Tiny Tin is a cute little bot in an Altoid tin. I built him just before World Maker Faire New York in 2014, but never documented him or posted much about it.
Tiny Tin is driven by four continuous rotation servos, with double ended servo horns acting as legs/wheels.
One very tiny 3g servo is used to raise and lower his lid.
He currently has no sensors, but he has expressive LED eyes that are only visible when he lifts his tin lid.
Update: 2017-Jan-07
Desoldered the old Arduino Mini Pro clone and custom circuit board, and soldered in the Lilypad Mini Simple. It works, but I'll need to re-do the wiring to get everything to fit better.
Update: 2016-Dec-29
I'm reviving the project, starting with a brain transplant from a Arduino Mini Pro to a Lilypad Arduino Simple.
The Lilypad fits the Altoid tin with room to spare. I hope to solder the wires from the servos and such directly to the large solder holes on the Lilypad, and avoid the need for an additional circuit board. The Lily pad also has its own power switch, and a JST connector for the Li-Ion batteries I use.
Walks around, lifts lid, blinks; currently random behavior.
Are you going to add some sensors? I can imagine that there is very limited room to add some. Maybe an idea is to make the lid touch sensitive? Then you could tap on it to open/close the lid for example. Would be funny I think.
I do want to add sensors. In fact I want to add an IR receiver that will allow you to remote control the robot with a TV remote. Also a DIY IR sensor up front, which will double as an IR transmitter.
Then you can build a swarm of Tiny Tin robots, and each can try to send IR commands to the others. Swarm of Chaos!
Are you going to give him some “AI” to make him for example a shy guy? With a switch (or switches) under the lid some simple, but fun interaction can be achieved.
Very cool little bot you have there looks like it should be in a kids cartoon has a comic look to it. Great job you did. If you could send me a PM as I have a few questions for you.
