What in inspired me to build this machine:
I was always fascinated with robots and how they worked. I was further inspired by superdroid robots's wheeled platforms and i challenged to make one myself for a fraction of the cost with more features.
The chassis was welded for me by a friend, its quite stong and weighs in at about 900grams and made from steel i then wrapped it with some Aluminium sheet metal (chosen for its light weight) and bolted it on. It was a good idea at first, when i had the 4.9kg/cm and 200rpm 28mm motors but when i upgraded to the 36mm geared motors , both the chassis and aluminium sheet were twisted due to the imense torque and speed from the 540 size motors. (25kg/cm and 500+rpm).
These were bought from an ebay seller. At first they sent 3, one had a chipped magnet and one was missing but after a polite email they sent me 4 even though i had asked for 2!
The cooling fans to cool down these motor controllers. The ones i have are the eBay 300A esc's. They retail for about $10-18 depending on seller. you can get versions with fans which are stable up to 16V (They are actually 30Amp) esc's not 300. Although they are cheap Chinese imitation of the real deal, they are extremly reliable, haveing shorted them out accidentally or giving power to the motor terminals instead of the power terminals.
The Surveillance system consists of 2 cameras; one recording camera and one wireless live feed camrea. The recorder cam is fixed on the body overlooking the arm and the front half of the robot. The wireless camrea is a cheap 2.4Ghz camera from ebay. It cost $26 and is surprisingly good and has a range of 50m in open outdoors and about 25-30m indoors with walls in the way. The fixed camera has a run time of 2 hours and taks in micro sd cards up to 8gb according to mnufacturer claim. 4GB is enough for me :)
Power supply:
This robot is powered by a 4400mah 3 cell lithium polymer battery pack. I chose lithium polymer as it was the lightest, had a higher energy to weight ratio and gave the best performance in terms of current draw(i can draw a max current of 88 amps! and on top of that, i can charge the quicker than lead acid, Nimh and NiCad.
Finished product:
Surveillance robot controlled by remote control. autonomous upgrades to follow
- Actuators / output devices: 540 Size geared motors, 32:1 reduction
- Control method: Remote control 6 channel Hobbyking remote.
- Power source: 2x 11.1V 2200mAh LiPO
- Target environment: Outdoor only
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/surveillance-rover-540-motor-edition
