Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Robot Videos => Topic started by: sonictj on July 15, 2009, 11:45:36 AM

Title: $50 robot sort of
Post by: sonictj on July 15, 2009, 11:45:36 AM: I decided to test my new board with my old $50 robot frame in the spirit of SOR. It worked pretty well.

[youtube]h9S3PbvqyYg[/youtube]
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: sonictj on July 15, 2009, 02:14:08 PM: here is the same bot I just modified it with Sharp IR and sonar.

[youtube]pR6I-M-6Sac[/youtube]
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: SmAsH on July 15, 2009, 04:26:40 PM: hah, nice!
just a question, how did you plug in your stuff? a shield? jumpers?
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: sonictj on July 15, 2009, 05:29:44 PM: here are some picks of the shield. I used a single sided protoboard. I soldered the board to board headers underneath. I did this by placing the protoboart on a flat surface and then setting the headers in place. This made a big enough gap for me to solder the header on. I then soldered power bus headers on top of the board normally. I essentially made a giant header board with power buses. I also brought out the isp header because I program in avr studio almost exclusively now.
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: kpmcgurk on July 16, 2009, 07:09:23 AM: looks great!!! this project gets better and better every time I look at it!
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: Tesla on July 16, 2009, 10:01:23 PM: Cool.. why not just have a male connector on your board?

Tesla
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: sonictj on July 16, 2009, 11:12:47 PM: Quote from: Tesla on July 16, 2009, 10:01:23 PM
Cool.. why not just have a male connector on your board?

Tesla

Do you mean headers/power buses? That would be huge. This board has 86 io pins I would have had to increase the size of the board about an inch in x and y. The routing would have been much more complicated too. My setup allows for more versatility because I can custom make a cheap shield for my application.
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: Tesla on July 16, 2009, 11:24:36 PM: Sorry.. not worded good.. I mean connector headers like on the Axon. Male instead of Female. Is there an easy to solder socket that the mcu can plug into? That might make assembling a little easier for you.

Tesla
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: sonictj on July 16, 2009, 11:36:30 PM: there are schmartz (I think thats what their called) but they are also very large and expensive. It would also be difficult to add a shield with the mcu that high. You would need special connectors. That kind of setup could boost the price $15 easy.
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: sonictj on July 16, 2009, 11:46:32 PM: The main problem here, like others have said Admin included, is that in order to release a product, like this one, you have to put a TON of money into it. Its a huge gamble. From what I've discovered I would have to be able and willing to drop thousands of dollars to even hope for a profit. Manufacturing costs ~$25 per board in quantities of 50, and the parts to buil;d the board are ~$20. Then you add shipping and upfront business expenses and you realize that with 50 boards made you will not even profit if you sell them all. I would have to make a ton of boards to keep costs down, and this would cost more money than I have. So there really isn't much I can do at this point. I wish there was.
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: Tesla on July 16, 2009, 11:56:31 PM: This may be a stupid question.. why do you need a shield? Does the mcu produce RF?

Tesla
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: SmAsH on July 17, 2009, 12:02:39 AM: Quote from: Tesla on July 16, 2009, 11:56:31 PM
This may be a stupid question.. why do you need a shield? Does the mcu produce RF?

Tesla
you don't know how hard i just laughed! a shield isn't what it sounds like, its like an add on for the board...
like a bluetooth shield would enable to board to use bluetooth...
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: Tesla on July 17, 2009, 12:10:11 AM: ah gotcha.. glad I gave ya a good laugh.
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: SmAsH on July 17, 2009, 12:12:57 AM: Quote from: Tesla on July 17, 2009, 12:10:11 AM
ah gotcha.. glad I gave ya a good laugh.
lol, thanks... google around for arduino shields to get an idea... most of the time they plug into the board.
like so(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3235/2825399045_04db0b39b5.jpg)
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: Joker94 on July 21, 2009, 06:12:05 AM: nice job intergrating your new board to your $50 chassi ;D

it looks like the castor on the back is getting stuck, not a good thing.It can doudle the stress on your robot and the servos and the batteries. that happened to me and i halfed my battery life ,Some oil fixed tht in a flash. And not to mention the mess that the rubber left on the floor.

but overall nice job ;D :o ;D
Title: Re: $50 robot sort of
Post by: sonictj on July 21, 2009, 10:18:05 AM: Quote from: Joker94 on July 21, 2009, 06:12:05 AM
it looks like the castor on the back is getting stuck,

I think that the robot was just front heavy so the caster didn't always follow. At this point though I've gone on to build a brand new chassis. This one is like Admin's Taurus 2 but with three wheels instead of four. I'll probably post pics soon.