relays or a motor driver. Im also sure that an electric wheelchair includes a controller with joystick, so just hack that. But for most of us who are buying the motors separate from the wheelchair , make sure that your relays or motor drivers can handle at least 5 amps more than the motors draw( better safe than sorry). I personally used automotive relays bought from All Electronics Corp to control my wheelchair motors.

Mounting the Wheelchair
This varies by motor but most have mounting holes on the gearbox so all you would do is drill through the base material( i recommend wood) and stick a bolt in through the wood into the motor.

Miscellaneous Advice

Even if your motors are rated for 24V they will run on 12Volts except theyll be slower.

Install a Kill Switch : And also remember wheelchair motors are powerful machines. They are meant to carry 300 pound people @ 5 mph. Thats really strong so be careful! My biggest mistake with using wheelchair motors was too not install a kill switch. The robot just kept moving forward on a test run and I was not able to hold it down( luckily I pulled out the wires in time) Now I have one R/C kill switch and another tactile kill switch. The button should be really big so you can hit it while the robot is moving. Also it should be a direct kill switch, meaning not a switch that goes through the micro controller, but a switch that separates the motors from the batteries directly.

If the robot does not stop it will either damage itself, your belongings, your house, or you!

There is a copy of this on my blog.(http://erobots.blogspot.com) That will be the more update version if I forgot something

Any questions?
Feel free to email me - airman00@gmail.com
,Eric

Having a drink with Mr. Roboto

2007-09-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

I made a drink pouring system. A bottle holder on a motor pours a drink into a funnel which flows into a cup.
Pictures will be up soon...

Chives Version 3

2007-08-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

My new and improved butler bot.
Its 3' 9" and on a 21" square9 including wheels)
Also I added a mini-fridge and an extra 12V 20Ah battery.
Another improvement was that I mounted everything vertically.

WAY COOL!

videos to come later on...

CLICK HERE TO SEE PICS

Base is done! Click the link to see some pics

2007-08-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

CLICK TO SEE BUTLER BASE

My base is done and it works amazingly. On the spot turning and awesome maneuvering. Anyway to see some pics goto Chives V 2.0 Photo Set.
Summary of it: Two dynamic wheelchair motors( 24VDC 11.5Ah) running off a 12VDC 20Ah battery. One caster in front for stability. Phidgets control automotive relays which switch the motors to go in two different directions. My computer program is the same it was before.

Got the motors! Made a template

2007-08-03T08:12:00.001-07:00

I got the motors and wheels from eBay and I am now goingto mount it. I created a template for the Dynamo Electric Wheelchair Motors. This template is for mounting the wheelchair onto wood or metal. If anybody wants the template, I can send it to their emails and then they could just print it out to scale with Google SketchUp.
I am still waiting for my batteries , my relays , and my template which is being made into 1/4" thick metal.
I'll post pictures of the completed base when I finish. I think I should be done by next week, but I am not sure about how the charger, batteries, and motor will interact with each other due to fact that I bought the pieces separately ,on the basis that they run on 24V and 20Ah.

Batteries and motors work! The motors even run on 12V instead of 24VDC. I will use the 12V because it is slower and more suited for a home enviornment
Hope this works!

PBR Motor Controller

2007-07-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

{PBR = Phidget>Battery>Relay }

I made an enclosure for the Phidgets and the relays. I got the metal box from an old power supply I had lying around. I also added some switches to switch the main battery and the relay circuit on or off. This box allows me to save space on the robot. If you look in the pictures before; the
battery,relays, and phidgets were just spread out everywhere, with wires making a big mess. This box is much nicer and smaller. I can't wait to try out the box with my wheelchair motors( they should arrive in the near future...) The wires for the motors are hidden in this picture, but they come out from the back of the box.

