ZeroBot - Raspberry Pi Zero FPV Robot

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Description

ZeroBot is a Raspberry Pi Zero W based robot. It can be controlled using any computer or smartphone via a web browser. The integrated camera module makes for a low latency video stream. In addition the Raspberry Pi acts as a Wifi access point, so no router is required. The parts for the hull as well as the wheels can easily be printed on any regular 3D printer.

Some of the key features are:
- Compact CAD design with 3D printed components
- Analog control via a joystick (and multitouch)
- Simple battery solution using only a standard power bank
- Low latency streaming (~0.2s)
- Easy and cheap to build using widely available components

STL files on thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2352440

Project Logs

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How to Get Started (Fall 2018)
Max.K • 11/16/2018 at 22:01 • 5 comments
For the Zerobot robot there are different instructions and files spread over Hackaday, Github and Thingiverse which may lead to some confusion. This project log is meant as a short guide on how to get started with building the robot.

Where do I start?
1. Grab the STL-files from here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2800717 and print them out following the instructions on Thingiverse
2. Get the remaining parts:
```
- Raspberry Pi Zero W
- 2x ICR18650 lithium cell 2600mAh
- Raspberry camera module
- Zero camera adapter cable
- Mini DC dual motor controller
- DC gear motors
- ADS1115 ADC board
- TP4056 USB charger
- MT3608 boost converter
- Raspberry CPU heatsink
- Micro SD card (8GB or more)
- 2x LED
- BC337 transistor (or any other NPN) 
- 11.5 x 6mm switch
- 4x M3x10 screws and nuts
```
3. Wire up the electronics according to this schematic: In case you are not familiar with this: The schematic is optimized for readability. You don't have to use this exact wiring (e.g. connection LEDs to ADS1115) as long as the electrical connections stay the same. For the wire gauges, use around 22 AWG wire for the signal connections and slightly thicker wire for the batteries and motors.
4. The software comes preinstalled on an SD card image. Download it from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/163jyooQXnsuQmMcEBInR_YCLP5lNt7ZE/view?usp=sharing, extract the files using 7-Zip and flash it to your 8GB micro SD card. Do not boot the Pi before entering your WiFi router name and password in the wpa_supplicant.conf file on the SD.
5. After the SD card is inserted you can assemble the robot as seem on the pictures on the Hackaday project page. Make sure that all wires are properly isolated. Lithium batteries are very dangerous. If there is a short circuit between the batteries, they can catch fire.
6. Turn the robot on and wait for the Pi to connect to your WiFi. After that you can connect to it by accessing its IP followed by the port :3000 like this: 192.168.2.11:3000. If you don't know your Raspberry Pi's IP use a WiFi scanner like "Fing" on your smartphone to scan for devices.
7. After that you are done! Have fun with your Zerobot! Below are some common questions/problems.
The robot spins/ doesn't drive right
The motors might be reversed. You can simply swap the two wires to fix this.
I can't connect to the Zerobot in my browser
The Raspberry Pi itself with the SD card image running on it is able to display the user interface in your browser. There is no additional hardware needed, so this can't be a hardware problem. Check if you are using the right IP and port and if you inserted the correct WiFi settings in the wpa_supplicant.conf file.
I see the user interface but no camera stream
Check if your camera is connected properly. Does it work on a regular Raspbian install?

Zerobot and Zerobot Pro - What's the difference?

The "pro" version is the second revision of the robot I built in 2017, which includes various hardware and software changes. Regardless of the hardware the "pro" software and SD-images are downwards compatible. I'd recommend building the latest version. New features like the voltage sensor and LEDs are of course optional.
Can I install the software myself?
If you don't want to use the provided SD image you can of course follow this guide to install the required software: https://hackaday.io/project/25092/instructions You should only do this if you are experienced with the Raspberry Pi. The most recent code is available on Github: https://github.com/CoretechR/ZeroBot
The new Zerobot Pro
Max.K • 02/20/2018 at 22:02 • 28 comments
All new features: More battery power, a charging port, battery voltage sensing, headlights, camera mode, safe shutdown, new UI

The new software should work on all existing robots.

When I designed the ZeroBot last year, I wanted to have something that "just works". So after implementing the most basic features I put the parts on Thingiverse and wrote instructions here on Hackaday. Since then the robot has become quite popular on Thingiverse with 2800+ downloads and a few people already printed their own versions of it. Because I felt like there were some important features missing, I finally made a new version of the robot.

