now the whole issue with the computer. i bought a 2.5 10gb hd on ebay and the robot will be running Windows XP Pro with Vmware Ubuntu 7.4. now you ask why am i going with Linux from Vmware? well this is the neat part of the robot. because im not real good with Linux so I'd rather use windows as a base. linux will be running a program called GPSD it gets a NEMA feed from a serial/usb GPS unit and then puts it up on a PHP page. the PHP page will have Google hybrid maps on it and will dis play a live GPS view with webcam of where the robot is. (got this all up after i read about a stompbox, which can be found here http://stompboxnetworks.com). when i got to the point i already bought a t-mobile wireless GPRS card and PCMIA to PCI card and will activate it when i get GPSD running. so now the robot will have its own internet feed i can control it from anywhere i want im not limited to WIFI AD-HOC range. my next problem which is really pissing me off is the wheels, i can either get narrow wheels made for wheelchairs or i can get a hub with a wheel made for anything. im leaning towards wheels for wheelchairs. wheel configuration is gong to be 14" back and 4" casters in front
i went off the original wire diagram from Roboteq's wifi bot that have on their site and changed everything on it and heres what i got so far ok so there is 2 55ah 12v batteries (bat 2) and those are in parallel to get 24v that go to the controller. then there is a 12v bat that goes to the computer power supply. the positive on wire going from the battery to the atx has a relay, so when i turn the main system switch on it turns the relay on allowing the atx to turn on and allowing the motor controller to turn on. before the 3 batteries are hooked to any part of the wiring system there is a DPDP switch in parallel, when its flipped one way the robot gets power, when its the other way the single 12v line goes to the DPTT switch (this is for all th3 batteries) so then when one of them is on charge mode on the DPTT switch i pick which battery i want to charge. i had to do it this way because i can't afford a 24v SLA charger. there is still work to be done on the wiring layout but i think the basic idea is there. (click on images for higher res)
i wanted to mount the hard drive nice and snug n'safe. so i got to thinking where the best stop for it will be, and i decided on mounting it under the motherboard on the mother board tray, this will work of course because the motherboard is on stand offs. before i went down to Michaels (Arts & Crafts) and bought 3 sheets of crafting foam things, and heres how it looks after the the first sheet then i started stacking it up, and cutting through layers for the hard drive and IDE cable with the hardware fitted, i just got to glue it all on the motherboard try and patch some of it up, other then that i came out perfectly how i wanted it i did more bondoing but still got more to do
hey everyone, i started my classes so my apologies on the updates, but no worries, im still working on the rover. im doing little things day by day, so im getting there. i ran in to trouble with my tires i first had from the wheelchair, after about 3 days worth of runs with the robot (trust me i pushed this beast hard *don't be perverted*) i ended up stripping the bore hole in the tire rim (plastic sucks big time) and that was that for the tire in the back. also the treads were all gone, i will fined some time to take pics of the old tires. i had a friends number who has a bunch of mobility scooters, and i went over to him last week to find my gold. he had a big stash of tires, not any kind either, real nice jelly filled 13x3" hub mouthed tires, with shiny metal hub face plate lol. the tires were perfect for me, its as if i went to some company and asked them to make me 2 tires for my robot. i got them for 8 bucks a piece and 4 bucks for a 35 AH 12v battery i mounted and wired for the computer and controller backup. when i went out to test the robot with its new shoes i got screwed. i finished working with the back tires now the front messed up on me. the weld on the frame i mounted on the front of the robots cab broke on the left side so i have to get it rewelded. note: this wasn't the robots frame welds, it was part of the wheelchairs frame i cut and mounted to my robot. im real bummed about the front braking, but i might be able to fix it by tomorrow afternoon so i don't have to wait till next week to use the robot. i also bought a 12v battery charger/conditioner it should be here tomorrow (w00t) again i will find time to take pics of the new and old wheels
well i was bored after i wrote the above post so here some pictures and pictures these first few are from last week with the old wheels as you see in these pictures the body is all bondo, but i used the bondo to make a shell type thing for the robots frame, i still need to go over it all with one more coat to make it all smooth this is the old wheels bore hole that got stripped and here is how its suppose to look heres my shinny new rims well their not shinny i never cleaned them so they are real dirty, but no worries ima clean the with some grease lightning lol left new right old (notice the size differ) left old right new (again notice width differ) ok now heres the battery for the controller and the computer i got for 4 bucks with the 8 dollar wheels, the battery has a strong 12v, and i should good be good with its 35ah capacity. this is the weld i was talking about that broke. in the picture is back to where it should be, but it got bent out of place. so i just need to reweld it and probably upload a video later this weekend i still can't get over my wheels (they are valued about 110-120 dollars each i think) also what a differ it makes visual and performance wise, btw they about 10 pounds each.
Nice... "Pimp My Robot" I had a go-cart long ago, and the all-terrain tires would wear out within hours. I ended up with the heavy tread slicks, and never had to replace a tire again. I guess wheelchairs where never meant to burn rubber.
ya its pretty insane, the tires i have now can be taken apart and i can resandwich a rubber for about 45 bucks, one like this http://www.1800wheelchair.com/asp/view-product.asp?product_id=2079 on Friday my charger finally came. i ended up buying the VDC BatteryMinder 12-volt Battery Charger/Conditioner/Maintainer. found on this page http://www.batteries.com/productprofile.asp?appid=298440 its quite nice, after it chargers the batteries (can charge in series) it will go into maintenances mode where it desulphates the battery. they say when your not using the battery keep it on the charger in maintenances mode, and if you have a weak/old battery it can revise it within 2 week to 2 months. so i wired the computer to its battery and the relay between the 2 batteries to turn the computer battery on when the motor batteries are plugged in. and i didn't get a chance to get the front welded yet but i will for sure tomorrow. till then
improvements improvements; i went and got the front frame re welded and its looking much better. as you can see in the picture i had a backplate welded to the back face of the front mount i ran out of wire to finish wiring the switches so i need to get more before i do anything else, i also now have a belt sander so i think im going to do the bodies final smooth coat of bondo this weekend. -cheers, seesoe!
