After attempting to build my own rover from scratch, then trying to convert an over sized RC car, I broke down and purchased the 4wd chassis from LM…
Here is a pic of the initial build, all I have on it is a web cam a little gripper and the SSC32 so far.
I have other sensors to add, but for now I’ll be working on the roborealm vision portion to see if I can get it to follow certain colors… and my 3 year old around the house, at this point she just wants “… to see the robot move…”.
I’ll be using a netbook for most of the processing, but will most likely have to add another microcontroller when I add the additional sensors.
Also need to hide a couple wires and add a switch to power the SSC and servos, already left the first battery connected all night, running it dead.
It looks a little overtaken by the netbook, but when the screen is folded down it actually fits pretty nicely on top. I’m sure at some point I’ll discover the necesity to physicall secure it to the top of the rover, but for now it just sits on top.
![Epirc1-1[1].jpg](http://community.robotshop.com/forum/uploads/default/original/3X/a/0/a017230d52a8315e080062bf96b47344676785cf.jpeg)
Nice bot! Question, is there a way to make the netbook operate with the lid closed?
Yes, I had to go into the power settings in windows and tell it to ‘not do anything’ when I close the lid.
While in there its usually beneficial to set the power settings so it doesn’t go to sleep until absolutely necessary… nothing like a rover running down the hall with its brain turned off. 
eventually, I’d love to use a Pico ITX board… but go with what I have for now.
Interesting project. I’ve been trying to find a good excuse to get a netbook to experiment with. An rov using a computer has a lot of possibilitys beyond a microcontroller verson. The wifi capability makes for extended range (communication based on a cell phone system could make for the ultimate range). I’ve tinkered with internet control using an Apache web server to serve as the internet I/O connection. Remote video is also very easy. What make of netbook are you using, and is it natively capable of being powered from a 12v source?
It’s an Acer netbook, I don’t have the exact model but with a 166 processor it a little slow for your everyday processing, but perfect for robotics and basic stuff.
Another issue was that it doesn’t have a serial port, so count on purchasing at least one USB to serial adapter.
I haven’t attempted running it on an external battery as of yet, but I can imagine you would be able to build some sort of power supply from a 12v source.
Currently the battery last an easy 4 hours and if I close the lid (turning off the monitor) I would think that would be greater.
Screen size makes development a little difficult and some of the components to Roborealm actually don’t fit on the screen, causing problems. But I get around it …
most coding I do on another machine and simply copy the files to/from my jump drive.
Well I was working on the code for the camera last night… making progress but getting a little mixed up on the formulas just need to hack away at it a little more…
but I ran into my first road block…
I was explaining to my daughter (will be 4 in March) that I was first going to make the “eye” (she calls it) follow the Green block… then once that was working I would make the wheels move to follow the green block… she says “Daddy, why does it need to follow the green block”
anyone have an answer for that one…
Because it’s there? 
Green means go.
Figured I would post an update, although not very informative.
Still having issues getting the vision system going.
Upgraded my netbook to win7 and lost allot of my work… I blame microsoft. 
(totally my own fault)
It appears some of the software I use for programing and playing around with this stuff isn’t supported on Win7 so I’ll probably be downgrading to XP again.
I did set the rover up to run using a joystick, if anything to show the wife and little girl it does actually work. And it allowed me to do some testing on default, max and min settings and do some proof of concept.
swapped out the 4XAA batteries for 4XC size batteries to run the servos. Figured that would give me a little more power and allow the batteries to last a little longer.
Now I’ve figured out the batteries I was using to run the motors (2 X 7.4v in series) have worn out and won’t hold a charge long enough to do much more than free wheel testing. Chalk up another “hobby” expense.
Back at it we go…
Does the netbook have a web cam built into the edge of the lid? Something you may consider is to use a video conferencing program to supply video/audio between the netbook and another computer. That way you could see and talk to the people that the bot encountered in its ramblings, and they could see and talk to you.