The ZeroBot Pro has some useful, additional features:
- Instead of a single battery with a power-bank circuit, the ZeroBot Pro is now powered by two 2600mAh batteries in parallel. Thanks to a cheap TP4056 Micro-USB charger the case does not have to be opened to recharge the batteries. 5V for the Pi and 6V (optional) for the motors are regulated by MT3608 boost converters.
- Thanks to a ADS1115 ADC the Raspberry can measure the battery voltage and display it on the user interface
- The entire user interface has been optimized for various screen sizes. There are now buttons for different functions:
  - A photo button for taking pictures in full resolution. This is not as easy as it appears. The stream has to be stopped to start the raspistill application and then restarts.
  - A toggle button to turn the LED headlights on and off. The LEDs are connected via a transistor to an IO pin. (I adopted this idea from franciscorps version of the ZeroBot: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2445551)
  - Finally there is a shutdown button that turns the Pi off safely after displaying a confirmation prompt. This should prevent the file system from corrupting
- The 3D printed parts have been optimized as well to reduce warping and to fit the front panel more easily.
If you are interested in building the robot, you can head over here for the instructions: https://hackaday.io/project/25092/instructions

The 3D files are hosted on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2800717
Download the SD card image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/163jyooQXnsuQmMcEBInR_YCLP5lNt7ZE/view?usp=sharing
After flashing the image to a 8GB SD card, open the file "wpa_supplicant.conf" with your PC and enter your WiFi settings.
Easy Setup using SD Image
Max.K • 06/24/2017 at 13:07 • 17 comments
After a few people ran into problems with the tutorial, I decided to create a less complicated solution. You can now download an SD card image for the robot, so there is no need for complicated installs and command line tinkering. The only thing left is getting the Pi into your network:
1. Download the image file from here and unzip it to your PC: https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&confirm=EUSf&id=0B4WbDsFout-NN1M1dzU0elR3NXc
2. Flash the image to an 8GB or bigger micro SD card with the software of your choice (e.g. Etcher). Don't plug the SD into the Raspberry yet!
3. In the boot partition of the SD, open the file wpa_supplicant.conf (e.g. using notepad). Change wifi ssid and password to your wifi name and password. The file will be automatically moved to its spot of the Pi's file system on boot. If you make a mistake, you just need to create the file again.
4. After the Pi has booted up, find out its IP address using your routers interface or through an app like Fing. Connect to this address (e.g. 192.168.2.3) with any browser on your computer
If you don't want the robot to be restricted to your home network, you can easily configure it to work as a wireless access point. This is described in the tutorial.

EDIT 29.7. Even easier setup - the stream ip is selected automatically now
Introduction
Max.K • 05/29/2017 at 20:53 • 1 comment

