All posts by cevinius

MobBob and other bodies!

This post is a discussion and thoughts on using MobBob with other bodies.

Cliff posted the following question in the comments section:

Dear Cervinus;

I am developing a robot based off of the poppy robot chassis. I am not using the expensive dynamixel motors and am beating my head against the wall trying to learn programing. Sort of cart before the horse issues mostly. I’m switching gears and going to build a simpler biped to learn more.

I like the autonomous aspects of your robot and the voice recognition, vision from camera and usage of smartphone sensors etc in your app. Granted this is an as I learn more question can the app be modified to add more leg servos and arms gripper? Is that all in the arduino code or the android app as well?

Awesome project can’t watch to get started and have my Samsung s4 dance around on the table.

Thanks

Cliff

I started writing a reply in the comments section… but it got fairly long and I started including some information that might be useful for other people who may be thinking about other bodies for MobBob. (E.g. Earlier in the week, I saw a MobBob remix on Thingiverse (created by user Zalophus) with arms!)

So, I decided to turn the answer into a post.

Continue reading MobBob and other bodies!

Making robots with breadboards!

I can solder… and I do solder when I need to… However, I’m not the most confident/skilled at it… So, in a lot of my projects, I setup the electronics entirely on a breadboard.  See this picture of my original MobBob built… all electronic done on a tiny breadboard.

Breadboard-MobBobWires

However, using a breadboard is not just for the solder-phobic! It can be a useful technique for building robots, so I wanted to share some of the tricks I use for doing robot electronics on a breadboard!

(For anyone new robot builders who are making MobBob, using a breadboard could be a good way to get MobBob up and running quickly. Breadboarding is quick and easy. Also, you can always solder the connections later once you’re sure everything is working.)

Continue reading Making robots with breadboards!

Updated MobBob app is on Google Play

The updated MobBob app is now on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cevinius.MobBob

This version includes the new Bluetooth connection features seen in the video posted yesterday. The main new feature is that the app can now connect to paired devices using regular Bluetooth. This should enable the app to work with most Bluetooth modules.

Continue reading Updated MobBob app is on Google Play