06289 [alt-beam] Re: Robot constuction process

Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #06289

To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: "Jason -" evenflow88@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 14:43:41 GMT
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Robot constuction process

>From: "George Rix"
>Reply-To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
>To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
>Subject: Re: Robot constuction process
>Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 06:57:09 -0400
>
>I find it rather hard to believe that Mark builds perfect efficient bots at
>ALL half the time, but when he does, I'm sure that he builds a ciruit, test
>how much current the thing draws, and tries to reduce it by tweaking. Then
>he probably looks to the frame and makes sure that there is very little
>friction for the motors to go up against.
>Other than that, I suppose that since he is the BEAM god he automatically
>knows all about his bot and senses when it is unefficient, and then fixes
>it
>with a mere glance =)
>Peace out!
>
>Rob Rix
>
>No doubt it will all make sense when we're older ‹ Calvin and Hobbes
>

well i think...the one who might have a good answer will be dave hrynkiw
,andrew miller , richard weit and other original beamers who has worked with
mark before...and i am sure dave would give us some tips on that

______________________________________________________

6290 Fri, 01 Oct 1999 12:41:13 -0600 [alt-beam] Re: Robot constuction process beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Dave Hrynkiw At 11:38 PM 9/30/99 , Jason - wrote:

>Hie all...I would ask if there is any construction process to build a
>perfect efficient bot as mark does....so does he construct the brain on a
>breadboard first and build a simple frame for his new bot then test out
>the performance...and if after the brain is done...so he construct the PCB
>and finish the mechanics/frame of his bot...or does he instantly whip out
>a robot design and straight away constructing it with pcb without even
>testing them ..this goes to the design of the bot too...i am asking this
>on behalf of the begginer here in the beam list..so they have a step by
>step to follow each time they build a bot and to help myself too...thanks
>a lot guys for your ideas

From watching him build, my best recollection is that he gets the brains
together first, then attaches them to the motors he *wants* to use to see
if he can get the necessary torque out of them to do the task he has in
mind. If the motors seem satisfactory, and the sensors are behaving
approximately as desired, he continues onto constructing the "hard" body.

If the electronics don't drive the motors well enough, he (might) up the
system voltage, use different motors, put in another motor driver chip (or
2), use different chips, or simply scrap it and build another!

Regards,
Dave
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes,
that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only
2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_".
http://www.solarbotics.com

6291 Fri, 01 Oct 1999 12:28:20 -0600 [alt-beam] Re: Solarbotics Web Update... 2N2222 tech sheet + other beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Dave Hrynkiw At 03:38 AM 10/1/99 , Larry F. Allen-Tonar wrote:
>Dave (and Kenny),
>
>I really appreciate your web pages, especially the
><http://www.solarbotics.com/downloads.html> page.
>
>
>Some minor suggestions:
Ah! Thanks for those pointers. There's always a few web tasks that need
attention after posting a new page!

Should have them up tonight.

Regards,
Dave
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes,
that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only
2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_".
http://www.solarbotics.com

6292 Fri, 01 Oct 1999 12:37:46 -0600 [alt-beam] Re: Solarbotics webpage update beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Dave Hrynkiw At 01:05 AM 10/1/99 , Jason - wrote:
>Hie dave...if possible could u include a video of this bot
>
>http://www.solarbotics.com/images/hirez/walkers/MWT%20Shokbot%201.jpg
>
>turning left/right.....or maybe explain to us how does it do that...maybe
>a lil hint(from makr tilden) on the two motor walker architecture(i.e Are
>the frame and motor orientation of the walker based on the same concept on
>andrew miller's walker page ?) thanks a lot

Already digitized. Just have to knock it down in resolution so it isn't an
obscenely large file to download. And yes, the leg arrangement is quite
typical of "miller-style" walkers.

Regards,
Dave
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes,
that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only
2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_".
http://www.solarbotics.com

6293 Fri, 01 Oct 1999 12:26:57 -0600 [alt-beam] Re: Solarbotics Web Update... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Dave Hrynkiw At 04:53 AM 10/1/99 , George Rix wrote:
>Anyhow, that's great for you to tell me that after I've bought just about a
>hundred of those blasted 2N3904s!

Don't toss them 2904's too quickly! I can count on one hand the number of
robots I built with the 2n2222's. The 3904 is faaaar from unacceptable for
this application!