The goal for this project was to build a small robot which could be controlled wirelessly with video feed being sent back to the user. Most of my previous projects involved Arduinos but while they are quite capable and easy to program, there are a lot of limitations with simple microcontrollers when it comes to processing power. Especially when a camera is involved, there is now way around a Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi Zero W is the ideal hardware for a project like this: It is cheap, small, has built in Wifi and enough processing power and I/O ports.
Because I had barely ever worked with a Raspberry, I first had to find out how to program it and what software/language to use. Fortunately the Raspberry can be set up to work without ever needing to plug in a keyboard or Monitor and instead using a VNC connection to a remote computer. For this, the files on the boot partition of the SD card need to be modified to allow SSH access and to connect to a Wifi network without further configuration.
The next step was to get a local website running. This was surprisingly easy using Apache, which creates and hosts a sample page after installing it.
To control the robot, data would have to be sent back from the user to the Raspberry. After some failed attempts with Python I decided to use Node.js, which features a socket.io library. With the library it is rather easy to create a web socket, where data can be sent to and from the Pi. In this case it would be two values for speed and direction going to the Raspberry and some basic telemetry being sent back to the user to monitor e.g. the CPU temperature.
For the user interface I wanted to have a screen with just the camera image in the center and an analog control stick at the side of it. While searching the web I found this great javascript example by Seb Lee-Delisle: http://seb.ly/2011/04/multi-touch-game-controller-in-javascripthtml5-for-ipad/ which even works for multitouch devices. I modified it to work with a mouse as well and integrated the socket communication.
I first thought about using an Arduino for communicating with the motor controller, but this would have ruined the simplicity of the project. In fact, there is a nice Node.js library for accessing the I/O pins: https://www.npmjs.com/package/pigpio. I soldered four pins to the PWM motor controller by using the library, the motors would already turn from the javascript input.
After I finally got a camera adapter cable for the Pi Zero W, I started working on the stream. I used this tutorial to get the mjpg streamer running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix0ishA585o. The latency is surprisingly low at just 0.2-0.3s with a resolution of 640x480 pixels. The stream was then included in the existing HTML page.
With most of the software work done, I decided to make a quick prototype using an Asuro robot. This is a ancient robot kit from a time before the Arduino existed. I hooked up the motors to the controller and secured the rest of the parts with painters tape on the robot's chassis:
After the successful prototype I arranged the components in Fusion 360 to find a nice shape for the design. From my previous project (http://coretechrobotics.blogspot.com/2015/12/attiny-canbot.html) I knew that I would use a half-shell design again and make 3D printed parts.
The parts were printed in regular PLA on my Prusa i3 Hephestos. The wheels are designed to have tires made with flexible filament (in my case Ninjaflex) for better grip. For printing the shells, support materia is necessary. Simplify3D worked well with this and made the supports easy to remove.
After printing the parts and doing some minor reworking, I assembled the robot. Most components are glued inside the housing. This may no be professional approach, but I wanted to avoid screws and tight tolerances. Only the two shells are connected with four hex socket screws. The corresponding nuts are glued in on the opposing shell. This makes it easily to access the internals of the robot.
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Build Instructions

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Installing The Latest Raspbian Image

DISCLAIMER: This is not a comprehensive step-by-step tutorial. Some previous experience with electronics / Raspberry Pi is required. I am not responsible for any damage done to your hardware.

I am also providing an easier alternative to this setup process using a SD card image: https://hackaday.io/project/25092/log/62102-easy-setup-using-sd-image

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/

This tutorial is based on Raspbian Jessie 4/2017

Personally I used the Win32DiskImage for Windows to write the image to the SD card. You can also use this program for backing up the SD to a .img file.

IMPORTANT: Do not boot the Raspberry Pi yet!

Headless Setup

Access the Raspberry via your Wifi network with VNC:

Put an empty file named "SSH" in the boot partiton on the SD.

Create a new file "wpa_supplicant.conf" with the following content and move it to the boot partition as well:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
    ssid="wifi name"
    psk="wifi password"
}

Only during the first boot this file is automatically moved to its place in the Raspberry's file system.

After booting, you have to find the Raspberry's IP address using the routers menu or a wifi scanner app.

Use Putty or a similar program to connect to this address with your PC.

After logging in with the default details you can run

sudo raspi-config

In the interfacing options enable Camera and VNC

In the advanced options expant the file system and set the resolution to something like 1280x720p.

Now you can connect to the Raspberry's GUI via a VNC viewer: https://www.realvnc.com/download/viewer/

Use the same IP and login as for Putty and you should be good to go.

Installing the required software (update 2018)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install apache2 node.js npm
git clone https://github.com/CoretechR/ZeroBot Desktop/touchUI
cd Desktop/touchUI
sudo npm install express
sudo npm install socket.io
sudo npm install pi-gpio
sudo npm install pigpio

Run the app.js script using:

cd Desktop/touchUI
sudo node app.js

You can make the node.js script start on boot by adding these lines to /etc/rc.local before "exit 0":

cd /home/pi/Desktop/touchUI
sudo node app.js&
cd

The HTML file can easily be edited while the node script is running, because it is sent out when a host (re)connects.

Discussions

HTML wrote 07/02/2021 at 12:09

hello Max. i watched your project, and it was very impressive. i want to make it but the URL of motor driver, power bank and camera is unavailable. i have no idea that what should i use. can you help me?

Are you sure? yes | no

nhslzt wrote 05/29/2021 at 19:04

hi Max, thank you for this great project! Do I need protected or unprotected 18650 batteries? I'd prefer protected by of course but I do not know if the extra PCB would somehow interfere with the other parts...

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 05/30/2021 at 08:44

I have only used unprotected cells when I made the robot. If I did the project today I would go for protected batteries as well, it's just safer. There should be just enough room, depending on where the PCB is mounted.