Circuit is as follows: Each motor is connected to two DPDT relays, giving a total of four DPDT relays. The relays are powered by four AA batteries and are switched on by the Phidgets Interface. Each relay is DPDT, meaning there are two poles to be switched. SO whenever a relay is triggered it is switching BOTH positive and negative current to the motor. The reason for this is due to the fact that if a motor were to be wired with two switches meant to turn the motor in two directions( each switch controls a motor movement) instead of four switches to control motor direction, a short circuit will result ,killing the battery and potentially producing an electrical fire.

The battery, Phidgets Interface, and relays are all stored in an aluminum box. The enclosure is from a power supply and is all metal. In order for the relays and Phidgets Interface not to short circuit upon touching the metal, a thin plastic film was glued onto the surface. Two switches were placed in the front of the enclosure. The bottom black switch is responsible for switching the main battery that runs the motors. The red switch above it is responsible for switching the battery that powers the relays.

Here is the schematic of the relay to motor interface.

Motors Ordered

2007-07-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

I just ordered two wheelchair motors with 12" wheels from eBay for a total of $135 ,including shipping. Not bad deal, because these motors are very powerful( can carry over 200 pounds). Due to the strength of these motors I might add a small step for me to stand on and then I would add a joystick to control the robot manually . The motors will probably come in next week and the base will be built by the second week of August. Maybe even sooner if the motors arrive early.
I'm also going to buy a deep-cycle wheelchair battery from eBay, or perhaps I can find a substitute for that battery. Up on top is a quick 3D model I drew of the base( in Google SketchUp)

New Base

2007-07-22T17:17:00.001-07:00

I'm currently working on another, improved base for Chives. The base will consist of two motors, two casters, and an 18" by 18" aluminum square about 1/2 inch thick. I'm still researching motors, so if anybody knows of any strong,cheap ones please email me. My choices rite now are 2 NPC gearmotor kits ($160 from Robot Marketplace, total of $320 for both wheels), or 2 Drive Modules( $120 from Trossen Robotics, total of $240 for both wheels), or 2 AME motors(total of $100 from Robot Marketplace) and 2 wheels(total of $20 from Robot Marketplace) as well as mounting hardware(total of $20). Here are the totals:
NPC Gearmotor = $320 *Most powerful with bigger wheels for more clearance
Drive Modules= $240 *Less Powerful with only about half an inch for clearance
AME Motors and Wheels = $140 *Cheapest, medium power but have to assemble and all parts aren't designated for each other

The base I can get for around 20 bucks from any sheet metal place. I have casters at home. If I had sponsors I would be able to get the best parts and have the perfect robot. So I'll have to make it perfect using brains instead of money and I'll measure seven times and cut once.

[I ended up picking wheelchair motors from eBay]

Even More Pics

2007-07-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

More pics

2007-07-15T18:12:00.001-07:00

Chives Version 1.4 Completed

2007-07-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

I finished the basic butler robot today. All it is now is a voice controlled motorized base with a wireless web camera. The voice recognition works very well and the internet control of it is amazing. The drive system is not perfect, it doesn't travel perfectly straight. It worked better than I expected but after all, its just two old powerwheel motors with bike wheels hot glued to them. Not bad. Phidgets worked well also, they stopped working for an hour(I put in too high current,oops). Then they went back to normal and everything was perfect. Ill post more detailed information later but for now, just look at the pics. Also, I might make room on my server for guests to just view the robot video feed ,however they won;t be able to control the robot.Thats my job.
A picture says a thousand words....

Uh Oh

2007-07-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

The Phidgets Interface Kit broke. I woke up one morning and the interface switch just remained closed and didn't switch. However ,the LEDs still lighted up. I'm going to call up Trossen Robotics and probably get it repaired.
Why me, why is it always me?

[Edit on 8/15/07: The Phidgets weren't broken, they just received too much current. Its ight now! Sorry Trossen Robotics...]

Go to my blog for more details on my project which uses phidgets, my robot butler.

