Hi Everyone,
I thought i would say hi now as from browsing the forums for the last few days it seems that most of the questions I’ll have when my brat turns up will have already been answered.
Having said that I’m totally new to robotics, and whilst i am quite happy building a computer, component level electronics still seems a bit daunting, i’ve ordered a few books which should help, so i’ll see how that goes.
It’s quite exciting to think that with some (read: a lot of) work it’s possible to use any of the electronics available on the internet to build your own robot, there’s some really interesting things out there, and using the servos as joints just seems like a stroke of genius, i hope i will be up to the challenge.
I’m afraid that i still feel a bit stuck on the basics though, i gather that the brat combo kit is going to require a tether to the computer via the serial cable port, to control the servos motion, so it would seem to make sense to power it from the mains as well, avoiding having to use batteries and the downtime you’d get when they go flat.
which leads me to ask:
1/ as the recomended batteries are 6v, can i chop the plug off the end of, for example, the 6v 2amp wall wart device that lynxmotion sell, and use that instead of batteries? (i can’t link to it i’m afraid, it’s the first wall wart as you scroll down the battery page)
2/ is buying direct from lynxmotion the best choice for me, as i live in the uk & none of the uk distributors linked to seem to carry much at all? I couldn’t see much uk activity on the forum, which made me wonder if i was in the wrong place for a brit
You can indeed include a power feed in your BRAT’s tether, and skip the inclusion of a battery. On the other hand, I find that most serial cables tend to be a bit heavy and tend to influence the way that the BRAT chassis behaves while balancing, walking, turning, etc. This can be addressed by using a thinner gauge cable for supplying power and data connections (there are only a few lines needed), though my preferred approach was to go with the onboard battery and deliver the serial data via a Bluetooth wireless link. This frees up the robot, and makes its performance more consistant, because you don’t have a tether tugging it one way or another while it’s stepping around.
Certainly, you can start with a standard tether and change it from there as you progress - these robots are designed to be very modular in nature, and are very easy to modify to suit your needs.
As regards the wall-wart power supply: being in the UK, you’ll need to make sure that your power solution is compatible with 220-volt mains power supply. As the L5WP-01 adapter is listed as being able to accept 100-120 VAC as its input, I believe that you would need to at least step down your line power in order to keep from damaging the wall-wart.
Remember if you plan to use batteries farther down the road you may want to strap a pack on while teaching the bot. This will ensure the weight distribution remains the same. Also if you do want to go bluetooth there is a good tutorial for it here. lynxmotion.com/images/html/build117.htm
Hope this helps…
thanks for the replies, so ultimately 6v and 2 amps is just that, it doesn’t matter if it comes from the mains or the batteries, i suppose i was wondering if there were different “types” of power or something.
I was really wanting to go for the wireless option for controlling it, but was worried it might be too much to start with, i figured it might be best to start off with the body and electronics and get that working, then add the wireless to it once that was done, along with a camera & other sensors.
I actually didn’t read the ordering instructions for international orders closely enough and made a mess of it (sorry about that Beth), but after emails to various sites, lots of currency exchange calculations and fast talking, I think that instead of the brat, i am going to go for the CHR-3 combo as i’ll then be able to play with both the ABB and the SSC-32, I know it may not be the easiest option to go for, but as i read on another post here, it’s what’s getting me going
