Yano the Storyteller taking to the limit.

Issues with arm limit switch and Yano resenting the limit switch arm into the correct position. Which is the bottom limit switch is closed.

I have been manually running the neck and arm gearbox motor to get it into the correct reset position.

A - Positive voltage drives the neck loop.
B - Positive voltage drives the arm loop.

Yano is now modded for sniffing the circuit using the Bitscope logic analyzer & voltage graph.

EZ Robot new plug in development. Heads up display. EZ HUD

C# GDI+ info-graphics overlay over the EZ Builder video stream. Currently working on building better abstraction implementing a common interface for each item of the info-graphics controls. Still need to wire it up to EZ Script control commands.

Yano The Storyteller Main Circuit Board PCB

The components:

The traces:

The svg reverse engineering file for download

The next frontier in robotic probing, hacking and modding

What has an IR control, a 6 pin cartridge port and advanced animatronics? Goes for really cheap on eBay? I've got two on the way and my screwdrivers are pleading for some sweet dis-assembly. The bit-scope is ready to go.

Welcome to 1990's techonology

Yano, the stoner storyteller!

Final results from Robie Jr Mod

Goals met

• Patch in Arduino to control H-Bridges
• Interpret remote control commands
• Use on-board audio amplifier
• Patch into switches to detect switch activity

Goals not met

• Understand ultrasonic protocol
• Toggle audio amplification circuit on and off
• Patch into circuit with out altering circuit board

Interpreting the switches

I used the analog inputs to detect voltage from the switches. Voltage is high on open switch and brought low when the switch contact is made. I suppose with appropriate resistors you could use the digital pins on your micro controller.

Patching into Movement

Very easy to mod. Just sever traces at the specified location and solder the eight wires onto the board and control with digital pins and read with analog pins

Final thoughts

CAUTION: USE A 5V REGULATOR when hooking up to an Arduino. The robot has excellent interior space for additional components. Sensors are interesting but limited; robot can detect users location via the ultrasonic remote. It would be easy to scab in additional sensors into the robot and possibly use a servo on the head part of the robot. Wheels could accommodate encoders. Great platform for getting started with robotics and a micro controller.

EZ Robot Plug In

I took a break from my circuit patching, and decided to write a winforms C# bar chart plugin using the newly developed EZ Robot plug in framework...which is AWESOME! The framework that is, not my plug in. Head on over to: The plug in!

Inline Arduino Nano

The traces have been cut. Wires soldered to IC pins. The Arduino now sits between the remote control and Robie Jr's movement functionality. M6411B - 24 has yielded some of its black box logic.

Below is a simple schematic indicating where to break the traces. The red dashed line is the break point.

This is what the break in the traces looks like. I used an Exacto knife.

Finally I'm starting to get some traction.

Here is the pin logic for M6411B

Don't forget to run the circuit at 5v when using the Arduino Nano. Use a voltage regulator.

Robie Jr ultrasonic signals

Using the Bitscope on the Robie Jr Ultrasonic control shows these wave forms. Measurements were taken from CN1 at pins 4 and 5 on the OKI M6411b-24 IC.

Signal time ~25 ms

Time between signals ~98 ms

Not sure why the signal is so fuzzy? Is it the 30 year old electrolytic caps? Is the signal similar to an IR signal? When using the logic analyzer I seem to get different packets every time. Will continue pondering...

Robie Jr deeper inspection

Okay, so oscilloscopes are expensive. So I purchased this very intriguing piece of hardware. The Bitscope. Oh yeah, its cool. Can you do microbiology with out a microscope? Nope. So an oscilloscope and a logic analyzer are a must for in-depth tinkering. I've laid out the schematic in Inkscape and begun the slow deconstruction and probing.

7-E055-R1. M6411B-24.

Here's what I have been able to learn currently.
LB1630 are cheap and common to the 1980's motor controllers.

Pin 1		Backward
Pin 2		Ground
Pin 3		Unused
Pin 4		Forward
Pin 5		Motor 1
Pin 6		Unused
Pin 7		Power
Pin 8		Motor 2

You can run the Robbie Jr on 5V 800 milliamps. Yes, you can only power the h bridges if you only want to bot to move and nothing else...but what kind of challenge is that?

M6111B-24 is still quite a mystery to me.

8622EY is the audio chip.
Pin 1 is power
Pin 13 is ground
Pin 15 is the sound output.

