The Robot Thread

Phishfry

Phishfry

I have been wanting to build a robot. I started with aspirations of an autonomous Radio Controlled boat back many moons ago.
Well ArduPilot has a module called ROVER.
Made for autopiloting Boats and Rolling Vehicles. It should fit the bill.
I considered a little Treaded Vehicle like the DFRobot tank. They only cost $85
Maybe I finish my little R/C boat project with a flight controller for ArduPilot.

Instead I drove today 200 mile each way for a beginning of something robotic. Only $25 Dollars from a scrapper but maybe $60 in fuel.
It has two motors from a super heavy duty medical bed. 1000LB capacity. I got just these parts below. I plan on scrapping the controller once I figure out wiring.
I might just make a three wheel ROVER. Two powered wheels and one trailing. This used two 12V-20Ah SLA Battery. It is 27" wide wheel to wheel.

I tried to negotiate with this guy for the base section but he was a dillhole.
www.craigslist.org

Robot Track Driven 24 Volt DC - general for sale - by owner - craigslist

Robot Project Track Driven 24 Volt DC About 375 Pound 48" x 30" 24 DC Track Driven Robot Needs To Be Updated with Wireless Controls, Interface and Color Camera One of First or Proto Bomb Disposal...
www.craigslist.org www.craigslist.org
 

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The link for the "Robot" from the 1990's got deleted.
The guy literally raised his price $200
www.craigslist.org

Robot 24 Volt DC Track Driven - general for sale - by owner - craigslist

Robot Project Track Driven 24 Volt DC About 375 Pound 48" x 30" 24 DC Track Driven Robot Needs To Be Updated with Wireless Controls, Interface and Color Camera Wish I Knew How to Update If You Can...
www.craigslist.org www.craigslist.org
He would not budge when negotiating. Was really caustic.
To me the Treads have dryrot and there is no suspension. All hard mounted wheels. Electronics are junk.
The Tread Drive Sprocket looks cheezy. I like the chain drive setup from motors.. The label on motor says 65 Inch-Pounds. Not hugely powerful.

It would save me time to buy the base but but has to make sense. Maybe $400-500

A 6X6 would be sweet but you kinda move beyond a hobby when you spend that much.
www.craigslist.org

6x6 Argo 2. - atvs, utvs, snowmobiles - by owner - vehicle automotive sale - craigslist

18 hp Duramax 4 stroke. New front chain tensioners, New battery. New key switch and wiring. New gas tank. All lights work. Runs well.
www.craigslist.org www.craigslist.org
 
When you move beyond R/C Servos and get real power it gets interesting: Robot Lawnmowers


The Worx "Landroid Vision Cloud". That is a mouthful.

Robotic Lawn Mowers | WORX

Keeping your lawn neat and tidy has never been easier with a Worx Landroid robot lawn mower. Advanced technology saves time, money, and the planet.
www.worx.com www.worx.com

Husqy
www.husqvarna.com

Robot Lawn Mowers

Embrace the future of lawn care with Husqvarna's robotic lawn mowers. Experience hands-free, automated mowing for a pristine lawn.
www.husqvarna.com www.husqvarna.com
 
When somebody throws me an unrealistic value on something the first thing I do is figure out what I would cost me to build a new one from scratch.

Treads and Aluminum Plate would be my largest costs for a tracked Rover. I have some motors to test.

Bobcat® MT50 Tracks: $325.00 - Free Shipping

Bobcat® MT50 Tracks. Enjoy Free shipping and up-front pricing when you buy Bobcat® MT50 replacement rubber tracks.
blackdogtracks.com
$650 in just treads. I can get China ones for half but shipping$.

Aluminum plate is quite expensive. 6mm/ 1/4" 6061 plate would run me $1000 from OnlineMetals. We have 1/2" at work but that seems too thick.
This would be for the Track Tread frames. 4 Cheek plates - 2 per side. Then some angle and plate for frame in middle and battery box.

I found myself trying to design a cheap tank shock absorber system.
That is one thing I have never had to design in my life. Tracked tread rollers and swing arms and shocks. Idler Tensioner sprocket maybe.

I like the high final drives. Keep the motor up high.
info.texasfinaldrive.com

Caterpillar Equipment: High Drives and Final Drives

Advantages/disadvantages of CAT equipment high drive design and how it led to the development of hydraulic motors with an integrated gear reduction system
info.texasfinaldrive.com info.texasfinaldrive.com
 
Yes and I have found another similar board H723 with an Ardu-Pilot firmware. An experienced user can make their own board profile.
In my head I imagine ArduPilot controller firmware must be a "u-boot" like bootstrap loader. Describes hardware like a BIOS.
From what I can understand ArduPilot Controller OS is ChibiOS which is flashed separately to the flash rom with its mission payload or program.