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Andrew wrote 02/23/2021 at 19:26

Hey Max - thanks for creating Zerobot. It looks like a fantastic project. I've just bought the components. Question - did you dremel / snap off the axel from the yellow motor on one side? It looks like it gets in the way of the battery otherwise.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 03/18/2021 at 19:14

Sorry for the late reply, you probably solved the problem yourself by now.
Anyway, yes, the inner axle has to be cut off. Its made from relatively soft plastic so it should be easy.

Are you sure? yes | no

Andrew wrote 03/18/2021 at 19:22

Thanks for getting back. Yes, I got it working - it's been a fun project. The controlling method is great, especially since it works from a phone or computer. I've ordered a fisheye lens in order to make driving easier. I'm nervous about the hot glue not being strong enough around the usb port, so I just always leave a little usb cable plugged in. Do you just use hot glue for the usb port? One issue I've had is that if the robot leaves wifi it just keeps driving at its original bearing. I saw another project where the creater had a "health check" which pings the controller every 2 seconds and stops the motor if health check fails. Anyways, great work. I'd like to try out your mini version using ESP32, but it would be nice to adapt the enclosure for an ESP32-Cam, which seem much more available.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 03/28/2021 at 18:05

Hot glue might not be ideal, but it worked well for me so far.

A health check is a great idea to make the connection more reliable. And it should not be too difficult to implement. I am working on a similar project right now where this will come in handy. Thanks!

Are you sure? yes | no

unsigneduk wrote 01/01/2021 at 22:21

HI Max, Its been great following and building this project. Unforntunatly Ive stumbled at the last post and found that the battery does not have enough juice to power the PI/camera/adc. Maybe perhaps because I chose to power the PI through the micro USB port as I wasnt willing to take a risk without any safety features, I cant afford to loose a board. Will this affect the current/power drawn from the batteries for the camera and ADC ? Thanks.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 01/17/2021 at 15:02

Of course you can power the Pi through its USB port as well. I soldered directly to the board because that was more convenient. I think the 5V solder pad on the bottom is directly connected to the USB port.

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Dan wrote 12/02/2020 at 15:02

After burning a few Pi boards I have decided to go a different way and power the Pi with a sepparate battery. This way I have more control over the power that goes each way.

Now I am trying to modify the code so I can change the two wheel steering method you use and add a servo or another dc motor for using front wheel steering. Do you have any guide to changing your code, before I go into a trial and error learning?

Thank you very much for all the information you gave here.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 12/02/2020 at 20:58

There is a function "tankDrive" in the Touch.html that you might want to start with. It maps the user inputs to two PWM outputs. You could try hooking up a servo to one of the PWM pins to see if that works already. If not, you need to change the app.js file.

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asor wrote 11/19/2020 at 18:27

Hi, I'm wondering if you know the cost of 3D printing each robot body? Or, at least the weight of the material used? Thanks.

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gene4fun57 wrote 08/24/2020 at 03:17

I'm having trouble with flashing the images. They do install, but will not boot. Installing a Raspian image, works fine, boots and connects. Then when trying to do the manual install, packages won't install, or errors show up. Clearly, something doesn't match ! Does anyone have this working on a 3B+ ? If so, can you share a working image i can reconfigure for my network? I hate building it, and not being able to use it !!! Thanks everyone !

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Garyr14 wrote 11/19/2020 at 16:08

Did you ever find a solution? I was able to flash to an SD card and boot up on a 3B+, but then I fried the 3B+ (unrelated error) and replaced it with another. I can't get the other to boot up to the image. However, I can flash the RP Desktop to a card and have it boot with no problem.

Are you sure? yes | no

joecooper20 wrote 06/06/2020 at 16:23

Should this work on a full sized Raspberry Pi 3 B+? I don't have a spare Zero, and the full sized would be better for the camera feed. I tried but it just gets stuck on the colourful boot screen.

I also tried the manual install but had a whole bunch of errors.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 06/10/2020 at 14:47

Yes, I am sure it should work. I've developed the software on a Pi 3 before moving it to the Zero. Maybe there was a problem with flashing the image file? Did you follow the latest tutorial?

Are you sure? yes | no

Dan wrote 05/30/2020 at 21:03

hello. First of all I would like to thank you for sharing this. It is a great project. It am quite new to this world but with your instructions I have managed to get all this done in no time.

