Building a robot YOU can drive around MY shop Pt.1

“I’m not gonna read any instructions or take much advice from Greg to start with. I’m just gonna plough into this.” ~with these famous last words, I show chat the robotics care packages that were sent to me, ignore the advice and start building a robot that you can drive around my shop!

This was streamed on Twitch on Dec 11, 2020.

Special thanks to Greg Needel of REV Robotics and @Esden for the robotics care packages!

00:00:00 Stream starts
Stream starts. Happy friday!
Greg Needel (@RoboGreg) of REV Robotics is in chat.
We have a robot to build.
Scotty has an idea for a robot that can wander the shop, but not just that, one that chat can control over the internet.
Scotty introduces @RoboGreg and explains that Greg sent over a box full of robot parts he cherrypicked for Scotty’s project.
Scotty pings Esden that he’s continuing the Robot project on stream

00:02:43 Show&Tell, Robot parts
Scotty shows the Mecanum wheels that Esden sent
Scotty’s not sure he’ll use these are that might mean the robot is heavier and more powerful than he had intended.
Scotty thinks he’ll use Remo.TV which is a framework for controlling robots over the internet.
Scotty has a box full of mecanum wheels to put together.
Scotty warns chat it will be a short 1hr stream because he has other commitments.
Scotty unboxes the parts the @RoboGreg sent
– Power Distribution Block
– Power switch
– 4 Motor controllers
Scotty explains the plan ; he wants to drive the robot with a Raspberry Pi. It’ll have WiFi and a camera and he would like it to do TTS.
Scotty forgot to order an Adafruit Servo HAT, there’s a discussion about RaspPi being bad at PWM and too high amperage.
BAck to the list;
– Motion pattern spacers
— Not from REV Robotics but on recommendation of: A 12v to 5v Buck Converter
Discussion on LiPO vs Sealed Lead Acid
– PWM Cables
– PWM cable clips
– Joiner boards for JSE connectors
– more cables
Scotty is “burying the lead” – He jumps straight to motors.
Scotty shows 5:1 4:1 3:1 Planetary Gearbox cartridges.

00:16:17 Putting together the motors and gearboxes
Scotty: “I’m not gonna read any instructions or take much advice from Greg to start with. I’m just gonna plough into this.”
Scotty begins stacking gearbox cartridges on top of motor
While explaining gear ratios and he’s not sure what rpm he wants he lets chat know he prefers slow for several reasons.
Scotty answers chat questions and shows us weather conditions outside while he starts attaching the mounting plate to a motor.
More talk about just a short stream today.
Scotty asks Greg what material the mounting plate is made of. Greg reports Compression Sintered Steel
Scotty views the video linked by Greg and chat gets to see how Compression Sintered Steel is made
Scotty initially makes a simple 5:1 stack just to see how parts fit together.

00:30:25 Show & Tell; Wheels and Battery
@yankleshark or @dyanoshak David Yanoshak – the other Co-Founder of REV Robotics joins chat.
Scotty does a brief introduction of David and spots @jamesg2605, a senior in FRC, in chat.
Scotty shows some smaller conventional wheels that were sent by REV Robotics as well as Omni wheels which look like Mecanum wheels but are slightly different and some mecanum wheels.
Scotty is slightly worried he may have made an error.
“I ordered something thinking that I knew what I was doing and now I am less sure”
Scotty unpacks some adapters that bolt to the motors and fit the larger mecanum wheels that Esden sent.
Greg and Scotty mise over the tolerances of the Esden mecanum wheel and the REV Hub.
Scotty thinks it’ll be cool if you can spend channel points to drive the robot.
Scotty has some cheap EXP-1270 lead acid batteries.
Short discussion on how Scotty thinks he wants to manage using channel points for chat to drive the robot (through unlocking a page)

00:41:53 Show & Tell; The Robot Platform
Scotty shows the platform or chassis. A Sheet of Aluminium.
It’s quite large.
Scotty explains he will probably have to cut it down and starts eyeballing where.
The plate was chosen with Esden’s Mecanum wheels in mind
12″ x 12″ is decided as a size.
Scotty thinks he’ll start with a ridiculous size and work himself back to sane as that’s more entertaining.
motor brackets will be used for mockup and plate will be drilled and tapped.

00:43:40 Size mockup
Scotty starts to mockup robot sizes, moving brackets back and forth and discussing with chat.
component and battery sizes are taken into account.
wide vs narrow discussion; Narrow would be better to navigate round the workshop.
Scotty isn’t sure how Ambrose will react to the robot. Some things creep him out, others don’t bother him, it could go either way.
Ankle cam confirmed!
Scotty discusses “Pandemic Brain Fog” with chat and the pros of taking on smaller projects to keep the mind busy from the overal situation.
Chat shares some of their smaller projects and mishaps that happen.
Scotty is building up the motors to mockup aluminium plate size.

00:59:42 Snow Anecdote
Scotty fulfills an earlier channel point spend for an anecdote.
He tells chat of what happened to him earlier in the day.
It involves his truck, snow, horses and leaving the keys somewhere VERY useful!
Esden enters the chat

01:03:08 Name the robot!
Scotty has his mockup ready but an important question is asked: “What will the robot be called?”
Chat bot name suggestions go wild, meanwhile Scotty looks at a dog treat dispenser thing that @Ferferite linked
“This could be cool, it also might be mayhem”
Scotty confirms to Esden he got all parts.
New platform size decided; 10.5″ x 12″

01:07:50 Wind down
Scotty starts to wind down due to afternoon commitments. He explains some next steps for the robot; Mecanum Wheels, platform or chassis plate to cut.
Scotty intends to Stream tomorrow morning and he is trying to put together a Stream Schedule.
If he’s not streaming on Saturday he plans to put in a long stream on sunday.
Scotty ends the stream by raiding oh_bother who is doing a teardown of a function generator.

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