I’ve been watching over the robots available like a hawk as I’m really wanting a hobbyist robot to build, program, etc.
The problem is I can only really spend £400/$700 at the absolute max, seeing as I’m 15, not exactly got hundreds to spare.
I’ve been looking at Lynxmotion alot lately and the bot that really caught my eye was the johnny 5 type robot (tracks?)
I had a few questions that I wanted to ask:
I’ve seen that the rover section is going to be sold as a kit?, any release date?, and will the full J5 be released as a kit?
It would take me awhile to calculate the cost of making that type of kit, so does anyone have an idea on how much it would cost to buy the parts for the rover section, humanoid section, controller, servos, battery, etc. etc.?
Well, since I’ve made a humanoid, I can extrapolate, and give you a decent guess.
I’d be very suprised if the total cost would be below $1000, if you go with 5645 servos.
Going with anything weaker than that in bipeds is strongly not recommended.
However, I don’t know how much more support that base is giving the half-biped, if you will.
If you want a truly rewarding project, buy the base of the J5.
At the very least, you’ll have a very good rover platform to work on, which should keep you quite occupied until you can afford the rest (I don’t doubt that it’ll suck you in ).
Bipeds are more of a challenge than they are a satisfying past-time.
In the end, we make them for bragging rights.
I’m sure that you can make one for $700 or less.
And you can do really neat things with rovers…
Such as…
Do like the Parallax scribbler, and put a felt-tip marker in it.
Then have it run around making drawings.
Or, give it some color sensing and have it follow you around school, making cat noises (that should get you in with the ladies).
The thing is, i’ve had many R/C cars, Cybot, etc. In the past and I’m really look for more humanoid type robot, seeing as the closet I have is a RSv2, which is great, but once you’ve got it theres no more then commericial mods to do, ya know. If a J5 type robot is going to cost around $1000 I don’t know whether it would be smarter just to get something like Robonova for the same price, although the option of buying/building bit by bit really helps money-wise.
What I don’t want to happen is spend hundreds on the rover then find humanoids like the KHR and such at nearly the same price, I guess i’ll wait and see how much the rover will cost, as if its quite abit cheaper it would definatly make sense as I wont have $1000 hanging around anytime soon.
Anyone know a release date for the rover and/or J-5 kit if they’ll be one?
Hello chemical,
The rover is going to be in the neighborhood of $140.00 for the rolling chassis. (no electronics) Bot Board/Atom 28/SSC-32 will run you $124.85. I don’t have a good motor control solution right now, we are using the Scorpion, but it doesn’t have the ability to read encoders. We are working on a solution that should be available in the fall.
I am receiving my first hubs for the track system we are developing this morning! I am so excited! This option will add a bit to the cost of the rover.
The humanoid half biped does not require digital servos. But I do recommend 645 servos. I used 422 servos in the grippers open/close and wrist parts. I’m not able to price everything out today, but I would be suprised if the cost was over your $700.00 by alot.
Hang in there. We truely are working as fast as possible.
