July 5, 2009
It took me a great deal of time to decide what my next project would be but finally after weeks or browsing this site I opted to doing yet another BEAM project before launching head first into the relams of programmable robots using such chips as the ardunio. I must admit thought it was kind of tempting to skip minor projects to launch a big one. ANyways enough of my rambling.
Scurbie ( name a choose to call my version of the Herbie) is no different from all the other light seeking mousebots that I have seen here and on several other sites. But I have chsen to try and cram all he components unto a 2.5 x 2.5 blank perf board I picked up at my local ciccuit city (still trying to find a better electronic commonets store here in Toronto) . There is something about a circuit laid out on a perf board that makes me smile. Freeforming as cool as it maybe doesn't really thug at my strings.
Further I will at best try to make the motors and power connections pluggable ones which should allow me to use various types of power supplies and also to make swapping motors in and out really simple with no need to desolder.
I have all the parts ready , just swapping out cpacitors and resistors to get a better runnaway action. Image of my breadboard mock up are shown above.
Will be back with an update of this project soon
Parts list
- 1 - 100k trimpot
- 2 - Photodiodes
- 1 - LM386 Audio Amplifer chip
- 1 - 5VC DPDT RElay
- 1 - 3904 Transitor
- 1 - 10k Resistor
- 1 - 10uf Capacitor
- 1 - SPST Touch Tactile switch
- 2.5 X 2.5 Perf board
July 8, 2009
Had some extra time on my hands after a long and tedious day at work so I figured I woudl unwind attending to SCURBIE's needs. I managed to carve out the wheel wells and mount the two motors that will be the key to his differential drive.It didn't make it any easier that yesterday I visited teh newly opened LOWE'S store only to find some tie straps that I had been searching for for ages. You can see them in teh picture below I got 100 of these babies for just about $3:25.Will be finding good use from them In the mounting shown below I'm sure i used about 16 just to make teh right snug fit for teh motors
Above showing you the pre drilled holes done up with a screw driver and my bare hands. Palm still hurts. I removed the guts of the mouse using a small knife i found in the kitchen. My wife will be commenting on its uselessness when next she tries to use it
Motors now completely mounted along with 9v battery test placement. Looking at this now I'm beginning to doubt my ability to fit a perf board with my bots brains with what space is left.
Just a angled side view to add some dramatics, not a major robot project by any standards but got to make the thing look presentable. Note that I angled the tie straps to match with the edge of the motors. This allowed for me to pull them as tight as possible.
In most of the projects I have seen the front is always being the side where the click buttons are. I am currently toying with the idea of making the side where yoru palm rest being the front of my ROBOT. To be Continued ....
July 20, 2009
Its been awhile since my last update but its finally here, I know the build time for this robot is way less than I have already spent but been busy with work these days. Here's the next steps completed to date.
Space inside the mouse was limited based on what I had set out to accomplish ( a herbie on a PCB) After mounting the motors I saw space on both sides that could be utilized and after weeks of looking intensely on the space I finally decided to use a piece of perf board that was left over from my photovore project. I integrated the eyes (photodiodes) and the nose (power Led) along with the tuning POT and this was the result.
I also used a strip of IDE cable to make the connection back to the main board that will later include my power supply , relay , LM386 Audio amp and the rest of SCURBIE's circuit.
Here are some more pics of what the little rodent is shaping up to be :-