I have managed to get most of it working with the exception of the motors. Once the robot starts I can hear the motors trying to move but they don't seem to have enough power. I have 5.5v coming out of the booster but only 0.12v get to the motors. Does anyone know where could this issue come from?

Thank you.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 06/01/2020 at 08:09

It seems that the voltage on your motors is too low. Maybe it's a faulty motor driver. Are you using the same components and have verified your wiring with the schematic?

Are you sure? yes | no

Dan wrote 06/02/2020 at 20:52

Hello Max. I went through the wiring and noticed the - "minus" on the motor driver came loose. I soldered that back on the - "minus" of the battery and it all worked well. For a short while at least. The Pi turned itself off and I thought the battery might have run dry. So I charged them back up and when I turned it back on one of the motors started for a few seconds while the Pi was booting then it all went off. Now I have another burned Pi. Could some have discharged while turning on and burned the Pi? I'll order another one and hopefully I won't break this one too (second one so far).

Are you sure? yes | no

robo116 wrote 11/15/2019 at 01:33

Hey max would you mind updating the Components list with your latest recommendations for components? I ordered a PiZero but find myself wandering this long forum to order parts that may not be right to start this project. Appreciate all the work you've done.

Are you sure? yes | no

Nick Pittman wrote 11/11/2019 at 01:23

Did not need to adjust the ports or IP address. although I did change it for the AP. I want to give it another test using the same IP... seeing as how it will be the only thing on the AP it should not conflict with anything. I did get it working though. Apparently there is one last network upgrade that was done at the very end that changed something. What was being changed... I am not sure. I set it up without the upgrade and it worked. Now I just need to add a button to your interface to enter WiFi credentials. This will allow the user to access the bot from their phone and play , then enter WiFi credentials and reboot and be on the network. :) its been a long day and my eyes hurt from reading to find my issue, but for the most part it works!

Other then adding new WiFi ssid's and clearing the wpa supplicant to be able to freely swap between WiFi and ap, the next part that I am not sure how to do is how to get the local IP assigned when adding it to a new network , w/o having access to the router.

I hope that made sense

Would you like a working sd card image to play with once i finish it?

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 11/12/2019 at 16:42

Great work! I have not been actively working on this project for a while but I would definitely be interested in an SD image.

Are you sure? yes | no

Nick Pittman wrote 11/10/2019 at 22:01

I took your advice and checked the port and where we are getting the IP address. The only thing I can find in the touch.html file is where its getting the stream from. If the stream was broken, the UI would still appear because its coming directly from the HTML page, right?

I am going to load another sd card and do some more testing to see if I can figure out what I did that made it stop working properly. Ill get back to you asap. I really hope to get this working, because having the ability to reassign the wifi ssid and password from your phone, or just opt to connect to the phone directly would be absolutely awesome.

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Nick Pittman wrote 10/28/2019 at 04:42

I could have sworn I saw a place that explained what to do to swap the bot to ADHOC to directly connect to a phone. Am I not seeing it?

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 10/28/2019 at 19:49

It's been a while since I tried that but this looks like a good place to start:

https://howtoraspberrypi.com/create-a-wi-fi-hotspot-in-less-than-10-minutes-with-pi-raspberry/

You might have to adjust the ip address inside the touchUI html file too.

Are you sure? yes | no

Nick Pittman wrote 11/10/2019 at 01:55

So I had to run the update and upgrade. Once done I ran the script from https://github.com/idev1/rpihotspot . The hotspot seems to work just like its supposed to. When I type in the ip address I get the "Almost there! redirecting to port 3000" message, then when the redirect happens, I get site cannot be reached the ip address refused connection.

I also tried to access the app from the pi itself using the local host command and I get the same thing. I am thinking the update/upgrade changed something but I am not sure. I am not really sure on where to go from here to find out what is going on. If you have the time, mind helping me figure it out? Once done I would be happy to pass along a completed updated image, so others can use the hotspot function I am wanting.

I am able to connect to the pi via vnc and ssh just like before I added the hotspot ap script.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 11/10/2019 at 16:31

Have you tried other ports/ip addresses? The touchUI.html file might have the wrong IP for the stream. Port 9000 is usually the stream that you can try to access directly in the browser.

