I'm using a robotic mouse for some animal behavioural research and the one that best mimics their natural movement times out after 5 start and stops. Is there a mechanical piece I can remove so that it continues to start and stop running around until I press the button on the bottom again? I believe the time-out was programmed so that the battery doesn't run out quickly. The link to the mouse can be found below. Thank you.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/rrt/Hexbug-Mouse-Robotic-Kitty-Interactive-Modes-Indoor/B00SQXVF7A/ref=pd_nav_hcs_bia_t_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=699JD70D82BKCK9ZYV7B
Robotic mouse
It is a consumer toy. Now you get to be a real “hacker” by reverse engineering and adding custom firmware and/or circuits. Good luck!!!
I understand that, but
I understand that, but unfortunately I have no knowledge of this stuff and need to figure this out quickly. Any suggestions?
**Contact the company **
I googled them and they are in Texas.
Innovation First Labs, Inc.
1519 Interstate 30 West
Greenville, TX 75402
United States
[email protected] email
+1-903-453-0804 phone
+1-214-853-5687 fax
If you can convince them of your worthy intentions they might make you one without the delay.
if they don’t you will need to waste one pulling it apart to see if the electronics can be reprogrammed or replaced. But at >5 quid each it might be cheaper to tell us what you are useing it for to see if we know a better option.
Good Luck
R.G.
**Great idea! **
A brief explanation: I’m using these robotic mice to replace live bait (my control) used in bal-chatri traps (the best trap to use to capture birds of prey) to see if they’re as effective. If my hypothesis is correct, these traps would be able to be used for conservation and scientific research in countries where they’re currently illegal due to ethical reasons.
Below is a link to a picture of the inner components of the mouse.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPdKjozj5wp/?taken-by=sonnieandjoe&hl=en
As it is a consumer product,
As it is a consumer product, it may not be easy to reprogram at all.
However, you may be able to modify it pretty easily. Basically, you would re-use the body, mechanical stuff, and maybe some of the electronics, but replace the brain with a microcontroller you can reprogram.
This may be a steep learning curve for you if you have no experience. If you have a friend or colleague that knows Arduino coding or any C-style programming language, that will help.
If your goal is not really to learn about robots, but to have a little mouse that you can control for your animal experiments, here is another approach. Find a very small remote controlled car. Rip the mouse covering off your toy mouse (or some other toy mouse), and put it over the remote controlled car. Now you have full control over your mouse.
