Conrad does not do deep linking
Search for part no 234349 on conrad.com
Nagyon köszönöm 
Nagyon köszönöm
Ááá
Magyarok mindenhol ott vannak! 
Grat a robothoz.
New video
I uploaded a little video where it runs a small program to blink the leds. Also got the first parts of the arm together.
Looks a bit solid but i will cut out some bits and pieces when the servo's arrive. I got some 6kg ones on the way but have no clue yet on what the lifting capacaty will be. Hoping on 500 grams to a kilo.
The ping sensor with brackets will go between the front lights. Now hurry up mailman :)
Arm
Reduced the weight of the arm a little and cut out the servo holes
Once I got this sorted right a friend of mine (he's a metal worker) is going to rebuild it out of aluminium. If anyone is interested I might get him to make a couple of them for probably a very reasonable price (normally thats just the price of the metal being used). It's my first arm (well it's my first everything here) so I am just going for logic. If I'm screwing up or not making sense somewhere please tell me :)
And here it is, fully erected (I know it sounds terrible)
Well, as you can see this thing is taking me by the hand. Not anything close to what I had in mind when I started. But it's just to much fun! My daughter already danced with the thing :) The bot flashing its lights and my daughter just bouncing arround it.
Base is a bit wiggly so i
Base is a bit wiggly so i have to fix that. The arm has yellow bee paint striping now and some more plastic foil. Weight of the MDF is dissapointing to even with the holes out.
Well its looking like a bot already.....
Sensor arrived
For now I got 2 sensors to play with (starting with the movement detector, just a switch that should turn things on its on the plastic dome)
And the well known PING)))) Now please servo's, arrive quickly.
Another 10 euro’s spent
To fix the wiggly base I got a couple of little rollers, exactly 18mm as I needed (luck was on my side this time). Some hinges for the top-plate and some screws. It’s the little stuff that will add to the cost most I guess. More pic’s tonight.
Still wondering how to make a hole in the plexiglass dome (for the PIR sensor). Don’t really want to use some wooddrilling equipement on it because I’m affraid it will break the dome entirely.
A very clean looking robot
A very clean looking robot so far, I like where you’re going with it.
Oh, and don’t forget that the PIR sensor won’t be of any use while the bot is moving, since stationary objects will appear (to the bot) to be moving instead =)
Haha, yeah I figured that.
Haha, yeah I figured that. What I will try to do is make it run a program as soons as it detects movement. This will run for a period and will then stop the bot again (and activate the sensors after it stopped).
Drilled some more holes
Got the ping))) attached and drilled a hole for the PIR sensor. I also added the little wheels to the base of the gripper platform. This helps quite a bit but I guess I have to get me one of these servo slowing down thinggies. The speed of the servo in combination with the weight of the gripper just gives to much momentum to keep things in one part.
Well it's just a first little experiment. I might re-do the chassis entirely when things work but with a little more accuracy and sensibility to get a real tight fit on all parts. To be honest I'm already starting to get low on space and I still need to install the computer.
I don't really like the swivel wheel neither. Might get 2 other full sized wheels. Just for looks.
Order is still pending in hong kong (hobbycity.com) due to chinese new year. Damn. If you go and buy something there make sure to create an account b the way, prices when logged in are MUCH cheaper.
Looking pretty cool. I like
Looking pretty cool. I like the carbon-fibre effect!
Nooooooooooooo!!! All
Nooooooooooooo!!! All my dreams just shattered. I played arround with the DigiBee+, got the PIR sensor to work and react by putting a led on. But somehow I wasn’t able to drive a servo (for the arm on the bot) with the few available examples. So i contacted pccontrol (amazing, they even answer your mail on sundays). And this is what he told me;
Hi Louis,
Unfortunately a servo does not simply require a digital output to control it. The signal supplied by the motorbee to the servo consists of a set of pulses 20ms apart. When the pulse width is 1ms the servo is at one limit of travel and when it is 2ms it is at the other limit. The position between these limits varies in direct proportion to the width of the timing pulse(eg 1.5ms positions the servo halfway)
If you need to use more than one “bee” board on the same pc at the same time then you need to use the “BeeHive” software and associated DLL. This is available for free download from our website. More info at the following link…
I’m sorry but I’m not familiar with your “parallax/ping” device but there is no way to change outputs to inputs or vice versa on the “bee” boards.
best regards
Archie
So grrrrrrrrrr, I’m stuck with a pretty much useless control board. Guess it’s nice to set the lights on a modeltrain track or something but it won’t control servo’s. Neither is any of the in/out channels invertable so getting the ping to work will be a pain.