Are you sure? yes | no

F. Javier wrote 10/25/2019 at 19:12

Hi.
I am finishing mounting the ZeroBot Pro, but I have 2 problems:
The first is that when I'm going to move it, so that it moves forward, in the interface, I have to do it to the left, back, to the right, it's as if it was changed.
And the second problem is the LEDs (5mm white) of the headlights, I connect it according to the diagram (or I think), ADS1115 with 100k resistance to the positive of the driver motor and that same cable to a negative of a led (another cable will join the negative poles of the 2 leds). The positives of the LEDs with 50ohm resistors, join and go to the collector pin of the BC337 transistor, the emitter pin of the BC337 to the battery negative and the base pin with a resistance of 1.5k to the gpio22 of the Raspberry.
I do not find where the problem is in the assembly, to see if you can help me.
Thank you.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 10/27/2019 at 13:33

You need to swap the motor wires to change the direction. Alternatively you can change this in software by modifying the app.js file that's on the TouchUI folder on the desktop of the Raspberry pi (access it through VNC viewer for example).

The ADS1115 is for measuring the battery voltage, it has nothing to do with the LEDs. The two 100k resistors form a voltage divider to reduce the voltage that the ADS1115 sees.

The description of your wiring seems alright. If you have a multimeter you can check if gpio22 is being toggled by the led button. Maybe you selected the wrong pin.

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F. Javier wrote 10/27/2019 at 15:08

Thanks for your reply Max.

I have measured with a multimeter the gpio22 when I activate the LEDs from the TouchUI, current arrives, so the gpio is correct. But I still can't find a way for the LEDs to connect. The positive poles go with diodes to the BC337 pin collector. The negative poles of the LED where they connect? I think the fault may be there.
I have connected via VNC, in the app.js file what would be the line to modify? When I give it to the left it goes forward and when I give it to the right it goes backwards, it would be to turn the screen 90º to the right hahaha
Thanks for everything.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 10/27/2019 at 16:32

If the robots goes forward when you want to turn right that problably means your left motor is turning in the wrong direction. Try swapping the motor pins by swapping A1 and A2 or B1 and B2:

A1 = new Gpio(27, {mode: Gpio.OUTPUT}),
A2 = new Gpio(17, {mode: Gpio.OUTPUT}),
B1 = new Gpio( 4, {mode: Gpio.OUTPUT}),
B2 = new Gpio(18, {mode: Gpio.OUTPUT});

As for the leds, I'm not sure what the problem is. The led anode is connected to the positive terminal of the battery. If you follow the wiring image it should work.

Are you sure? yes | no

F. Javier wrote 10/29/2019 at 11:16

Thanks for your help Max.

I changed the direction of the motor cables and it already works correctly.
The LEDs of the lights also work, the polarity of the led was incorrectly connected.
Thanks for everything

Are you sure? yes | no

The Chase Lemon wrote 09/10/2019 at 05:25

Hey Max,

Your parts list seems a little out of date. Been trying to find the parts on my own, but as I am somewhat new to the whole electronics game, I am uncertain if the items I am finding on my own are the same items required for the project. Just to be clear, I am making the Twitch Drone version of your bot.

Will these parts work?

https://www.amazon.ca/Electric-Magnetic-Gearbox-Vibration-Products/dp/B07DPNQMXS/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=DC+3V+-+6V+Dual+Axis+Gear+Motor+TT+Motor+For+Arduino+Smart+Chassis+Car&qid=1568091061&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmr0

https://www.amazon.ca/Stepper-Controller-Arduino-Mega2560-Duemilanove/dp/B0786L5YPP/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=l298n&qid=1568092762&s=gateway&sr=8-3

and I can't find an appropriate power bank. Cheers mate and love the work you have done.

Are you sure? yes | no

Max.K wrote 09/10/2019 at 16:48

Hi, the motors you found are correct. But the driver is definitely too big for the chassis. The drivers that I'm using are on Amazon.ca as well:

https://www.amazon.ca/Driver-Module-H-Bridge-Replace-Stepper/dp/B075S368Y2/ref=sr_1_28?keywords=l298n&qid=1568111449&s=gateway&sr=8-28

About the battery: You can either use a single 18650 battery and solder leads to it or buy a cheap power bank that has one in it. If you don't want to use the charging circuit from the power bank you will need a tp4056 USB modul or something similar. You can of course also use any other LiPo battery that fits the chassis. The 18650 cells are just an easily available format.

