First Robot help needed

[RhircynNL]

hey, My real name is Dennis, this is my problem:

I want to make my first robot, i have some old computer-part, inlcuding: DVD-Driver Video-cards Sound-cards and some cables, now i have a problem, i dont know how to start...
i have read the site about the first robot, but dont understand the programming and all that stuff, so i would like some help, if you guys cn help me, i would be realy realy happy.

(Im Authistic so if you help me, plss try to describe the thing as clear as possible)

If you need more information plss ask it.


Greetz Dennis

[RhircynNL]

i dont know if this is okey, but i have begin on a design, i would like to hear if it is good:


i have some DVD-driver motors, is that enoch for a simple first robot???
And what do i need to make it a robot with his own will??? or is that not possible???

Greetz.

[tomcharley]

Dear Dennis,

  While you might be able to make a powered car with the tools you have, a robot that thinks and reacts to its environment is kind of out of the question without some programming.  If you want to power the wheels, I would suggest hooking up a battery to the DVD-driver motor, and mount that on top of the car.  Then a belt drive (could be made from a rubber band or something) could translate the power to the axle of the wheels.  I'm not sure what to do with the sound or video cards since I'm a mechanical engineer.  They are probably very complex and would require a specific program and input to run them.

  The design that you created might work well in a straight line.  I don't see any way that it could steer if you want it to do that.  If you want it to be able to steer, you could put a caster on the front so that the back wheels control the rotation.  Then, if the back wheels rotate in opposite directions, the robot will spin in place.

  As for creating a robot with a will of its own, that is something that I don't think anyone has really accomplished yet (plus we all know how the Terminator movies turned out).  The closest thing to a robot with free will that I've personally ever made was a robot with a touch sensor that turned a random amount to the left or right whenever it hit something.  Then it sort of decided its own destiny!

  If you really want to get into robots, you'll either need to work on understanding and creating programs, or find someone who does that can help you.  If you want to have your robot think, it will need a brain, and you will need to create that brain in a program.

Good luck,
Tom

[newInRobotics]

If you want to power the wheels, I would suggest hooking up a battery to the DVD-driver motor, and mount that on top of the car.

Sorry to disappoint, but that will not work as motors used in DVD drives are brushless, meaning they require some circuitry (AKA brushless motor driver) to run 

[Eithman]

Through personal experience, your best bet is to get together a little bit of money and either head to a local radio shack and get an inexpensive Arduino micro controller. The Arduino Uno is around $30 if memory serves. Along with that, I would grab a few DC hobby motors, LED's, transistors, resistors, photo diodes, a bread board, a multimeter, various batteries, buttons and some tape. (Keep in mind that buying these things online would be cheaper, but you can have all that from Radio Shack and be home working on it in 30 minutes, instead of waiting 3-5 days for it to come in the mail) This is plenty enough to get you started.

 The first thing you want to do is get a rudimentary knowledge of electronics. This is where I learned, http://www.opamp-electronics.com/tutorials/experiments.htm, I would suggest going through INTRODUCTION, BASIC CONCEPTS AND TEST EQUIPMENT, and DC CIRCUITS. Afterwords you should have the knowledge to make some pretty cool things with the motors, tape, cardboard and a little creativity.

 After this the fun really begins. With a foundation in electronics, you will now be able to keep up with these Arduino video tutorials,

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA567CE235D39FA84&feature=plcp.

They can be a little overwhelming at first, but go through each video slowly, follow along exactly, ask questions on here if you need, and make sure you understand what is going on in each video fully before you move on.

Some general tips:
- When you see someone use a word that you don't recognize, google it. Probably half of what I know about robots came from googling things people said.
- Don't set your goals to high to soon. We all want a robot that we can have a conversation with, but the cool stuff comes in time.
- Don't give up on it. I got discouraged because I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my transistor circuit. I thought I was just to dumb for this stuff and quit, a month later I got back into it and realized the transistor I was using was broken. Little things like that happen all the time, try to stay motivated with little projects that lead up to bigger ones.

Good luck! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

[RhircynNL]

thx for the clear help, does anybody knows where to findt a robotic shop in The Netherlands?


Greetz.

[Eithman]

Haha, I am not acquainted with the Netherlands. If there are not local Radio Shacks or electric shops, I would suggest online.

[beachboy612]

I would try making the $50 robot on this site.  YOu learn a lot, and although it probably ends up being more than 50 bucks *cost me about 100, and thats that I had many of the tools necessary) , it is worth it.  The computer programs are already set up for you so it is easy to execute.