sorry guys i just noticed that the high quality version of the pictures aren't working, im not sure what happened to my server, they worked yesterday. no worries i will figure out whats up.
ya sorry about the updates, im busy with school, but i do work on things slowly. yesterday i got my order that i placed with wifi-link. i bought a 8dbi omni-directional antenna for my access point, to give wifi to my whole yard, and when i take the bot out somewhere else i have a usb wifi adapter that came with it, that i just plug in my laptop and hook the pigtail to it and just ad-hoc a connection to the robot. also im waiting on (next week i hope) a magnetic 9dbi dipole antenna that im going to use with my robots on board wifi card. with that combo i can get some mad LOS rang i took the robot out for a spin a few days ago and i realized that the front 2 wheels aren't that good im loosing power form them, i just have 2 casters with non bearing wheels, don't get me wrong casters PERFECT, but i need bearing wheels, so im looking into new wheels for the casters. i need to start working on the the software side of the robot. i have an AutoIT script that can automate any mouse function that i record and have that played back on system boot. this way i can have an automated startup operation. for example i need it to open the robots server program, also open vmware and turn on ubuntu, and load the gps google maps program. also all props go to theguy0000, as he wrote the AutoIT script for me called MoveIt.
sorry forgot the link, if anyone wants to see it. USB adapter + OMNI 8dBi+Assembly this antenna is really nice i love it my other antenna that i bought that goes on the robot is from ebey, one like this
i started work on semi-teq again for the winter break. i made a list and decided that all moving parts for the computer need to be gutted. so i have bought the following to help aid in keeping a stable system for the computer (note, that these images are low quality, i needed to put the parts together and i didn't want to take it apart again. i lost the charger for my good digital camera, so i used what i can find in the house (some old 2mpx cam, i do apologize and i will certainly get higher quality pictures with in a week or 2, the charger is in the mail from ebay) ok so first off i had a problem with rough bumps and the robots sudden jult and take off and stops. so i changed out the vga card with a flexible riser, and i got rid of the 2.5 lappy hd and im using a 8gb CF card with a cf to ide adapter. i will also be using a wifi usb adapter with external antenna hookup for the 9db dipole i bought. i moved the motherboard all over about an inch to the right because the I/O panel was hard to get to (stand offs are this time J/B welded to the hardware try unlike before when i screwed them in from under) heres the new padding i fitted to make a clean install (cf - ide adapter was going to go under the motherboard like the 2.5 hd did before) heres the adapter, i have more to say about the 8gb card i got later on this adapter took a while to find and locate a site selling them still, but this is a AGP Flexible Riser Card for U1 cases i had problems with just putting the agp and pci card planing sitting vertically as the computer kept freezing. so the new system works really well. heres the vga with the metal thingy that lets it hook to the case off. i had made some braces to support the newly put horizontal vga card, the braces go over the motherboard mounting holes and then the screw screw both the motherboard and the brace into the stand off. heres the whole thing put together (showing the braces) and heres the top view of the computer setup that im pleased with and will work very well for the past week i have been working on the gps tracking system. im going to have a dock where i can put my pda phone in and the robot will have its own internet, and i can control the robot and track it with google hybrid maps when i dont use the phone it will just have an ad-hoc connection to a laptop. the computer will now run off of a 8gb CF card that will have windows xp and vmwared Ubuntu 7.10. the reason im having linux in the system is for the gps. im using a bluetooth slim236 gps receiver with GPSD program for linux that makes the robot run its own gps server. im also working on a Google Map API for the tracking of the robot thats hosted via the robot. im still debating weather i should have linux on xp or xp on linux (the motor controller only has a windows program/server). im going to mess around and see if i can run the robots driver program in WINE and just have the whole system Ubuntu. im not good in linux and theres other networking apps that i know how to use and need in xp, so i might not go with a full linux core. i also bounced around the idea of the paintabll turret. im planning to get an electric grip marker so i can mod it to a relay board which is programed in basic dos. im still pondering weather it should be an electric airsoft gun or an electric paintball gun.
Paintball! It will do more harm if this thing decides to go on a rampage! (Not that I don't have faith in your system... It's just robots SHOULD get to rampage at least once in their lives.)
haha i totally agree 100% tomorrow theres an auction flee market type thing at our local fair grounds, im going to see if theres any good electric airsoft guns, but i just see it kinda dinky to have airsoft, but the cons are i can have a huge hopper, possibly do something like the usb one over at invent geek http://www.inventgeek.com/Projects/Airsoft_Turret_v2/Overview.aspx heres a discussion about the paintball gun http://www.paintballforum.com/paintball-chat/158715-electonic-gun-wifi-bot-paint-ball-turret.html
what do you guys think about passive and active heat sinks? these are U1 heat sinks for U1 server CPU's (1 units tall) active passive
The passive one will still need a fan. This would usually be provided in the server chasis (by 2 or 3 40mmx25mm fans). If you wanted to use the passive one, you'd have to figure out some way to get a fan to push some air through it, maybe a blower fan. Nice lookin project by the way
i also just remembered how dell sets up their pc's by slapping a huge passive hs and using a tunnel thing to a fan mounted on the back of the pc, so ya i guess i would still need a fan. hmmm I see now, i think im going to go with what im running now then, its not that bad.
