GenCon 2011: The Robot
The robot had a massive rebuild and upgrade for this year’s GenCon. I decided to take a chance with the MG996 servos, slightly more expensive models which replaced the disappointing MG995 servos I had used last year. I was pleasantly surprised - the MG996 servos were vastly superior to those they replaced. They’re still cheap imported junk that I wouldn’t use in a RC helicopter or humanoid walking robot, but for what I’m building these were near-ideal. I didn’t have a single servo failure for the entire weekend. In addition to new servos, I replaced the radio and much of the wiring inside the robot, added a battery voltage regulator to help save the servos from overheating. The last major part to be rebuilt, just a few weeks before the convention, was the transmitter. I didn’t like the feel of the Wii Nunchuk controllers,so I replaced them with some joysticks out of an old RC airplane radio transmitter, in some hand-cut plywood housings. That also worked perfectly. Control was much more fluid, and with the new 60mW transmitter I didn’t lose radio control even when the robot was surrounded by a crowd people with cell phones.
Overthe course of the convention, I fully charged the robot’s (non-replaceable) battery and them walked it to the point of battery exhaustion five times. That’s an estimated two hours of run time over the weekend. I entertained many people. I gave out most of my business cards, and was interviewed a few times. The robot was in many photos and videos.
Several of those videos have since appeared on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syVsB-w_ieQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMPTkkIAdhE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238P7cKV7_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ-gir6VnB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9oBin07chs
While looking for those, I also found a few of the much earlier version of the robot I had in 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQXvaPQujFs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE05joI6gbs
To recharge it I have to plug the entire robot into the battery charger and let it sit for a few hours. I never bothered with replaceable batteries before because by the time the battery was dead the robot usually needed repair anyway. Now that the limit on run time is entirely due to the battery, I may have to invest in a few spares and design a way to swap them out easily.
I’ve found that I enjoy these conventions much more when I have something like the robot to show off and entertain people with. I’m not sure just what it is. I enjoy the interaction, I enjoy making people laugh and smile, but I’m far to shy and awkward to do it myself. The robot breaks the ice and lets me interact at a distance, as well as being something that the crowd at those conventions really appreciates. It’s also been a good way for me to hone my electrical and mechanical skills, in a way that’s a lot more personally satisfying than my day job.
Overthe course of the convention, I fully charged the robot’s (non-replaceable) battery and them walked it to the point of battery exhaustion five times. That’s an estimated two hours of run time over the weekend. I entertained many people. I gave out most of my business cards, and was interviewed a few times. The robot was in many photos and videos.
Several of those videos have since appeared on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syVsB-w_ieQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMPTkkIAdhE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=238P7cKV7_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ-gir6VnB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9oBin07chs
While looking for those, I also found a few of the much earlier version of the robot I had in 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQXvaPQujFs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE05joI6gbs
To recharge it I have to plug the entire robot into the battery charger and let it sit for a few hours. I never bothered with replaceable batteries before because by the time the battery was dead the robot usually needed repair anyway. Now that the limit on run time is entirely due to the battery, I may have to invest in a few spares and design a way to swap them out easily.
I’ve found that I enjoy these conventions much more when I have something like the robot to show off and entertain people with. I’m not sure just what it is. I enjoy the interaction, I enjoy making people laugh and smile, but I’m far to shy and awkward to do it myself. The robot breaks the ice and lets me interact at a distance, as well as being something that the crowd at those conventions really appreciates. It’s also been a good way for me to hone my electrical and mechanical skills, in a way that’s a lot more personally satisfying than my day job.