"Blue Freak Machine"

Let's Make Robots Robots
1

I've tried some photoshop to my primary image, as an experiment.

Just made a picture of the progress.. 

I had the strange feeling being watched.. weird..

 

From now i will add the lastest updates at the bottom of this page.

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As Yellow freak machine is as good as finished, it’s time to start with another robot.

It will be a kind of Johnny 5 someway, but totally my own version.

 

So I needed some nice tracks.. and bought a 2nd hand R/C toy:


 

 After removing all unnecessary parts I’ve got a nice tracked base for my robot.

 

As I want the robot be able to turn its complete torso left and right, and want to have some bearing in the construction so I made this: I’ve taken some metal part out of a DVD-burner and, after some measurements, drilled some holes in it, bend it and sprayed it nice blue:

I also found some nice lid that fits nice over it and sprayed it also blue.

 

After mounting the wheels and servo it looks like this:

So i mounted the lid, and made a servo bracket out of aluminum.


…Then the Servos are screwed into place. Note that I’ve modified 1 servo so that it turns in the opposite direction of the other servo.


 

I realy like how it’s looks now, and I couldn’t wait to mount it to the base:

 

 

I thought the body color didn’t completely match the top so sprayed something more blue:

 

Looks nice! Don’t you think?

Top view: (that blue piece of tape Marks the modified servo ;-)

 

Look those big nice tracks! They are quite fast.. so I will need to PWM them.

 

This is what i got now, and it will be continued..

 

 

Update!

I've made an aluminum construction to lift the body up and down. when i tested it the first time it wasn't strong enough to lift all those servos weight. After some thinking I've found a nice blue suspension spring on a old rc car, a perfect spring for my robot! now it works really nice :-)

See the video..

 

Update!

Now he has become little more shape with some new body parts.   They are 2 plastic caps normally used for cable TV connection onto the wall. I taped them together to show you how it will look like. Later I'll put his head on it ..

His body added..
His body added..375×500

 

 

 

Update!

After long time finally an update. One of the bigger problems of this build was that the drive motors were rediculous fast. Way to fast actually for an autonomous robot to drive around the room.

Then in the microbot challenge I did win 2 very nice faulhaber gearmotors (big thanks to lmr!) and I decided (after some other ideas I had) to put these In this robot.

And here's a pic showing the faulhaber gearmotors installed: 

faulhaber gearmotors

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

I did use these propellor adapters from ebay to attach the toys driveshaft to the 3mm gearmotor shaft.

that's it for now..

 

 

 

 

Update!

 
I've been busy with his eyes today. I soldered new RGB LEDs. They were already in there, but they are accidentally burned by a wrong limiting resistor. (seems datasheet was wrong here). A few pictures I took:
Desoldered the ultrasonic sensor from the module and wired it up into his eye.
Put it all together. Used a shoelace as cable mesh :-D
And (finally, hehe) I did find a nice half ball of the right size to be used for making eyelids. Think I will spraypaint them black. these will be servo actuated.


 

 

 

  • Actuators / output devices: 12 Servos, the 2 original motors
  • CPU: Microchip PIC.
  • Power source: 7.2 V 3000 mAh racing pack
  • Programming language: Picbasic Pro
  • Sensors / input devices: Parralax Ultrasonic Sensor
  • Target environment: indoor and outdoor
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/blue-freak-machine
2

the chassis are awesome…

the chassis are awesome… more dan awesome… they rock.

3

Dayum, that’s some fine

Dayum, that’s some fine modding can’t wait to see it moving around!

4

I can’t wait to see

what it is you mount to the turret. Camera? Sensor of some kind?

5

totally agree, kickass

totally agree, kickass chassis!

6

A full body…

I’m Going to make a full body onto it. With arms and a Head. Like johnny 5. probably there will be a Ping sensor used as the eyes. then I wanna try to implement inverse kinematics,something i’ve never done before, so it will be a challenge (a cool one!) for me to make. 

7

RE: Building a Blue robot (still needs a name)

Quote -

Building a Blue robot (still needs a name)

 

Instead of - Yellow freak machine, how about “Blue freak machine”?

 :-)

8

Nice work there!

Nice work there!

9

cool

good work there!

10

"Blue Freak Machine"

I still do not know a different name, so now he is officially called “Blue Freak Machine” :wink:

11

Nicely build track!!

Cool!! nicely build rotate base and cool track you found!!

Seems like you collect lots of servo too! :slight_smile:

12

As Bevis once said to

As Bevis once said to Buthead, “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

13

Hey, nice work with the

Hey, nice work with the tower :slight_smile:

14

Nice job on the platform.

Nice job on the platform. looks very stabel an well built!

Is that another robot you built in the second image? what appers to be a robotic head?

15

It’s the same robot. I’m

It’s the same robot. I’m making diifferent parts of the robot at the same time.

I also tested the parallax pingpong))) sensor eyes connected to a blue/white lcd that tells me the distance in cm. as a test. seems to work fine.

16

Well i have to say that is

Well i have to say that is brilliant

looks awsome, exactly the kind of articulation i am a fan of!

17

body

where did you buy the frame?

Waar had je dat frame gekocht want ik kan geen goedkope autotjes vinden die het goed doen.

18

2nd hand

2nd hand, look over here: http://kopen.marktplaats.nl/search.php?stop_force_description_search=1&from_searchbox_advanced=1&q=landshark&g=0&qsf=0&distance=&search.x=0&search.y=0

beware… This one drives really fast. =) and can drive over water!

There are a lot of toy cars that people don’t use anymore, or the remote is lost, etc. but they are still good usable for building a robot.

19

This is really sweet. You

This is really sweet.  You sure hit the jackpot with that rc tank thing- makes a sweet platform.  I really like the roatating arm as well, I’m going to try something similar to that soon.   Thanks for the inspiration!

20

This is really sweet. You

This is really sweet.  You sure hit the jackpot with that rc tank thing- makes a sweet platform.  I really like the roatating arm as well, I’m going to try something similar to that soon.   Thanks for the inspiration!