Hello and my robot.

[Crooksie]

Hi everyone, I have been using this site for about 6 months now and would first like to say how brilliant it is and the resources available on it have been extremely useful to me. I am 17 and live in the UK, currently doing (and failing) A-Levels in ICT, Mathematics and Physics.

About six months ago I had the dream of building a robot, I had never really done anything like that before, and after stumbling the web I came across this site.  I had a fair bit programming experience and a GCSE in electronics (which in my opinion doesn't count for anything because most of my class past without being able to tell you what a diode does, or even what ohms law is) and some basic woodworking skills (well I can almost saw in a straight line).

After seeing the $50 robot I was inspired to build my own version of it.  So I got a job, after a few months had saved up a few hundred pounds, which I spent buying everything I thought I would need to design and build my own robot.  One of the best things I bought was a piece of software called Circuit Wizard, which allows me to design circuits and test them, and the convert the schematics to a pcb layout(it has an auto route feature but I don't really like it).  Using the tutorials on SoR and Spark fun, I designed a micro controller board based on the ATMega 168, and etched a pcb at home using the toner transfer method (Google for those of you unfamiliar with this method).

After Several months of soldering, sawing and drilling I finally finished (well finished for now) my robot on Sunday night.  Then after couple of sleepless nights of programing (Admin's code didn't work on my robot, so I wrote my own) and learning C (I already knew a couple of similar programing languages so it didn't take long to pick up) I finished my robot.

[hazzer123]

Hey man, welcome to the site!

Well it seems you've made loads of progress allready, so lets have a look at the robot
Do you have any videos/pictures/code that you can show?

I too am currently doing maths, physics and German A-levels and understand your misery haha.

[Crooksie]

My robot from the front, not exactly tidy, but it works surprisingly well.


Side of my robot, notice the skid made of meccano.


The topside of my robot and the micro controller board, and the power regulator board above it.


Underside of robot, you can see the servo motors, which are actually on rubber mounts which acts like suspension causing them to bevel out whenever it rests on the ground, it's surprisingly good at getting over bumps.

[hazzer123]

Wow that looks cool  Nice job

Is it a photovore?

Cool photos, but i want to see video! 

[Crooksie]

Yeah it's a photovore, I took a couple of videos but they came out pretty poor, I will try again in the day light.

[Half Shell]

Sweet looking robot. Total cost (if you don't mind my asking)?

I like the built in suspension causing the servos to "bevel out" as you put it. Neat idea and it does look like it should be able to overcome significant bumps.

[Crooksie]

The PCBs cost me about £8 to make, although I have plenty of stuff left over for more pcbs.
The components came to around £10 including all the wires and connectors/crimp terminals
The servos were £5.25 each, so thats £10.50 all together.
The batteries cost me about £3 (It's running on Alkaline batteries untill I fork out for some rechargables and a charger).
The wheels were £4.50 for 4, as I used 2 so thats about £2.25.
The hardboard for the base and the meccano, I had lying around so didn't cost me anything.

So in all the robot cost about £35.75 which is around $70.

Although that doesn't include things like my AVR programmer which I don't think really counts as I can use it countless times.

The prices are rough estimates as I bought most components from a company which didn't deal in small quantities, the resistors I bought came in at way less than a penny each, and capacitors at several pence.

[airman00]

pretty good and very cool for a photovore

I respect the fact you made everything yourself, the programming ,the robot ,etc.

Keep up the good work!

[Trumpkin]

Nice job! I have yet to make my $50 robot microcontroller work is that what you are using? if so can you please post pictures of the back of the board? I really like your design!

[Barnaby]

Wow! I'm impressed.  My first robot I used a pre built base, though I did design the electronics.  My grandpa, who's an electronics expert, helped me with getting it right (I was even younger then than I am now, surprisingly  ) and it didn't have anything remotely like an IC in, only a couple of transistors.  Well done!

Barnaby
p.s. I bought a GCSE Electronics DVD just to see what it was like, and I see what you mean.  Apart from memorising some of the graphs and equations I'd probably pass!

[macintosh]

Nice work