Robie Jr circuit bending

In order to move beyond my plug and play Arduino component syndrome I've decided to try and hack a robot with out removing it's exiting behaviors / circuit board. I've been analyzing the simple circuit of the Robie Jr to see if it is possible to initiate behaviors manually. Here is the initial setup where I am trying to do some circuit bending to see if I can toggle the behaviors by shorting parts of the circuit. So far so good...

New parts to print

See my thingiverse account for various replacement parts you can 3D print. The part worth mentioning is a riser to make your Omnibot 2000 taller.

Where to motor

Reprint face as single piece
Print and share riser piece
Reprint smooth tires
Reprint neck adapter

Install SRF04
Reprint center piece. Design led badge.
Animatronic breast plate. Add laser light lidar unit.

Sit and observe behavior.
Casual turn and observe.
Implement simple automous algorithm.
Omni is a simple set of beeps and robotic noises. Server is an robotic voice that announces behavior and sensor data.

Drive to front door algorithm.
Announce weather. Read emails.
Say something from Android app.

Pieces and parts

Parts list
EZ Robot v4
EZ Robot 640x480 color camera
Arduino Mega
5v line laser
1 Servo
2 DC to DC 5v 2 Amp converters
1 SRF04 Ultrasonic
2 Adafruit neo pixel LED rings
2 5mm diffuse neo pixels
8x16 IDC Ribbon cable
3 Large PIR sensor
CDS photo resister
Mic and Analog sound input
2 HALL sensors
16 Neo magnets

New Media

I'm currently in the process of documenting some aspects and making some graphics for Omni 2K20. Currently, the bot is back on the work bench awaiting new 3D printed parts. Hopefly the reprint of the tires will come soon. During the next build cycle I will be focusing on reducing vibration.

Will be posting new videos soon...

Get inside my head

Welcome to the mezzanine level.
Latest lighting control via Serial.

Wowee wolf mod

Warning light weight side diversion. One night half asleep I decided to shop on eBay and purchased a Wowee wolf that was sold as broken; so, I bought it for to much money. The next day during the day I remember and cursed myself. It arrived today and I promptly skinned it.

Naked Wolf

So the seller speculated it was the switch that was the reason it was broken. As usual the battery box had acquired as case of AA herpes.

No AA wants to kiss that spring

Bypass the battery box.

The switch was not defective. Unfortunately I broke it trying to separate it from the plastic.

The power and switch are now wired to a 4 pin female IDC connector. Power it up with 4.5 volts from a DC wall adapter.

Amazing what you can do with two switches, cams, linkages and a single DC motor. Wowee genuis for sure.

MCUs Unite!

Both the EZ-B v4 and the Arduino Mega are excellent platforms for developing robots. Why not use both in the same project. A simple way to utilize both systems is the serial protocol. Check this link: http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=6577

http://www.ez-robot.com/User/luis-vazquez/Profile/ Luis Vazques is da man! Thanks dude.

Building bridges is what it is all about. More to come for sure.

Best Friends Forever

Robotic Rat Nest Madnes

This is the rats nest. It can piss me off in less then a minute and is fraught with blue spoke genies. I have removed some of the spiral wrap which did bring some organization the the mess . I will be adding more sensors in the next few weeks and that means more wires. I have been planning on moving to ribbon cables for the signal wires to lift my foot off the gas pedal of robotic rat nest madness.

Omnibot 2000 Wheel Encoders

Used for approximating distance traveled and angle turned. I am currently writing EZ-Builder movement scripts. Hall sensors were purchased from Shenzhen, ur um, eBay for about 2 USD. 3mm Neodymium magnets from eBay as well for a few dollars. Inne ring was printed on a Printrbot Jr v2.

Unfortunately they light up amber when powered.

Magnetic Wheel Encoder. 8 Steps at 45 degree increments.

Moving the Gearbox Forward

Initially work was mostly sporadic and consisted entirely of hardware design and development. Initial design was a very iterative process requiring a lot of rework as I discovered a better design. At times I found this frustrating yet often would calm myself reminding me that I had never undertaken such a complex engineering project.
Now that the bot is inside the Omnibot 2000 shell, goals have to be approached in a more efficient and concise manner. Order of general development is as follows. Weekend work is for new new developments. Such as fixing existing hardware issue and implementing new hardware modifications. During the week days, when time is more constrained, development is mostly software based. Development and grooming within EZ-Builder that consists of analyzing existing issues and writing new code.

A new EZ-Builder script development journal is being created at 55gears.com