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Meet Wizard - a RoboProp on a $30 chassis — Parallax Forums

Meet Wizard - a RoboProp on a $30 chassis

Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
edited 2011-09-24 19:27 in Robotics
Update: I have made some changes to this package, including its name.

Wizard is a robot I am working on based on the Magician chassis that I now sell. The attached photo shows a RoboProp on a Magician chassis, with an optional standard servo holding a pan head and SeedStudio ultrasonic distance sensor.

NOTE: Panning sensor head, servo and ultrasonic sensor NOT included in prices below.

RoboProp DC Motor Edition Kit $99.95
Magician Chassis with two gear motors and wheels $29.95
SirMorph 5Pack $19.95

Forum Bundle price: $139.95 (Regular price $149.85)
scooter-1.JPG
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Comments

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-08-29 15:19
    What, no protractor/compass degree chassis engraving? :)

    Looks great, Bill ! Nice forum discount. And be sure to charge extra for non-Parallax processors!
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-08-29 15:33
    Thanks Erco!

    LOL... no engraving, I am trying to keep the prices low :-)
    erco wrote: »
    What, no protractor/compass degree chassis engraving? :)

    Looks great, Bill ! Nice forum discount. And be sure to charge extra for non-Parallax processors!
  • BamseBamse Posts: 561
    edited 2011-08-29 22:11
    Nice robot...

    I'll be interested in the $30 chassis...
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-08-29 22:41
    Thanks!

    PM me your address so I can figure out how much the shipping would be to your location.

    Bill
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2011-08-30 04:10
    Nice Bill. I don't usually troll the robotics forum (lack of time).
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-08-30 07:32
    Thank you!

    I am having a blast with robotics... as you may have noticed :)
    Cluso99 wrote: »
    Nice Bill. I don't usually troll the robotics forum (lack of time).
  • BamseBamse Posts: 561
    edited 2011-09-15 22:08
    Got my chassis earlier this week and just got a round to play with it...

    I assembled it and mounted three SirMorphs in the front. I plan to use a SN75441 for the motors, just need to look up the specifications to see if this chip can handle it... ;-)

    Looking forward to play around with it...
    Picture 012.jpg
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    Picture 010.jpg
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  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-09-16 06:37
    The SirMorphs look pretty good as bumpers.

    Bill is using the L298 on his board and you are using the SN75441. Both h-bridge chips seem to both in common usage, but is there any reason to use one over the other?

    I know the SN75441 has built in diodes, and I've seen people wire two in parallel for greater current handling. But given the extra fiddling the L298 requires there must be a reason people like to use it too.
  • Spiral_72Spiral_72 Posts: 791
    edited 2011-09-16 09:01
    At the risk of sounding like a dullard; I cannot find dimensions or any data for the Magician Chassis on your site. It looks a little bigger in Basme's images than I originally thought.


    Are you shipping from the U.S.?
    Ah, I found the answer to that: British Columbia.
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-16 10:14
    Bamse wrote: »
    Got my chassis earlier this week and just got a round to play with it...

    I assembled it and mounted three SirMorphs in the front. I plan to use a SN75441 for the motors, just need to look up the specifications to see if this chip can handle it... ;-)

    Looking forward to play around with it...

    Thanks for posting your progress! Please keep us updated :-)

    Nice pics btw!

    Here are the specs I have on the motors:

    4.5VDC, 190mA (no load), 250mA (max), 0.8kg/cm torque, 90rpm +/- 10% unloaded

    SN75441 is rated to 1A I belive, so it should easily handle the motor!
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-16 10:17
    Martin_H wrote: »
    The SirMorphs look pretty good as bumpers.

    Bill is using the L298 on his board and you are using the SN75441. Both h-bridge chips seem to both in common usage, but is there any reason to use one over the other?

    I know the SN75441 has built in diodes, and I've seen people wire two in parallel for greater current handling. But given the extra fiddling the L298 requires there must be a reason people like to use it too.

    Thanks!

    I tried to make SirMorph very versatile. In the October Servo you will see they also work well as line sensors.

