LMouseR

lumi · April 23, 2011, 10:10am

Inspired by many other mouse bots I want to build my own one. Some parts are already collected and ready to being used.

The bot should follow the light, detecting the edge of the table and change direction when a sensor (mircro switch) is triggered. I want to keep the mouse board inside to have a feedback from the mouse LED in the bottom. Still no idea how/for what to use it but it's there and why not make a use of it. Also a very fancy 3 colour LED is included.

No time to start yet but after my holiday...

UPDATE May 12 2011:

Got some time to proceed. I canceled the idea with the tracking LED since the bottom is to high above the ground to trigger it. so i rip-off out the mouse board completely.

This is the currend state. The motor controller is in and two battery holders as well. One of the battery holders i glued just two metal clips of an old holder into the mouse case and the seconmd one is break out holder from a board. These two battery holders are for CR2 batteries since I have plenty of them with no other use. These are connected in serie to supply 6V for the Arduino.

This is the bottom side with the hotglued gear motors and the back wheel. The battery clip is for a 9V battery to power the motors.

This is with the first cover (the final upper cover of the mouse is still not attached. On the backside is a switch to power on/off the Adruino and the motor power. The opening on the left (front side) is for the Arduino Nano and some head space for the batteries since the room down there is not very high...

It's not what I planned in the first place but I like it. Those big wheels and the little mouse case match perfectly.

The next thing is to attach an infrared sensor in front (also canceled the micro switch) to get an idea how to use these sensors...

UPDATE May 15:

After struggeling with the power supply i learned that the 9V block battery is not suitable to power the gear motors. I had to replace it with 4x AA Eneloop for now.

UPDATE June 6:

Well, do you also have the experience that projects not could be done as planned? Here we go, LMouseR are finished but not as expected. Even with the standard Arduino Nano I did not get all the guts under the hood, so the mouse cover is thill not closing tight. Anyway, this is the final status of LMouseR, please watchg the video.

I got 2x AA batteries as the replacement of the 9V block battery and see how slowly it moves. Kind of cool i think and I am still loving those big wheels. Maybe leter I will reactivate this project and put one power source (LiPo) in or under to get the cover closed.

UPDATE June 11:

Do you know the feeling when you have something (an idea) in mind? I just reactivated the as finished considered LMouseR and put two light sensors on it. Why? OK, i found two unused photoresistors and remembered that I wanted to solder the pieces together to check how I can use it. So i just did and hotglued one to the left and one to the right front side. Then I hanged the code in the program to follow the light. Still not sensitive enough but it gives the little bot a very different behavior and motion pattern. Will try to get a video taken and uploaded by this weekend ;-)

UPDATE June 13:

As promised and on OddBot'S suggestion I changed the picture with one of the current status. I also atached the code for the upgraded version, the one with light sensors. As you can see the light sensors are just hot glued on the front side of the mouse and the mouse cover does not close thight since it's not enough space inside. Will see if I can make another one with a smaller Arduino.

Avoiding obstacles, chasing light

Actuators / output devices: Plastic gear motors
CPU: ATMega128
Operating system: Arduino IDE
Power source: 2x CR2 batteries for Arduino and 2x AA battery for motor
Programming language: Arduino ide
Sensors / input devices: 2x LDR, 1x SR-04 Ultra Sound
Target environment: indoor, table

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/lmouser

lightsout · April 26, 2011, 4:24pm

BEAM bot?

I am not sure if you are going this route, but I built a beam bot from the MAKE/Solarbotics kit, sorry I haven’t posted it yet. Very simple and it utilized some parts from the mouse. you can find the instructions here.

http://www.solarbotics.com/products/mf08_bundle/resources/

If you can fit that motor in the mouse body, I’ll be very impressed. Good luck.

lumi · April 27, 2011, 3:38am

BEAM

…is not my goal but I will give him a brain My target is to see how to get all this into the small mouse case.

robotfreak · April 27, 2011, 4:01am

Great idea. Maybe you can

Great idea. Maybe you can use the mouse sensor as a line sensor or to measure the distance travelled. Those mouse sensors have a builtin camera and can be controlled via a SPI interface.

lumi · April 27, 2011, 4:31am

Mouse sensor

Yes this is what I am planning but then i have to use other motors or attach them in another way to get the bottom of the case down to the surface of the table.

robotfreak · May 12, 2011, 5:31am

What motor driver is this?

What motor driver is this? L9110 is shown on the picture, but never heard about it. I only find a chinese data sheet. Looks like a Si9986 in a 8pin DIP package.Very interesting, where did you get these driver?

BTW, nice design, I like it.

lumi · May 12, 2011, 7:18am

L9110

Right, the IC is a L9110 bought in China. The whole H-bridge is called MQ-12 and I got it in Taobao.com

lightsout · May 12, 2011, 10:14am

Brilliant

Nice! I like the mouse. Very cool looking and inspiring.

robotfreak · May 12, 2011, 10:42am

Thanks, I found it at ebay.

Thanks, I found it at ebay. 10 ICs for 10€ include shipping from Hongkong isn’t a bad deal.

screwdriver · May 13, 2011, 4:00am

mouse sensor

Hi,

Could anyone help me with the mouse sensor?

I was wondering if there was any way I could attach it to my ubontino board?

ignoblegnome · May 19, 2011, 11:08am

I suggest that you post your

I suggest that you post your question in your own forum post instead of asking a question on this post. Explain what you have and what you are trying to do.

lumi · May 19, 2011, 1:49pm

No mouse sensor…

…since my big wheels lift the bottom of Steven X to high that the sensor would be of use.

rasoul · May 23, 2011, 6:47am

Ni-MH batteries

The robot is small so it seems to be better using smaller batteries like 4x AAA size instead of AA series. To get enough ampere, you can select Ni-MH type.

lumi · May 23, 2011, 10:35am

Yes, AAA is an option but

Yes, AAA is an option but still, there is no space between the gears on the bottom to squeeze them in there, only enough for a 9V block battery. Anyway, project stopped for another one (will post it soon) but later I will finish this little guy since I really want to see it running with his pretty shiny red mouse cover even if I have to backpack 2x2 AAA on his left and right back…

the_black_cat · June 6, 2011, 6:31am

I do not think you shoud

I do not think you shoud have used a caster. The top of an easter egg would make a good replacement that would not get stuck backwards in the vidio. (ex. https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/23516)

ignoblegnome · June 6, 2011, 11:11am

LMouseR came out looking

LMouseR came out looking fine, Lumi. I wonder if an old cell phone battery would work as a replacement for the 2xAA batteries. Just use the cell phone as the charger.

lumi · June 6, 2011, 12:30pm

The caster is not a problem,

The caster is not a problem, but you are right, I was already thinking about a thick wire with a half ping pong ball or similar.

lumi · June 6, 2011, 12:33pm

Yeah, my friend today

Yeah, my friend today recommended the same to me. But the problem is where to hide it. Between the gears I just got spave for a 9V block battery OR 2x AA. A cell phone battery should do the trick but where to put it in/on, since they are more retangle shape…oh…yeah…they are flat enough that I just could stick it on the gears and not put them in between…

lumi · June 6, 2011, 12:49pm

Ok, since this project is

Ok, since this project is finished, I just attached the code. here is nothing special, but maybe some rookies can use it for digging in the Arduino world.

Thank all of you for helping me with your comments and tips…it’s really appreciated…

jax · June 6, 2011, 1:25pm

This came out lovely

The sporty transluscent mouse body makes for a good light show. The tires look mean and grippy like the bot was meant to tear up the Nürburgring but not so much, really hehe Slow and steady will still win the race… and avoid obstacles!