Here is my second robot based on Picaxe 28X1 board (Start Here format), designed on a chassis that was actually an air duct from the cooling system of an old desktop computer's microprocessor.
The Base
I was thinking about making the base from plastic, but instead, balsa wood was the best option because it's very cheap and super easy to work with. Glue and paint make the material stronger. After shaping and sanding to give it a smooth surface finish, I painted it with spray paint. The back is also a piece of balsa wood attached with miniature screws to the housing's tabs, which look like they were made specially for this robot.
Pieces and more parts
In addition to two GM9 motors, two solarbotics wheels and the SRF05 sensor, I used the excellent 1/2" Pololu ball caster that gave it the finishing touches and enough stability.
What was recycled
Air duct with a fan housing attached that is part of the CPU cooling system
Delving into the old computer, I also found very flexible wire with connectors ready for use, LEDs, switches, standoff, screws, etc. What a great selection of parts!
Some more details
To hold the SRF05 in place, I used a couple of o-rings in the front and...
...double-sided tape at the back. To straighten the SRF05 I used several layers of this tape on the bottom and just one layer on top. Also you can see the nose that is a three color LED.
Thanks for your comments guys. Soon I will be posting a video. My budget for robots is limited, so I try to reuse parts that I found in e-waste disposal areas. Computers have many parts such as LED’s with wires and terminals soldiers ready to use. Also small 8-ohm speakers, switches, stand off, small screws, and other goodies. I feel like a vulture plundering parts from inside of a computer case. Where I work there is an e-waste where you can take parts you want or bring equipment you don’t want. Flokos, like rubimendez says; I extracted them from old Dell desktop computers. It is an air shroud or air duct with a fan housing attached that is part of the CPU cooling system.
As you can see, it’s a work in progress. I give a short explaination on the video because it is “a work in progress” and I think that is enough until I finish my project. As soon as I finish, I’ll put everything up. I don’t think that is any reason to withdraw my project page. Actualy, the video is a slide show of “snapshots” of the construction process. Here’s the link to the rules: https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/lmr/rules. Let’s encourage each other and don’t be the robot police. Let’s Make Robots!
This discussion has been done before and it never solves anything. To prevent turning away people from posting their robot, people who maybe don`t have a great grasp of english, the rules have relaxed slowly over time. I think eventually we will turn into an image dump with anonymous commenting
I like it.