Building a robot YOU can drive around MY shop Pt.4
Now that the robot has wheels and motors, it’s time to figure out where the brains and control components go. Chat helped me brainstorm names for the robot and and I worked on placing various power components.
This was streamed on Twitch on Dec 19, 2020.
Special thanks to Greg Needel of REV Robotics and @Esden for the robotics care packages!
00:00:00 Stream starts
Stream starts. Hello everyone! Happy saturday!
No Ambrose today!
Smalltalk with chat about streaming on Twitch vs YT.
00:04:07 Show & Tell: A fried wifi plug
Scotty has something to show chat before getting into the robot.
Scotty has a wifi plug which fried on him.
Sure enough, as he suspected, it’s an ESP8266 with a relay, some caps, a voltage regulator and some other parts.
Scotty gets the microscope to get a better view
There’s a BoyaMicro 4M external flash for the ESP8266.
Might be interesting to flash it with some custom firmware at some point
Checkout ESPHome.io.
00:14:23 Robot status and next steps
Let’s do some work on the telepresense robot.
Scotty does a short recap for chat.
The idea is to use channel points to provide access to control the robot for a short while.
Scotty needs to add control circuitry.
He has a Raspberry Pi that’s updating and almost ready to go.
We also have an AdaFruit PWM Servo hat, Spark Mini motorcontrollers, power switch, Power distribution block and a buck converter.
Alot of aforementioned supplied by @Robogreg of REV Robotics, thanks!
00:20:06 Robot needs a name and motor controller installation
We need a name for the robot!
Scotty starts laying out the various parts to work out where everything should go.
With some minor assistance from Greg, Scotty hooks up motor controllers and gets other components connected and laid out to give him a good idea of where to put everything.
@DrZzs raids with a party of 41.
Scotty gives the raiders a quick recap of where he is with the robot build.
Scotty isn’t sure how many channel points it’ll cost to control the bot.
Scotty is invited to follow @DrZzs for Home Automation ideas. He follows.
00:34:15 Freelance tips
LearnWithLeon raids with a party of 190
LearnWithLeon was streaming WebDev Freelance help.
Scotty gives freelance tips revolving around working with ethical clients over unethical ones. Check vod for more!
Scotty shares his first freelance experience in an internet cafe in Thailand.
00:40:25 Distro block installation
Back to the robot!
Scotty figures out which way to put the controllers, where the Pi goes and the Distro block.
Once a basic layout is decided, Scotty gets double-sided tape to start to make the layout semi permanent and work with cables.
After the motorcontrollers are stuck down and connected to the motors, Scotty takes a quick break.
00:54:36 Robot overview
Back from break!
“Nah, we don’t need no stinkin’ proximity and imu sensors!”
“It’s chat’s own decision what to ram into!”
Scotty hooks up the switch and power distribution block
The understanding is that between the Mac Pro wheels and the robot, the wheels probably cost more.
01:03:56 How to mount the Pi?
Scotty looks into how to mount the Pi and PWM hat.
Standoffs are defintely needed.
By cutting the battery cable in half at Greg’s direction, Scotty now has an additional power cable he can use for the buck converter.
While chatting about how to control the robot, Scotty discovers the Buckley converter doesn’t have mounting holes or brackets.
Figures he can use electrical tape and moves on.
Scotty’s timer goes off telling him to start winding down.
Scotty checks out how to place and route the PWM Hat, chat helps him by reporting there’s a camera connector on the hat.
01:16:13 Winding down
Scotty ends stream by raiding raids diatomsattack