Building my first robot, want to make an autonomous "search and rescue" robot. I am using a raspberry pi b+, pirocon2 motor board and some sensors (distance sensor, bump switches and wheel decoders) to start with. First did the mechanical part using lego parts and lego motors in found in the attic, including tank tracks. No sensors installed yet and no logic programmed. Just testing with a python script and keyboard direction control.
Unfortunately the weight and friction (+pi+board+wifi dongle) just seems too much for the 9V battery pack. During tests it just grinds to a halt after a few seconds and then does a complete reset. Running free with the tracks of the ground and a 12 V mains supply it is working fine.
It is a pity since I like the setup. I will now test it with normal wheels and see whether it makes a difference.
Any tips appreciated.
regards,
Willem
UPDATE : solved by powering the Pi from a separate USB power bank !! Next step is adding sensors and then brain/logic, will keep you all posted on progress. Thanks for your help.
You should know it wasn’t that long ago I tried building a gizmo bot but almost succeeded. I finished the bot but I couldn’t fit the electronics in the enclousure. Here is what I did when I ran into a problem with the power. You see I ran into a problem with my Uno board having not enough power to start so I got a breadboard. I then cut 9v red wire in half. Then I put one end onto the breadboard. The other end onto the ground on the breadboard. After that I tried connecting as many things as I could to the breadboard. Good Luck and tell me how it goes.
If six new rechargeable NIMH If six new rechargeable NIMH batteries are not working, and you’ve charged them first, you might need to use something bigger, such as a Lithium Polymer battery.
Another problem that could have occurred is the motors might have gotten dusty in the attic. A quick fix MIGHT be to get a can of air and try to blow dust out of the motors. If dust is visible but you can’t blow it out, you might need to clean the motors by taking them apart carefully, then cleaning and lubricating them again.
The lego motors are in a closed plastic housing so probably dust is not the problem. Maybe lubrication could help but at this point I prefer not to take them apart. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.
sure, will post a small video soon and will keep you updated as I progress. Eventually, the plan is to make this an autonomous search and rescue robot which explores my room to find an object (for example colored ball) and then brings it back to its starting point, while mapping its surroundings and sending that map to the laptop. Starting with given start and destination point and moving to full search behaviour later. Expect it will take a long time to perfect (full year?). Want to learn mechanics, electronics, robot control issues and Java (maybe python) on the way.