Regards,
Dave

---------------------------------------------------------------
"Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes,
that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only
2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_".
http://www.solarbotics.com

6294 Fri, 01 Oct 1999 12:36:40 -0600 [alt-beam] Re: A new type of symet(in solarbotics) beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Dave Hrynkiw At 01:19 AM 10/1/99 , Jason - wrote:
>see in the photovore section..mark tilden made a new type of symet which
>can track light too using the unicore..toobad dave didnt make a higher
>resolution on that picture.....

Whups! Doesn't seem to have the link installed. EVERY picture in the
galleries are supposed to link to a "hirez" version. Will correct today. In
the meanwhile, the link is supposed to be:
http://www.solarbotics.com/images/hirez/Photovores/MWT98%20Symet_hextile1a.jpg

>i think this topic really benifits everyone including the amateurs because
>a symet is quite easy to be build....so if we mess around like what mark
>did....i think we could get the same results...okay first of all how many
>motors this symet has? and what bout the controller which it uses for the
>sensory input...and where shall we put the photodiodes

It's a two motor symet, much like a photovore arrangement, but the default
motor rotation is so that it spins the symet. It's based around the tiny
gearmotor Escaps mentioned elsewhere on the site - very expensive
individually. I *think* the electronics are much arranged like a Unicore
BEAMant, but set up so it spins it's way around the environment, like
Steven Bolt's photovores. As for the PD's, I'm pretty sure that they're on
opposite sides, adjacent to the motors.

Regards,
Dave
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes,
that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only
2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_".
http://www.solarbotics.com

6295 Fri, 01 Oct 1999 12:24:45 -0600 [alt-beam] Re: Solarbotics Web Update... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Dave Hrynkiw At 07:40 AM 10/1/99 , Dan Larson wrote:
>2N4401 (npn) and 2N4403 (pnp) are great for h-bridges.

Absolutely. Candidates for further transistor selection on our pricelist!

>Also, consider stocking some L293D H-bridge chips. They
>are nice and compact. It sure beat the heck out of wiring
>h-bridges. Some claim that the L293D has too great of a
>voltage drop though....

I've played with the 293 quite a bit, and find discrete h-bridges worth the
extra work. Especially when you use ZETEX transistors (Hmmm... another
candidate), the voltage drop can be as low as 0.2V for the whole h-bridge.
The 293 IMHO seems to be old technology.

Regards,
Dave
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes,
that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only
2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_".
http://www.solarbotics.com

6296 Fri, 01 Oct 1999 12:30:03 -0600 [alt-beam] Re: Question beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Dave Hrynkiw At 01:24 AM 10/1/99 , Jason - wrote:
>sorry for so many questions and suggestions....but what is a DIP - dual
>inline pin , bug-looking chip as being said in solarbotics photovore section

Exactly what it means. If you go into Radio Shack, practically all the
chips they stock are in DIP format. Black rectangular box with little metal
pins (legs) coming out of it. It's just a way of describing the shape of
the chip.

Regards,
Dave
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Um, no - that's H,R,Y,N,K,I,W. No, not K,I,U,U, K,I,_W_. Yes,
that's right. Yes, I know it looks like "HOCKYRINK." Yup, only
2 vowels. Pronounciation? _SMITH_".
http://www.solarbotics.com

6297 Fri, 01 Oct 1999 17:06:37 -0300 [alt-beam] Re: vibration as "locomotion"? alt-beam@egroups.com michael.hirtle@ns.sympatico.ca (Michael Hirtle) I had a McDonalds wind up toy and it was an elephantt that vibrated along
the ground but i took it apart and made it into a gear box for a robot.

Lee Golden wrote:

> One of my other silly hobbies is collecting wind-up
> toys. There is a Thomas the Tank Engine wind up that
> has a bristle-brush bottom and vibrates when you wind
> it up. The thing travels all over the place, and
> seems to have very little friction and contact with
> the surface it is placed on. Of course, this will
> only work on a perfectly smooth surface like a table
> top...
>
> Lee Golden
>
> --- James G Watt wrote:
> > This could be fun if used in conjunction with
> > BRISTLES.
> >
> > I remember seeing film of an experimental japanese
> > vehicle that
> > travelled by vibrating on a bed of angled bristles.
> > You can even guide
> > the thing (to some extent) by changing the angle of
> > the bristles.
> > --
> > James G Watt
> >
> > http://www.kinetic-arts.demon.co.uk
> > Part of the Video Arcade Game Collectors WebRing.
> >
> > You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all
> > alike.
> >
>
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