$50 Robot Success

[jaabot]

Hello folks:

Thanks to all the help on this forum, we have successfully completed the $50 robot. I wanted to post some pictures and a short video to say thanks and hopefully pass on any ideas for people building the $50 robot next.

We stayed pretty close to spec, but made a few variations. For power we opted for the battery pack and 9v combination. In the photos you will see a big old D battery. This is not powering anything, but rather weighing down the from end. You see every time the robot would bump into something, it would tip over, so this solution prevents that most of the time. Our servos did not come with the mounts shown in the tutorial so we improvised by cutting some scrap wood molding. Works great. We also wanted to follow admin's suggestion to mount the board properly, so some plastic spacers did the trick of nicely elevating the board and providing space for the battery pack. I was planning to Velcro the battery pack as Admin suggested, but my son suggested the rubberband method as it would make it easier to slide the pack out in our design. We did go with the nicer wire connectors. Following the wire connector tutorial and buying a pair of crimpers for the job. Otherwise, it is your pretty typical $50 robot.

We had our share of troubles along the way. This was our first time building a robot from scratch. But the forum here has been terrific to solve issues. Thanks again.

Here's a video [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YtVJbDGgRg[/youtube]

[SmAsH]

wow, this build looks very good!
nice thinking with the d cell battery, does it affect the speed of the robot at all?

[Canabots]

Wow! Good build! This is probably the most proffesional looking $50 Robot I've ever seen! Good Job!

And for mounting those servos, those brackets look great. Did you make them yourself or buy it from a hardware store?

[jakx12]

brilliant! Well done

[SmAsH]

canabots, he used some scrap and cut it.

[Canabots]

canabots, he used some scrap and cut it.

Ah oops, my bad  But it's very creative, I think I might take that idea an put it to use on one of my future robots!

[SmAsH]

i have to agree that it does look store bought!
(not accusing just saying it looks good)
looks damn fine my man!

[jaabot]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. It took us a few months of on again, off again tinkering, but we are pleased with the results.

The servo mounts are just a piece of scrap cove molding I had in the garage. I cut them with a hand saw and miter box. (I would have used my power miter saw, but I have it loaned out to a friend right now). But the hand method worked OK. Just be sure to drill pilot holes before putting in the screws or it will crack.

The D Battery does probably affect the speed some, but this guys moves pretty quickly anyhow, so that was not a real concern this time.

Now we need a new project. I plan to look up some of the upgrades on the site and maybe try a line-follower or a robotic arm.

Thanks again.

[SmAsH]

well, your $50 robot IS a line follower... he just doesn't know it yet...
if you point the sensors at the ground and modify the code a bit it will follow lines.
i think there is a post on sor somewhere, if i find it ill post it.

[jaabot]

Sweet. That makes sense.

[kpmcgurk]

looks really good!! keep up the good work!