robots

Update on the robot project

Photos of my ongoing project


This proofed to be too stiff.


This works, embroidering my conductive fabric.


Close up, embroidery finished, cut out.


One sewed together.


Back side with sewing.


My soldering station, tools, meter and conductive foam.


Pressure sensor tested, works, needs to be assembled permanently.


Motor, wheels and chassis.


My testbreadboard, Arduino, test pressure sensor (the coins), light sensor, LED and microphone.

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Sewing my own conductive fabric.

Sewing my own conductive fabric

Stage 1 :
Sewing my own conductive fabric.

By the way : Thanks plusea and also on instructables.

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Arduino the next stage

Over the new year I tried some more stuff on my Arduino. I got the light potentiometer or LDR running. But I didn’t see much effect when I tried the temperature sensor. Clearly I need more information on this. I have ordered Robot Builder’s Bonanza and I hope it will be here soon (it has arrived, yes ! Review as soon as I get to read it). I finally got to control my Arduino with Processing from processing.org, which is cool because processing has some cool libraries you can use. Processing is the reason, why I am learning Java at the moment.

Some more Robot and Arduino links :

  • societyofrobots is really cool and has a 50$ robot project, there isn’t much about Arduino yet, but I think this will change
  • arduino-workshop, I had some problems with the code but the basic projects are there.

    I will try to post some stuff in German too, to open up Arduino for even more people. And since I have to order the stuff in German, I have to find translations anyway. All said, without any English it may be difficult to find information, but maybe I can help people to find some search terms and get starting points.
     

    Ich werde versuchen die Arduino Posts auch in Deutsch zu schreiben, um Leuten die nicht so gut Englisch können einige Startpunkte zu geben. Leider sind die meisten Anleitungen und Handbücher auf Englisch, also ganz ohne Englisch wird’s schwierig.
    Ein deutsches Handbuch gibt’s schon mal unter Arduino Programmier Handbuch .

    Mein kleines Glossar :

  • LDR : steht für Light Dependent Resistor, auch photoresistor genannt und auf Deutsch dann
    (die Links referenzieren auf die Wikipedia Artikel), was auf den Fotos im Wikipedia nicht so richtig zur Geltung kommt ist, dass diese Dinger knapp so gross sind wie eine Leuchtdiode, also ziemlich klein.
  • NTC oder Thermistor : heisst auch im Deutschen Thermistor (hier der Link zum deutschen Wikipedia)
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    My first Arduino experiments

    Using this tutorial, I wired my Arduino up to blink LEDs. Still in time for Christmas, almost.
    The bread board doesn’t really fit into the Arduino yet. It doesn’t have any legs and isn’t level. But this is a minor inconvenience, wiring this thing up is fun.

    The wiring is here :

    From Arduino

    A little video here (sorry for the quality and non-youtubeness, but I am still figuring this out and youtube wants an extra account) :

    From Arduino
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    Got my Arduino

    I have ordered my Arduino board from dshop and some components from Zeko.
    Here are the unboxing photos :

    Arduino Unboxing

    I have no idea what some of these components are. I bought the BoeBot refresher pack and this component mix. There are some LEDs, so I will be able to make some blinking stuff.

    You can find more on the Arduino board on the official website. As you can see in the photos mine is a genuine, made in Italy, one. I just hope it didn’t come to me via the US. I am watching some tutorial videos like this one by Steven Combs and this one from makezine and I have found this tutorial by Limor. I have installed the software on my EEE PC 901, to be as mobile as possible. I forgot to order a battery pack (don’t do that) and now the Arduino needs to be plugged into the USB to have juice. Maybe I find some adapter somewhere. I will try to post about my experiments.

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    Robots, Arduino and electronics

    If somebody reading this blog has any recommendations about good tutorials, blogs or books about electronics and robots, any help would be appreciated. My problem is, that I need help on the hardware stuff, not the programming. I found these cool sites in Switzerland Zerko, where they sell parts and this site dshop, where they sell Arduino boards. They even have descriptions, but they are to technical for me. I was, until now, a software person. I can solder, but I haven’t done it for around 20 years now. That’s what university and work will do to you ;-) . I have only a vague idea how to get a wheel on a robot. There are a lot of sites and tutorials how to program the robot, which, having read enough path finding, AI and other robotics paper in my life, I have fairly good idea how to manage. But all this sensor and servo stuff is rather intimidating to me. Now I wouldn’t have a problem with just trying it out, but the stuff I can get my hands on seems to be fairly expensive. I plan to buy lots of small stuff to try out, but this doesn’t work if the stuff costs 30$ – 100$ (per motor and then one needs an controller too ?) and I have no idea what servo to use for a small beginner project (to avoid too much delivery costs and small parts costs, I would like to get everything in bulk).
    By the way, modern times and the web are fantastic. I looked at all the stuff in the shops above and in the Zerko shop they have a game console to build on your own, but the real cool stuff is to realize that you can actually build your own custom game controller nowadays, for not a lot money and without a lot of soldering. Just use some Phidget sensor (they have some that come USB ready) or a Arduino board and some distance or temperature measure. This is seriously cool.

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