The H723 variant has plus and minus against H743 the common flight controller MCU/CPU
Minus: One 1MB Flash onboard
Plus: Lower Power with slower freq
 
FYI: st32cubeide will use up about 2GB of disk space + require a few GB more. I had it once installed on my mac while helping a friend. I deleted it soon after! I still have a Nucleo-144 board w/ STM32H743ZI (this one can do double precision floating point arithmetic). Free to anyone local to Bay area.

Have you looked at https://gobot.io/ & https://tinygo.org ? You can even run code on some simulated devices on tinygo.org/play !

A few years ago I wanted is to create a P9 protocol interface for such boards. The idea was to provide access to most of the resources of a board via filesystem like interface. + a /help subtree to provide details on what was provided and how to access. There was some interest in the plan9 community but it never went anywhere & I got sidetracked! Still worth pursuing IMHO as 9p provides a nice "glue layer" and you can have different pieces written in different languages -- even /bin/sh!
 
I have been shopping tracked vehicle kits..

The ELEGOO Conqueror Robot Tank looks nice but I got to Step 18 here and the motors are junky. No encoders. Only two wire.
Cheap kit so you can only expect so much.
To make this robotic I would strip out the UNO and install a flight controller with ECS. Bigger battery.Antenna Bar. Maybe ARM64 onboard for some tasks.

Another Robot Tracked vehicle I am shopping:
TS300 Robot Tank Chassis.
Together with cheapest controller:

Amazon.com: SoloGood F405 Wing Flight Control for Fixed-Wing Model UAV Supports Hanging Ardupilot : Electronics

Buy SoloGood F405 Wing Flight Control for Fixed-Wing Model UAV Supports Hanging Ardupilot: Aircraft Accessories - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
www.amazon.com

Might be the cheapest ROBOT VEHICLE possible. Lots of soldering required.
 
I see a local listing for a GLIDER with 6FT wingspan and it caught my eye. Has a folding prop too for gliding.
Foam outer construction like NERF ball.
www.craigslist.org

Motorized Glider, Radio Control E-flite Night Radian 2M wingspan - toys & games - by owner - sale - craigslist

This is a Radio-Controlled motorized glider model with a 2 Meter (78in) wingspan and a folding prop. It's a Plug-N-Play R/C (PNP) model. You must provide the Controller, Receiver and battery in...
www.craigslist.org www.craigslist.org

Horizon Hobby E-flite Night Radian FT - RCGroups Review - RC Groups

Review Horizon Hobby E-flite Night Radian FT - RCGroups Review Electric Sailplanes
www.rcgroups.com www.rcgroups.com

I see a foam plane on Amazon..

Good for short landing areas. Controlled Crash it every time...
 
I have found another controller OpenCR
www.robotis.us

OpenCR1.0

ROBOTIS is a global robot solutions provider and one of the leading manufacturers of robotic hardware. ROBOTIS is the exclusive producer of the DYNAMIXEL brand of all-in-one smart servos. We specialize in the manufacture of robotic hardware and full robot platforms for use in professional...
www.robotis.us www.robotis.us

the DM-MC02 STM32H723 board seems to be rather obscure. Here they call it a Robotic Arm controller.
electropeak.com

DM-MC02 STM32H723 Robotic Arm Control Board With Onboard IMU Sensor

Looking to buy DM-MC02 STM32H723 Robotic Arm Control Board With Onboard IMU Sensor? Buy all kinds of Stm Boards at the best price online from ElecroPeak
electropeak.com electropeak.com
Perdue RoboClub RTOS work for it:
github.com

GitHub - PurdueRM/dm-mc02-board-base

Contribute to PurdueRM/dm-mc02-board-base development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
 
Just a warning - building and flying UAVs where you like might get you into all kinds of trouble. Please check beforehand, otherwise make sure you look good in orange...
 
I ended up buying the cheap controller on Amazon along with the TS300 Tank kit.
I am unsure if I needed an ESC too but I have one from my RC boat project. I think the Wing Controller has an ESC along with BEC.

Amazon.com: SoloGood F405 Wing Flight Control for Fixed-Wing Model UAV Supports Hanging Ardupilot : Electronics

Buy SoloGood F405 Wing Flight Control for Fixed-Wing Model UAV Supports Hanging Ardupilot: Aircraft Accessories - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
www.amazon.com
There is no actual ArduPilot firmware for this "SoloGood" but it is a Matek Wing clone so that firmware works.
I figure I burn up a cheap one no big deal. Soldering on a new $90 controller makes me antsy.
 
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