Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: Jackyleggs on August 01, 2012, 08:50:16 PM

Title: robot from old dvd player, printer, and various other salvaged devices
Post by: Jackyleggs on August 01, 2012, 08:50:16 PM

i currenty am working on a biped. i want to use nothing but non robotic devices or computer hardware. is this possible.if so how?

how do i reprogram the hardware?

obviously the device rus on a program and was programmed somehow. how do i reprogram it?

:]

Title: Re: robot from old dvd player, printer, and various other salvaged devices
Post by: Mr.M on August 03, 2012, 07:51:36 AM

I'm not sure on the reprogramming thing but I did get most of the electronics that I needed to build my first robot from printers and vcr's.  The atmel microcontroller was really all I had to buy and that was about two dollars.
Printers rock for getting parts!  Lots of electronics and lots of motors, most have encoders as well.
 
But I too want to know if its possible to re program commercial electronics. And how.

Title: Re: robot from old dvd player, printer, and various other salvaged devices
Post by: Soeren on August 03, 2012, 08:33:31 AM

Hi,

Most controllers in consumer equipment is mask programmed and cannot be changed. Devices that can be software updated can be programmed obviously, but unless you can get a datasheet and a the programming specifications (both how to make the program and how to burn it into the controller), you can't and most controllers will be in-house markd andmay even be specially developed chips.

So, in short, unless you find a device with a known controller (which is rare), you still need to buy a controller (and learn how to connect, program etc. it).
A well established controller with lots of support is very cheap these days.


When stripping consumer equipment, the things to go for (besides the mechanical components; screws, motors etc.) are power devices (transistors, diodes etc.), coils, capacitors, opto electronics (LEDs and such) and perhaps some wire - sometimes there'll be flash ram or similar worth stripping as well.

If you wanna save other components, better get a box to store those circuit boards in for later retrival of what you need - no sense in cleaning the boards right away.

For the semiconductors, you'll need datasheets to use them properly and you need to extract and store them an ESD safe way.

The enclosures may be reused as chassis components if you really wanna milk it.