Post by bisected8 on May 21, 2009 22:26:09 GMT
Log
08/06/2009 - The circuit board, switch, and photodiodes ("eyes") have been placed and glued with copious amounts of epoxy resin. I can't do anymore tonight until the epoxy's cured. Top view, bottom view. All that needs doing now is to wire/attach the motors, solder the photodiodes, put the batteries in and pray to the machine god.
07/06/2009 - Bodged together a rear wheel from a bolt, washer, nut wheel mount, heat shrink, and a bit of kebab skewer.
03/06/2009 - *thumb twiddling ends* OK, the wheels are here. All I need to do now is work out how I'm going to put a rear wheel together and the world'll be just a little bit more terrible.
02/06/2009 - I've ordered the wheels online. Now to allow 5 days for delivery. *thumb twiddling begins*
01/06/2009 - The board is finished, the case has the holes drilled in it. All I need to do now is find some wheels and put everything together.
28/05/2009 - Some difficulties arose while I was soldering the transistors, leading the replacement of one transistor and the resoldering of several wires. The case has been marked and is ready to have the appropriate holes drilled in it.
26/05/2009 - Soldered the wires onto the board. Put one of the transistors in place to work on tomorrow. Picture.
25/05/2009 - Decided that this was the best way to update my progress. Anyway, thus far the circuit boards have been etched and drilled. I've finished creating an infrared torch. You can see a photo of it here. When switched on it emits...well infrared light. This is invisible to the naked eye, but I've found that my camera is capable of picking up a faint glow when the LEDs are working. You can see it in action (sort of) here and here.
24/05/2009 (Backdated) - Drilled circuit boards.
23/05/2009 (Backdated) - Etched circuit boards.
22/05/2009 (Backdated) - Drew the circuits on the cut pieces of PCB.
21/05/2009 (Backdated) - Started project proper. Cut some PCB to the correct shape for the two boards; the "brains" of the boxbot and an infrared torch to test it with.
Overview
I've recently finished my first year (repeated) of uni. This has left me with a few months of...nothing. This left me bored. The boredom turned to irritation and the irritation to annoyance. The annoyance dropped down again to apathy but suddenly jumped back up to agitation. As of now the agitation has turned to a blind rage against the world.
And what better way to get my own back on the world to unleash the horror that is a real life boxbot on it? *evil laugh*
Anyway, what I plan to do is make a simple analogue circuit based robot modelled after the design of boxbot.
Firstly, I'll list what we know about boxbot based on his appearances;
# Box shaped
# Three wheels on the bottom
# Two eyes and a mouth on the front
# Two arms either side
For simplicity's sake, I'll forgo the arms for now. The rest is simple enough; a box (which can hold the components inside), two motors (with wheels) mounted at the front of the base, one wheel at the back for support.
The "brains" of the robot will be a simple infra-phototropic analogue circuit. Or to put it another way, it will move towards any infra-red light source (e.g. a TV remote) it picks up and won't need a microprocessor to do it. Apart from the motors (which will be mounted on the base using brackets) the only parts which will be outside the box will be a couple of IR photodiodes.
Between a quick search of my house, followed by a visit to my local maplin I've got pretty much everything I'll need. The body of the Boxbot will be a simple plastic project case and I've found a couple of cheap motors (which conveniently came with brackets). I already had most of the electronic components lying around from previous projects. The only parts I'm missing are some wheels. The full parts list consists of;
# Printed circuit board (copper clad, non-phototreated)
# 2 x 1.5-3v DC electric motors, with brackets.
# ABS project case
# 2 x transistors (NPN)
# 2 x IR Phototransistors
# A battery snap and a battery case (2 x AA)
# A slide switch
# Snap rivets
# Wire, shrink tubing, etc
So far I've drawn the PCB design and worked out where I'm going to be drilling the holes in the case. The PCB has now been cut into shape and had the pattern drawn onto it. I'm hoping to etch the board tomorrow.
The PCB has been etched. I'm getting ready to drill the board and the case.
Gallery
# Here's the circuit diagram
# My components
# The PCB layout (top right), front drilling plan (top left), torch PCB layout and base drilling plan (bottom right)
# Just after drawing the pattern on the PCB
# Close-up.
# The etched boards.
# The IR Torch, completed.
# The circuit board with the wires soldered in place and a transistor ready to be soldered.
# My workspace, circa May 26th 2009.
# The case, the soldered board, motors, IR-Photodiodes, etc with a few of my tools scattered around.
# A wheel worthy of boxbot.
# Top view prior to attaching motors and soldering photodiodes.
# URL=http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5607/dscn0085f.jpg]bottom view prior to attaching motors and soldering photodiodes[/URL].
