I would not have used the Superdroid chassis had there been other options available to me. I had considered having a custom chassis welded up locally, but most machine shops were either too busy or wanted more than $250 to weld up a custom chassis.
The nice thing about this chassis design is the fact that the motor shaft does not carry all of the vertical load. There is a bearing in the side of the chassis that takes up most of the vertical load allowing for a bigger payload and more robut suspension.
Jim’s biggest chassis was just too small for the application that this Rover is designed for.
I know that Jim has plans for a 6WD Rover, but from what I understand this design is still a ways down the road and I need a bigger chassis for use now.
It would be nice if Jim could design universal chassis rails of various lengths and widths that could be easily assembled to a metal plate to be able to make up a custom chassis.
The motor mounts could be universial so that various motors could be used. I think that it is something that Jim ought to consider for the future because there has been a number of threads concerning bigger chassis.
I do buy Jim’s products as I have a 4WD1, A4WD1, a J5 Arm, and various other pieces of Lynnmotion hardware.
The single thermal sensor will be mounted on a pan and tilt servo with a CCD camera at the end of the arm that is not in the pictures.
It is a Devantec TPA81 thermal sensor array with nine pixels, one as a reference and the other eight as a sensor array.
My original thermal tracker was a modified version of Steve Norris’ Follow Me thermal tracker where I used a Parallax BS2p to process the TPA81 sensor output in place of a PIC.
I am presently going to incorporate Steve’s new Thermal Tracking System (norrislabs.com/Projects/RTT/index.html) into my Rover. It has a number of nice features such as auto tracking that can send back bearing data as well as hottest pixel information which simplifies the tracking process.
The SES U channels with ASB-06 L brackets could be used to create a rover chassis frame. You might need longer lengths or different lengths, depending on your robot’s requirements. Those U channels are quite strong and the pictures do not do them justice - they are made from thicker aluminum than most of the SES parts.
The motor mounts are designed to accomodate the motors Lynxmotion sells. However, they may work with other motors with a similar mounting hole arrangement.
I have just received the new motor mounts MMT-03 last week. I will be building some interesting things with them and the U channels. I will keep you posted, um but not in this thread, sorry…
Okay, I am finally settled with the wife in my new home in Northeast Texas, Melissa to be exact, and will be working on the rover shown in the preceeding pictures.
I have also built a six wheel rover using Jim’s new 12v motors and motor mounts. You can see pictures of that rover in the Projects subforum.
I am presently investigating using the PCTx with the Spektrum DX6i as the PCTx will not work with the Futaba 6EX which I have already in my possession.
The range on the Hitec Laser 6, which I originally started with, was just to short and I am looking for an R/C combo that has a longer range and will work with the PCTx.