Internet Control

2007-07-15T03:40:00.001-07:00

I can now control my laptop and the Phidgets over the internet by using SimpleDesktop.
Its free software which allows me to see the screen of the remote machine and control it. Its really cool because I have a webcamera and I can see a room remotely and make the computer talk to people that enter from another computer. The Phidgets activate the relays and drive the robot.

The SimpleDesktop Server can be accessed through any web browser that has java enabled.
Cool and simple!

Interface Details

2007-07-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is the details of how the interface works.
The computer runs a visual basic program with command buttons which can be activated by voice or by clicks (read my previous posts about the voice control). Each command button contains an instruction which tells the Phidgets 0/16/16 Interface Kit which outputs to initiate.

The Phidgets Serial Interface is a really cool device. It connects to your USB port and has 16 digital inputs and 16 digital outputs with LED indicators by each pin. A simple command is sent to the USB port in the visual basic program to turn on an output or to detect an input. A sample command is "IFKit.OutputState(0) = True" to turn on pin 0. There is more code that must be done to set up the Phidgets though. It took me a half hour to figure out how to use Phidgets and another 3 hours to find out why my program wasn't working( I hadn't added the Phidgets Library as a reference in Visual Basic 6.
After that it was just making the program more visual and more effective. I put in a timer( not the standard one, I used the ccrpTimer ,you can find it online for Visual Basic) to control the outputs so that the robot will only go forward for 5 seconds and then stop, instead of it continuously going forward. Then I added a video feed from my Logitech Quickcam and some other minute fixes to the program.
You can find sample programs for Phidgets online by TrossenRobotics as well as prices for different Phidgets. I got all digital interface with 32 pins for 100 bucks. It was well worth it.
Please Email me if you have any questions or comments.

Interface Program ScreenShot

2007-07-13T03:28:00.001-07:00

Interface Completed

2007-07-13T03:18:00.001-07:00

My interface to the robot from my computer is completed. (Using phidgets)
My program has buttons for driving and a video feed from a webcam. Outputs are directly controlled from that program and inputs are detected there for the robot to respond accordingly.
Check the comments for this post to see pictures and Visual Basic code.

Voice Control

2007-07-07T18:50:00.001-07:00

Processor- Dell Laptop
Voice recognition software- Dragon Naturally Speaking 9
Control Software- Visual Basic Program
Microphone- Logitech Webcam
Interface- Phidgets 0/16/16 Interface Kit

[Screenshot of Program at Bottom of Page]

Dragon software reads my visual basic program for command buttons. My command buttons' captions are words like Go Forward or STOP. Whenever the Dragon software hears any of those captions being spoken it clicks on it automatically. These buttons are all programmed with commands to control the robot which is connected to the phidgets. The computer runs a visual basic program with command buttons which can be activated by voice or by clicks (read my previous posts about the voice control). Each command button contains an instruction which tells the Phidgets 0/16/16 Interface Kit which outputs to initiate.

The Phidgets Serial Interface is connected to the USB port and has 16 digital inputs and 16 digital outputs with LED indicators by each pin. A simple command is sent to the USB port in the visual basic program to turn on an output or to detect an input. A sample command is "IFKit.OutputState(0) = True" to turn on pin 0. Video feed from my Logitech Quickcam and some other minute fixes to the program were added later on.
The all digital interface with 32 pins was purchased for 100 bucks.

AT&T Text to Speech was used to generate confirmation messages. If I were to say Go Forward then the GO Forward button would be clicked by the Dragon program and a sound would be played. (A voice saying "Going Forward"). Each command given( besides Cruise Control ) lasts for a certain number of seconds before all motors receive a STOP command automatically from the computer.