So what do you guys think? Good use of my time, or just terrible?
08/06/2009 - The circuit board, switch, and photodiodes ("eyes") have been placed and glued with copious amounts of epoxy resin. I can't do anymore tonight until the epoxy's cured. Top view, bottom view. All that needs doing now is to wire/attach the motors, solder the photodiodes, put the batteries in and pray to the machine god.
07/06/2009 - Bodged together a rear wheel from a bolt, washer, nut wheel mount, heat shrink, and a bit of kebab skewer.
03/06/2009 - *thumb twiddling ends* OK, the wheels are here. All I need to do now is work out how I'm going to put a rear wheel together and the world'll be just a little bit more terrible.
02/06/2009 - I've ordered the wheels online. Now to allow 5 days for delivery. *thumb twiddling begins*
01/06/2009 - The board is finished, the case has the holes drilled in it. All I need to do now is find some wheels and put everything together.
28/05/2009 - Some difficulties arose while I was soldering the transistors, leading the replacement of one transistor and the resoldering of several wires. The case has been marked and is ready to have the appropriate holes drilled in it.
26/05/2009 - Soldered the wires onto the board. Put one of the transistors in place to work on tomorrow. Picture.
25/05/2009 - Decided that this was the best way to update my progress. Anyway, thus far the circuit boards have been etched and drilled. I've finished creating an infrared torch. You can see a photo of it here. When switched on it emits...well infrared light. This is invisible to the naked eye, but I've found that my camera is capable of picking up a faint glow when the LEDs are working. You can see it in action (sort of) here and here.
24/05/2009 (Backdated) - Drilled circuit boards.
23/05/2009 (Backdated) - Etched circuit boards.
22/05/2009 (Backdated) - Drew the circuits on the cut pieces of PCB.
21/05/2009 (Backdated) - Started project proper. Cut some PCB to the correct shape for the two boards; the "brains" of the boxbot and an infrared torch to test it with.
Overview
I've recently finished my first year (repeated) of uni. This has left me with a few months of...nothing. This left me bored. The boredom turned to irritation and the irritation to annoyance. The annoyance dropped down again to apathy but suddenly jumped back up to agitation. As of now the agitation has turned to a blind rage against the world.
And what better way to get my own back on the world to unleash the horror that is a real life boxbot on it? *evil laugh*
Anyway, what I plan to do is make a simple analogue circuit based robot modelled after the design of boxbot.
Firstly, I'll list what we know about boxbot based on his appearances;
# Box shaped
# Three wheels on the bottom
# Two eyes and a mouth on the front
# Two arms either side
For simplicity's sake, I'll forgo the arms for now. The rest is simple enough; a box (which can hold the components inside), two motors (with wheels) mounted at the front of the base, one wheel at the back for support.
The "brains" of the robot will be a simple infra-phototropic analogue circuit. Or to put it another way, it will move towards any infra-red light source (e.g. a TV remote) it picks up and won't need a microprocessor to do it. Apart from the motors (which will be mounted on the base using brackets) the only parts which will be outside the box will be a couple of IR photodiodes.
Between a quick search of my house, followed by a visit to my local maplin I've got pretty much everything I'll need. The body of the Boxbot will be a simple plastic project case and I've found a couple of cheap motors (which conveniently came with brackets). I already had most of the electronic components lying around from previous projects. The only parts I'm missing are some wheels. The full parts list consists of;
# Printed circuit board (copper clad, non-phototreated)
# 2 x 1.5-3v DC electric motors, with brackets.
# ABS project case
# 2 x transistors (NPN)
# 2 x IR Phototransistors
# A battery snap and a battery case (2 x AA)
# A slide switch
# Snap rivets
# Wire, shrink tubing, etc
The PCB has been etched. I'm getting ready to drill the board and the case.
Gallery
# Here's the circuit diagram
# My components
# The PCB layout (top right), front drilling plan (top left), torch PCB layout and base drilling plan (bottom right)
# Just after drawing the pattern on the PCB
# Close-up.
# The etched boards.
# The IR Torch, completed.
# The circuit board with the wires soldered in place and a transistor ready to be soldered.
# My workspace, circa May 26th 2009.
# The case, the soldered board, motors, IR-Photodiodes, etc with a few of my tools scattered around.
# A wheel worthy of boxbot.
# Top view prior to attaching motors and soldering photodiodes.
# URL=http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5607/dscn0085f.jpg]bottom view prior to attaching motors and soldering photodiodes[/URL].
So what do you guys think? Good use of my time, or just terrible?
