Well, it has happened! Walter has gotten his voice... I was a bit surprised however, he is American made but is English brains still remember thier origins it seems! Who knew that Walter was English?
Watch the top video...
Hey Folks,
I know it has been a while since my last Walter update. Been busy. This is really not quite a proper post, with tons of details, but really, I just need to get something up. The video is pretty self-explanatory and I will have another one up soon showing the remote.
heh, saw the video last heh, saw the video last night. Aside from all the impressive tech and boards, the chassis looks much nicer now that its been filled in. Also the LED eyes are awesome. Keep the updates coming.
Each eye has 2 leds, red and blue (high output). Each of those 4 leds can be independantly controlled via pwm and/or switched on or off via transistor. Blinking, winking, back-and-forth, disco, color fades, red on one side-blue on the other and every color in between. They can do anything!
Not to mention, they can produce any color from red to blue PLUS any colour from red to blue.
I fought it for about a week… I finally got sick of it and figured out a work-around. In the end I got done what I needed to get done, but it was just not as tight a solution as I wanted.
In your video you said you designed the board and had sparkfun make them, are they producing to sell? or just kind of like a PCB service?
For the eyes, why not use RGB Leds? That way you can make nearly any color but I’m not too sure they do colour for you “propper” people!
I like the neck design too, that’s sick!
5 outta 5 for sheezy! We want more updates.
EDIT:
OMG! I seen your homemade propane drum in the background of the first picture… Why isn’t it programmed to do the YDM, but more like… RDMWBAE(Rustic Drum Machine With Badass Eyes)! Throw some extra servos on and set that bad boy to drum on your propane drums!!
In terms of the 3 color eyes… I only have 2 pwm outputs from the 28x1 that controls them. From that, I added a transistor on each which sorta turned these 2 pwm outputs into 4. I do this by switching the transistors off and on fast enough that your eye can’t see the change. Kind of a poor-man’s pwm done through code. If I was using 3-color leds it is just that much more to control. I have had my eye on some 3-way led’s that sparkfun has that are i2c controlled but just don’t have the dough. It would be nice though, and would clean up my code quite a bit if I was just sending out i2cslave commands.
In terms of the pcb… When I designed them (using PCB123) my goal was to make a very tidy, small board with EVERYTHING being a servo connection. Of course, screw terminals for the motors and power in. Also I added some leds to indicate if my main motors were on and/or reversed. --This helps a ton for debuging (with the drive battery unplugged) where I can see which way it would be going without it actually driving around.
I drew up the boards and sent the gerbers and drill files to Sparkfun’s pcb service… They are very cheap, specialize in one-off single boards (although you can buy as many as you like) and came out great. I did have to wait a while to get them but in the end I got all those boards (main board, button board, and 5 break-outs for my IR receivers) for about $50. The design is still on file with them so if I or anyone else wants one you can order more. If you are interested, I can give you the info --anyone can get a copy of any board made by them. There is even a search option. Expect a month to get them.
You DO have the internet, right? Just a thought… Google sparkfun, go there and find thier PCB service… I’ll bet you a hundred bucks that there you are just a few clicks from the answers you seek…
WOW. Just when i thought WOW. Just when i thought Walter was at the peak of awesome it turns out he is still going up to the summit. Did you come up with the ipod thing? A walk through would be sweet
(And Chris, seriously; I dig totally what you do! And there is no way I can take credit for anything but discovering Picaxe before you did yourself, please
That way you can make nearly any color but I’m not too sure they do colour for you “propper” people!