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The Chase Lemon wrote 09/10/2019 at 16:54

Appreciate the information

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The Chase Lemon wrote 09/23/2019 at 07:04

Just realized, you don't actually use the power bank, you take the componants out of the encasing, so with realizing that, would this work? https://www.amazon.ca/Poweradd-Portable-Ultra-Compact-External-compatible/dp/B0142JHOEO/ref=pd_ybh_a_7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TKXY063E9SQFCYR9SFT5

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Max.K wrote 09/25/2019 at 18:59

Most of the small, cylindrical power banks should contain a 18650 cell and the necessary electronics to output 5V at a high enough current. As I said you can also use any 3.7V lipo pouch cell and a 5V boost module like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2465

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The Chase Lemon wrote 10/02/2019 at 00:51

So I bought a power bank and tore out the innards, battery and the chip attached to it, could I not just go micro usb to micro usb from the chip attached to the battery to the pi zero? Also, is the motor driver suppose to be wired to the chip attached to the battery as well? cause I do not see a 3.7v output, as shown in your schematics?

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Max.K wrote 10/03/2019 at 16:57

What I did for the first version of the robot was to attach the motor driver directly to the terminals of the battery (3.7V). The Raspberry Pi is connected to the 5V output (USB A) of the power bank. This was done to get some decoupling between the motors and the Pi.

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Amirulmukmin wrote 07/23/2019 at 16:30

hey Max .

I already flash the images on SD card and make a file for ssid and password. just like in instruction.

But the problem is, my raspberry pi is blinking after booting and i wait for it to apprear on my wifi by using Fing apps..

but i didnt found the ip for my raspberry pi zero w.

can you help me out , Max ? i really need this robot comes alive for my younger sister.

Thanks in advance,

Amirul.

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Max.K wrote 07/23/2019 at 18:24

Maybe try flashing it again. The wpa_supplicant.conf file should be there already, you only have to enter your WIFI ssid and password. Double check those as well.

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Amirulmukmin wrote 07/23/2019 at 18:27

already did that wpa_supplicant.conf .. nevermind. i'm trying to download again your images and flash it using etcher programme.. btw can i flash the new images directly into the same SD card ? cause i see the partition is split up.

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Max.K wrote 07/23/2019 at 18:49

You should format it again to be safe.

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Craig Hissett wrote 07/04/2019 at 00:36

Hey Max!

Im looking to use your awesome software to run on a slightly different chassis (a dfrobot Devastator) and use a USB webcam as the source for web feed.

Would there be much to change in the software to use a webcam instead of the Pi cam?

Thanks mate :)

Craig

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Max.K wrote 07/04/2019 at 16:31

Hi, that's definitely possible and shouldn't be too much work.

You need to change the command to run the mjpg-streamer. Right now the input looks like this: -i "input_raspicam.so -vf -hf -fps 15 -q 50 -x 640 -y 480"

You will have to specify the plugin "input_uvc.so" for a USB cam.

I don't have a webcam to test but there are lots of forum posts about using the mjpg streamer with a USB webcam.

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Craig Hissett wrote 07/04/2019 at 16:34

hero - thanks matey!

I'll have a look at this over the weekend. I'm excited! :)

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Craig Hissett wrote 07/10/2019 at 15:58

I've just got a Pi Camera for quite cheap :-)

Going to try this image again; I've written it to two Micro SD cards so far and it seems to have killed them (can no longer format). I think that's just bad luck on the Card front ha ha.

I'm tempted to use a 3B for the build, as I think the USB ports will come in handy on a chassis that size. I'd love to add more to the platform once I've got it tearing around the office, blinking some red eyes :-)

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Werner wrote 07/05/2019 at 15:14

That's a pretty cool chassis indeed!

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Craig Hissett wrote 07/05/2019 at 16:21

It's an awesome chassis; plenty of space and amounting points to make something brilliant.

I'm looking forward to tinkering with the software over the weekend :)

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Werner wrote 06/30/2019 at 18:14

@Max.K, found this to be an interesting alternative for the TP4056 & MT3608 because it integrates both in a nice board w/ a holder for 2x 18650 batteries. I will order a couple these, and work the ZeroBot enclosure to fit it in. It can deliver 5V up to 3A (Max) output current. Very sleek indeed.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3V-5V-18650-Battery-Shield-V8-Mobile-Power-Bank-for-Arduino-ESP32-ESP8266-Wifi/312439652582

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Max.K wrote 07/04/2019 at 16:23

Very nice indeed, good find!

