Spy Video Trakr with Lego grabber arm

Let's Make Robots Robots
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I have added a Lego grabber arm to the Spy Video Trakr. The Trakr is a remote controlled robot equipped with a microphone and color video camera, speaker, a near infrared LED for night vision, and an SD memory card slot for recording audio/video and storing downloadable and user designed programs. The remote control unit has control levers to drive the robot, a speaker and color video display so you can hear the audio picked up by the microphone and display the video transmitted by the camera, and several function buttons that can be used to control additional program functions of user designed programs.

Here's the Trakr forum thread where I discuss how I put together the Trakr and Lego grabber arm.

http://www.spygear.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=571&start=40

Here's the TRAKRHAKR wiki: http://www.trakrhakr.com/wiki/

Here's where you can download the C language compiler for the Trakr

http://www.spygear.net/help/apps.php

Here's the FCC documentation for the Trakr remote control (included internal photos and schematics):

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=545152&fcc_id='N3ESPYVIDEOTRAKR1'

Here's the FCC documentation for the TRAKR  (included internal photos and schematics):

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=884190&fcc_id='N3ESPYVIDEOTRAKR2'

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/spy-video-trakr-with-lego-grabber-arm
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This is awesome

My son is interested in robotics (something he got from me apparently) but doesn’t really like mindstorms. We also have a TRAKR but haven’t done much with it.  This could be a cool project for us to do together.  Do you have details about how the grabber arm was constructed?  Does it use a mindstorms motor or some other type of lego motor?

 

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Used the original Mindstorms motor (Lego Technic) not NXT motor.

I used a lego technic motor–the ones that came with the original Mindstorms progammable brick–not the motors that are included in the Minstorms NXT set.

Here’s a lego grabber arm made with the original mindstorms set I found with a google search:

http://pille.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/~mindstorms/data/GrabberArm.pdf

 

 

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Grabber arm from Robot Invasion by Dave Johnson

The Lego grabber arm I used was from the book Robot Invasion by Dave Johnson.

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I’m a fan of the spygear

I’m a fan of the spygear stuff, mainly because it’s great to take apart and repurpose. I was tempted to grab one of the trakr but I wasn’t fond of the tread setup. Im tempted to pick one up if I see it on sale…and as I say that, I find one on sale for $51! okay, I might be getting one of these after all…

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My robot was posted on Build Lounge

My robot was posted on Build Lounge: http://www.buildlounge.com/2011/09/20/spy-trakr-gets-a-claw/

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Boom! My robot made Hackaday!

…does the End Zone dance

…then the Cabbage Patch

…then the Running Man

…then the Lawn Sprinkler

http://hackaday.com/2011/11/03/bomb-disposal-robot-with-lego-gripper/

 

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Ckiick and Voodoobot:

Ckiick and Voodoobot:

Let me know how your TRAKR hacks turn out.