I hate robots. 
I’ll probably go and order the parallax robot control board. Then again I love the really short code that the PicAxe uses. On the other hand, parallax gives full code examples with all their stuff when ordered so it’s more a question of intergration then reinventing the wheel.
At least my servo’s have been shipped today.
Have you looked at Phigets
Have you looked at Phigets to interface your motors and sensors to your Laptop?
Are you abandoning the idea of a Laptop controlled Robot? There are many ready made Objects for the Propeller in the OBEX that make code writing short and simple plus you have four languages to choose from and can control the Propeller with the Laptop. If you order the Propeller powered robot control board, you should also buy the book called “Programming & Customizing the Multicore Propeller Microcontroller: Official Guide” for help and examples on video, sensors and general robots. It has lots of code examples and real-world robot projects listed in it.
Not sure
I’m not sure how to go ahead now. I mean the MotorBee works, so I can basically drive it arround, set some lights on and control 1 servo (all with the laptop). It’s just the digibee that doesn’t want to do what I want (control servo’s). I already looked at the parallax servo control board but I guess I will run into some dificulties making it drive arround whilst just using sensoric input. At start this wasn’t the intention anyway but I’m having to much fun.
I already ordered the robot controll board from a shop in the uk (incl shipping it was cheaper then the 1 shop in the Netherlands selling them). I see little use in keeping the motorbee in my bot since the parallax board can do the same and more/better.
The Propeller has a lot to
The Propeller has a lot to offer. I recomend that you get that book and/or go through the programming tutorials of the PE Kit to learn. The PE Kit documantation is free and you can download the example code for it here. I am working through this right now to better learn SPIN to program my robot. The PE Kit Forum on the Parallax site is also a great source for SPIN examples and help.
For the fun of it you might try the visual language of 12blocks to program your robot or have your child program it (depending on your child’s age)
Some kit arrived
I got a set of little electronic thingies such as a couple of resistors etc. Tried a little circuit from the PE kit doc’s but ofcourse out of all the 200 parts I bought I missed 1. Better was the delivery from active robots! I got the parallax robot control board and started playing arround with it. At first it gave me headaches as I couldn’t get crap to work.
Then I just started building it into the bot, hooked up some things that couldn't go wrong and started looking for some more sample code. I sometimes need a little break to see the light. And now I've seen a bit, I love it.
I first tried to make 1 servo move. A breeze. All others servo's is just changing the numbers of the ports to which the servo's are attached. You can also set a 5v output on any of the ports so I hooked up 2 to the input channels of the digibee and the motorbee. Don't know yet for what I will use that. So far so good, the laptop will go in there eventually and add some windows standard functionality to the bot. I'm back on track ;) Added a little video of 3 servo control and some lights.
Hmmm.
Hey my friend,
I have been keeping an eye on your progress here and well, I don’t want to be a downer (and maybe someone has already said something about this) but…
I think your arm might be a bit long. It appears you have cutouts for standard servos there. It also appears that when fully extended, your arm might even be 1/2 meter long. Just as a friendly suggestion, and understand I have made this mistake, I would do some math on the strength of your servos.
I.e. A “standard” servo is rated at 3.2Kg/cm (you are a metric guy, right?) So at 1/2 meter, with the arm fully extended, the total weight at the tip cannot exceed .064Kg --I think this is 6 grams. Not to mention, you have to figure in the total weight of the arm itself plus the weight of the other servos at each joint. Again, each “standard” servo weighing in at around 40 grams.
You are probably going to need to look for some heavy duty guys, or 1/4 scale servos or possibly doubling them up.
Good luck, my friend.
Hi there
Hi Chris,
you are spot on. I managed to get the standard ones (which are in there now) to work using some rubberbands on the corners of each joint. It’s on the edge but that will soon be better when the new ones arrive (6 high torque/low profile ones). I ordered 6 just in case I do need to double them up. The arm on there now is just a little try and eventually will be made out of alloy or carbonfibre.
Regards,
Louis (metric indeed)
I am so envious of your board!
If that board was out a year ago, I would have TOBI done by now. I am on the last chaper of the PE Kit book and it talks about the counters that are built into each cog. It has a section about controlling servos using the counters. This frees up the cog to do other things while the counters send servo pulses.
I love how you can also pulse several pins at the same time e.g.
outa[0…6]~~