    The SN75440/SN75441 are nice 16 bit DIP packages, much easier to work with than the POWERDIP15 of the L298's. They are cheaper too :-)

    I am using the SN75440 on some unannounced future products (I am currently testing one of those products)
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-16 10:22
    Sorry! You are NOT a dullard! I have just been too busy to post more info. I will try to add product pages to Mikronauts this weekend.

    Due to additional consulting work (on GCC for Parallax) I have less time to work on my products - including making web pages and data sheets.

    Magician rough dimensions are:

    6 7/8" body longest dimension
    4 5/16" body width

    5 1/8" width including wheels
    2 7/8" high from top of deck to surface it is standing on

    two decks as you can see :-)
    Spiral_72 wrote: »
    At the risk of sounding like a dullard; I cannot find dimensions or any data for the Magician Chassis on your site. It looks a little bigger in Basme's images than I originally thought.


    Are you shipping from the U.S.?
    Ah, I found the answer to that: British Columbia.
  • BamseBamse Posts: 561
    edited 2011-09-16 13:12
    I choose the SN75441 because I had a few laying around.
    Hopefully I should get some time this weekend to work on the robot, I think I have an ADC chip somewhere to get analog readings from the SirMorphs as well.

    Looking forward to the October Issue, maybe I can get some line following going on my robot as well... ;-)
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-16 14:17
    Bamse wrote: »
    I choose the SN75441 because I had a few laying around.
    Hopefully I should get some time this weekend to work on the robot, I think I have an ADC chip somewhere to get analog readings from the SirMorphs as well.

    Looking forward to the October Issue, maybe I can get some line following going on my robot as well... ;-)

    Let me know if you run into any issues.. it should work just fine!

    I have used SN75440's before without issues.

    As far as line following - I don't want to post the code until the issue is out (less than two weeks) but I could email it to you if you like...

    I suggest you add an MCP3208 to your ProtoBoard; that is the ADC I generally use, and it works quite well with RoboProp. Drive the SirMorph's with 40mA from a prop pin, and measure the analog output.

    Please keep us up to date with your progress!
  • BamseBamse Posts: 561
    edited 2011-09-18 13:08
    Howdy...

    The SN754410 works great, I added a couple of beefy caps (1000 uF) to the power supplies (battery and main 3.3V) and put by-pass caps directly on the motors.
    To read the SirMorphs, I use a MCP3008 which works really well, it measures the three SirMorphs in the front and the battery voltage...

    I will start a new thread and post pictures etc...
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-18 21:04
    Bamse wrote: »
    Howdy...

    The SN754410 works great, I added a couple of beefy caps (1000 uF) to the power supplies (battery and main 3.3V) and put by-pass caps directly on the motors.
    To read the SirMorphs, I use a MCP3008 which works really well, it measures the three SirMorphs in the front and the battery voltage...

    I will start a new thread and post pictures etc...

    Looking forward to it!
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-09-19 02:20
    Bill:

    I always wondered what your mind would conceive for a prop bot robot and Scooter "RoboProp" has one of the most unique mounting solutions I've ever seen in a robot. The top mounting plate accommodates nearly every possible configuration! Congratulations on this well though-out design!
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-19 08:55
    Thank you Humanoido!

    I really enjoyed designing RoboProp, and as usual Sapieha's layout is a work of art...

    I can't take credit for the Magician chassis, as I did not design it... but I decided to stock it after I found it :-)



    Humanoido wrote: »
    Bill:

    I always wondered what your mind would conceive for a prop bot robot and Scooter "RoboProp" has one of the most unique mounting solutions I've ever seen in a robot. The top mounting plate accommodates nearly every possible configuration! Congratulations on this well though-out design!
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2011-09-22 13:29
    Product Name change...

    The new name for the combination of RoboProp and a Magician chassis will be "Wizard"

    I will use the "Scooter" name for a non-RoboProp based robot kit.
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2011-09-23 07:47
    That is one enchanted robot, In fact, it's magical.. :)

    Good stuff Bill.

    -Tommy
  • BamseBamse Posts: 561
    edited 2011-09-24 19:27
    I love my chassis, perfect size and plenty of holes to bolt things down on. The plastic is easy to drill and no problems with using the Dremel either.
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