To start the voice command program the user most first open Dragon Naturally Speaking in the background. Then the user says "Listen." The voice recognition software then clicks the "Listen" button found on the page. This links to the Start Command page where a AI voice says "I am listening". On that page there is only one button, whose caption reads "Chives." Until now we have only told Chives to start the voice command program, so now we have to tell him to actually listen for commands. So the user says "Chives", and the big "Chives" button onscreen is clicked. This leads us to the voice command list. The user now says a voice command and that command button is clicked. The clicking of that button sends an instruction to the phidgets which in turn react electrically in some way. After each command, excluding movement commands, the page is automatically link back to the Chives page. Also, an AI voice is played corresponding to each command to show confirmation.

Here is a sample dialogue:

User : "Listen"

Robot: "I am listening"

User : "Chives"

Robot: "Yes Master"

User: "Go Forward"

Robot : "Going Forward"

(Both motors are turning clockwise for 3 seconds)

Robot: (After 3 seconds) “I have stopped”

***Commands must be made in that order. However, the second time around, the user is only sent back to the Chives page so that the user would say "Chives, go backward" and so as not to confuse the robot if anybody happens to say go backward in normal conversation.

My new website

2007-06-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

Go to my new website www.erobots.co.nr
It will have photos and info.

By the way the pic on the right is my first robot ever built. I will post the redesigned first robot over the weekend. Its all black and has the motorized front wheels.

Alfred the Robot Butler

2007-06-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

I have decided to name the robot Alfred, after Batman's butler.
Anyway, I will be posting pics later this week or next week. They will show the base w/ wheels, my joystick switch I made for manual control, the relay system and schematic, robot arm, the main circuit if i put it on in the next few days. Also you'll be able to see the robot body( a plastic human)
It may show up as one post or separate posts for each thing. Look for it !
Keep sending me those ideas!

[Edit: Its not going to be ALfred, because the "fff" sound is hard to pick up on a mike. So its going to be Chives]

Robot Butler Details

2007-06-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

OK ,so my robot butler is right now just a wooden base with two casters in front and two independently motorized bicycle wheels. The motors are controlled by four relays in combinations. Wheel 1 direction and wheel 2 direction. For turning one wheel goes forward and the other wheel goes backwards.
As for sensors, I put IR sensors on the robot for detectors but it was not precise enough. I will purchase Matbotix EZ1 Sonar modules and use those for obstacle avoidance.
Oh yeah, I use a PIC16F627 as the brains of the system. I will put on my wireless video camera and a reciever so I can see video and control the robot over the internet.
The purpose of this robot will be as a butler robot to bring me drinks by voice command, R/C rover, and security robot.
Please comment or email me if you have any extra ideas or tips.

UPDATE : (6/24/08) I'm now extenisvely documenting my new butler robot!!!! The new one can pour drinks , talk, tell time, sweep, and sooo much more. I also give detailed instructions on how you can build your own butler robot!!! All the details can be found on my main page : eRobots.BlogSpot.com and also on the links on the right side of this page. Enjoy!

R/C Rover

2007-06-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

One of my robotics projects which I have completed is a R/C security robot. I finished this project about a year ago, it took me about a month. I had just started robotics so it is a fairly simple robot.
I ripped off the front of a Power Wheels car and put in the front wheels of another toy car which turned with the help of a motor.
Then I salvaged a small R/C car for the remote control part. I took off the motors and attached relays and diodes in their place. The circuit of relays and diodes worked in such a way with the R/C circuit ,that only one relay per function could be triggered. For example the combinations were (forward, right) or (backward,left) but not (forward,backward.) If anyone would like a schematic of the relays and diodes circuit ,feel free to e-mail me for it.
The relays were then wired to the motors ,which made the drive system digital, the motors were either on or off, no adjustable speed. The R/C circuit and drive system were powered by one battery.
A wireless camera, walkie talkie, and a wireless robotic arm was added to it. I was able to drive the robot downstairs from my room upstairs. I hooked up the walkie talkies to my computer and played C3P0 sounds through it and talked to people downstairs.
That was my first real robot and I learned a lot from it.
Email me for info or photos

Butler Robot

2007-06-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

I am working on a Butler Robot and wanted to know if anybody has any ideas or tips for me.