Divergent convergences, and the parallel universe
CircuitBurner
Posts: 21
Ive been slowly modernizing a 1980's robot toy that had respectable dimensions and stature for a toy, but had terrible 27mhz junk electronics for control.
Since its coming together enough now to show pics of more than theoretical sub-systems, I post some peeks of the unit.
Transformation from "toy" into "something that should not be" has been quite a story, but I know it is too convoluted to coherently write and make even semi-enjoyable to readers.
That will have to wait until completion, when I can edit out the parts of the journey that ultimately have no tangible contribution to the saga...
So, here we just look at where she is at currently, and partake on her onboard equipment and layout.
I feel this item is worthy of posting here at Parallax since her hardware inventory is so heavily laden with devices from Parallax...
Her brain (central housekeeping unit) is an Arduino mega 2650, and she has another mounted down in the motor tray (base-pan containing tank tread motors and batteries)
used as her locomotive control and proximity sensing from ping sensors.
The housekeeping unit does all the high level management like choosing what to do next, determining location from GPS and other sensors, and detecting carbon-units that happen upon her. (twin PIR sensors in stereo config, face mounted)
If someone walks up to her, she turns her head right or left to face the interloper, depending on what direction they approached from.
If she is to be put into watchdog mode, and is standing by watching, the quick head-turn is an advantage for grabbing a snapshot from her camera and stashing the image and time/date stamp into SD memory.
If anything disturbs her body (ie- someone kicks or grabs her) detected by accelerometer (2125) near the time frame of a snapshot, she immediately dumps SD memory into com buffer and transmits the cache to local server (if avail) or opens up her SIM900 module for a cellphone call to base for a slightly slower but much longer range dump. The SIM900 option also allows for queries to robot from owner for status, position, and remote commands...
(Robot, why wont you come home??)
So here she is so far, estimated 50% integration development, 30% functionality realization, and probably more like 150% potential capability shaping remaining..
Funny about robots, the closer to completion they get, the more choices the builder must make...lol
All sensors - 3axis gyros, 2axis acceleromter, GPS, PIR senors, magnetometer, Gas composition sensing cluster, temperature and barometer... all are Parallax items.
I soon will be experimenting with a propeller module, and this should be interesting to compare capabilities with the Arduino stuff Ive been using.
Better parts get promoted, the losing competitors get retired!
Boop -Beep -Beep "fix my head !!" --- "its empty!" -Boop
Twin PIR sensors active. A face only a mother could love.
Top-down view of cranial cavity and layout. There's a cooling fan below this stack, inside the head shell facing upward.
still melting and test fitting her cranial covering...lots of sawing and melting of plastic.
Early layout of Motor controller in base-pan, and head parts...couple months ago when 1st started project.
Since its coming together enough now to show pics of more than theoretical sub-systems, I post some peeks of the unit.
Transformation from "toy" into "something that should not be" has been quite a story, but I know it is too convoluted to coherently write and make even semi-enjoyable to readers.
That will have to wait until completion, when I can edit out the parts of the journey that ultimately have no tangible contribution to the saga...
So, here we just look at where she is at currently, and partake on her onboard equipment and layout.
I feel this item is worthy of posting here at Parallax since her hardware inventory is so heavily laden with devices from Parallax...
Her brain (central housekeeping unit) is an Arduino mega 2650, and she has another mounted down in the motor tray (base-pan containing tank tread motors and batteries)
used as her locomotive control and proximity sensing from ping sensors.
The housekeeping unit does all the high level management like choosing what to do next, determining location from GPS and other sensors, and detecting carbon-units that happen upon her. (twin PIR sensors in stereo config, face mounted)
If someone walks up to her, she turns her head right or left to face the interloper, depending on what direction they approached from.
If she is to be put into watchdog mode, and is standing by watching, the quick head-turn is an advantage for grabbing a snapshot from her camera and stashing the image and time/date stamp into SD memory.
If anything disturbs her body (ie- someone kicks or grabs her) detected by accelerometer (2125) near the time frame of a snapshot, she immediately dumps SD memory into com buffer and transmits the cache to local server (if avail) or opens up her SIM900 module for a cellphone call to base for a slightly slower but much longer range dump. The SIM900 option also allows for queries to robot from owner for status, position, and remote commands...
(Robot, why wont you come home??)
So here she is so far, estimated 50% integration development, 30% functionality realization, and probably more like 150% potential capability shaping remaining..
Funny about robots, the closer to completion they get, the more choices the builder must make...lol
All sensors - 3axis gyros, 2axis acceleromter, GPS, PIR senors, magnetometer, Gas composition sensing cluster, temperature and barometer... all are Parallax items.
I soon will be experimenting with a propeller module, and this should be interesting to compare capabilities with the Arduino stuff Ive been using.
Better parts get promoted, the losing competitors get retired!
1024 x 1365 - 108K
1024 x 1365 - 125K
1024 x 768 - 68K
1024 x 715 - 100K
1024 x 768 - 52K