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NeuroBuggy Details

A project log for NeuroBytes

Build your own nervous system!

zakqwyzakqwy 08/22/2015 at 20:060 Comments

Note 8/22/2015: Since the original NeuroBuggy post, I've made a few hardware modifications that are reflected here--namely, the two bump switches are moved from hook-and-looped cardboard tabs to permanently mounted devices, and the servos are reversed for better servicability.

NeuroBuggy looks a lot like the Boe-Bot from Parallax, a fantastically versatile platform that pulls a microcontroller around on a pair of continuous rotation modified servos and a ball-shaped caster. The robot is lightweight, compact, sturdy, and generally excellent. Rather than a BASIC stamp (or some other microcontroller), NeuroBuggy is covered in the fuzzy half of commercially available hook-and-loop fasteners, allowing various NeuroBytes modules to be stuck onto the top to build out the vehicle's logic. The chassis is built from an old [fancy and likely product-MSRP-enhancing] cell phone box:

NeuroBuggy's lid can be lifted once the appropriate chassis cables are disconnected. The inner portion of the vehicle contains all of the drivetrain stuff:

On the left side of the picture, you see a fairly dangerous LiPo battery and a ludicrously loud alarm, designed to monitor all four cells and let me know when they've discharged enough:

On the right side of the picture, you'll see more #GimbalBot hardware; a "battery eliminator circuit" (AKA a commercially available RC power supply), the back end of a power switch, and the two continuous rotation servos:

The pictures above [with visible pot calibration ports] were prior to an important modification: flipping the servo motors and putting a few holes in the chassis, so the calibration pots (needed to zero the CR servos) were accessible:

Flipping the chassis over shows the power switch:

Zooming out a bit shows the bump switches (now v0.2!) along with the scrounged-together "caster":

This is what makes up the caster:

[above: a slightly short 6-32 machine screw, two round servo horns, a heim joint, two beveled heim joint spacers, a 6-32 nut, a short length of threaded rod, a weird cap nut thing I got at Ax-Man, and a flange mounted ball bearing that somehow friction fits perfectly with said weird cap nut thing.]

Seriously, I couldn't believe the weird cap nut thing fit perfectly into the flange mounted ball bearing. I was even able to adjust the rake angle a bit so the wheel would pivot properly rather than taking NeuroBuggy on a bad course. Ah, the bizarre things we do when we don't happen to have any tiny casters lying around:

A shot of the new bump switches, installed along with the pulltruded CFRP "sensor bar":

[I call them elephants because the bent snap action switches look like they have little trunks.]

Flip over the lid and... surprise plug! Sorry, had to do it:

Okay, that's it for now. I also took a bunch of pictures showing what goes into a simple [but surprisingly robust] brain for NeuroBuggy that I will post another day. In the meantime, here's a video of the robot finding its way out of an obstacle course built of of crap in my living room:

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