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Craig Hissett wrote 07/10/2019 at 16:01

This looks pretty awesome! My devastator platform is rocking 6v motors, so going to look for something similar to this which will give a regulated 5v and also a raw output too.

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Amirulmukmin wrote 06/19/2019 at 12:43

im so confused with instruction after setup the ssh wifi. they said this

Only during the first boot this file is automatically moved to its place in the Raspberry's file system.

After booting, you have to find the Raspberry's IP address using the routers menu or a wifi scanner app.

Use Putty or a similar program to connect to this address with your PC.

After logging in with the default details you can run

can you guys help me with this ?

Thanks in advance :)

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Max.K wrote 06/19/2019 at 14:05

Have you tried using the SD card image? It is super easy compared to the manual install process.

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Amirulmukmin wrote 06/19/2019 at 14:45

already done flash images to the SD card and done change the ssh wifi and password using notepad.. next what should i do ? put the sd card into raspberry pi ? and then turn on the robot ? and one more thing. can i use the circuit that have the LED infront as the headlight with out the LED?

Thanks for replying me

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Max.K wrote 06/19/2019 at 15:32

Sorry, I thought you were trying the manual install.

Here is an updated tutorial for the SD card method: https://hackaday.io/project/25092-zerobot-raspberry-pi-zero-fpv-robot/log/156016-how-to-get-started-fall-2018

After you have inserted the sd and turned on the raspberry pi it will try to connect to your wifi network. You then have to find out its IP address. You can install Fing on your smartphone and scan the wifi for ip addresses. It will show the Raspberry Pi if it successfully connected.

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Amirulmukmin wrote 06/19/2019 at 15:50

alright.. i got all the image flashed in SD card .

Then , i make the changes in the ssh wifi name . i edit with notepad to change the ssh wifi to my home wifi network.

then what should i do ? put the SD card on my robot and boot it up right away ? and i should do anythings with this ? ( see below )

<<<<

Access the Raspberry via your Wifi network with VNC:

Put an empty file named "SSH" in the boot partiton on the SD.

Create a new file "wpa_supplicant.conf" with the following content and move it to the boot partition as well:

>>>>

sorry cause i trouble you sir.

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Max.K wrote 06/19/2019 at 16:12

No problem. If the wpa_supplicant.conf and the empty ssh file is on there, you can just boot it up. If you made a mistake you can always simply flash the image again.

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EdwardChew wrote 05/22/2019 at 07:55

Hi bro. Like to let you know that the image works on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B V1.2! Streaming, voltage & temperature display, light control. Yes!
So im designing a cool rover to fit the bigger board.
Can i parallel extra 1 more LED to each of the 2 LEDs? any value i need to change? * update yes can

I saw your reply to someone bout changing the resolution, i tried sudo nano /etc/rc.local and start.stream.sh but no parameter bout the resolution there though

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Max.K wrote 05/25/2019 at 16:41

Good to know that it works. I am pretty sure the resolution is set in the start_stream.sh script on the desktop (it's 640x480):

https://github.com/CoretechR/ZeroBot/blob/master/start_stream.sh

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EdwardChew wrote 05/27/2019 at 02:31

ok bro. what do i type to get in ya? not familiar with raspberry coding. i tried sudo nano start_stream.sh but nothing there. or anything i missed?

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Max.K wrote 05/27/2019 at 19:04

If you are on the desktop via CNV viewer, just open the TouchUI folder and right click the file to open it with a text editor. Sudo nano works too, you just have to navigate to the folder using "cd" to change the directory like "cd Desktop" and "cd TouchUI".

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EdwardChew wrote 06/10/2019 at 09:04

ok what works for me was cd Desktop > cd touchUI > sudo nano start_stream.sh

And since i run RP3 with it so i designed a new body. Posted here with link back to your project here.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3671909

Thanks man

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EdwardChew wrote 06/04/2019 at 08:58

Hi bro. For both cd Desktop and cd TouchUI, it says no such file or directory. :-(

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Max.K wrote 06/05/2019 at 15:47

You don't need that console commands if you are using VNC viewer. Have you tried it?

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ZeroBot - Raspberry Pi Zero FPV Robot

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