Deskpet redux

As an ongoing project (see Flik previously) I have been working on a small robot that could live on my desk as a pet, hence the Deskpet moniker. I’ve done some research into how to give him personality, as well as how to add emotion (links soon). Last weekend I decided to play with my CNC mill and cut out a design for the body of my deskpet robot. I’ve been working on this design for a while so it was just a matter of loading and running the program. Then, one of the guys at work used the CNC’d master to make an RTV mold, and I molded a urethane copy:

The body is shown with a Nickel for scale. The pics are really crummy because I used my cell phone, I’ll post better pics later. This will make a robot small enough to use for Micro-Sumo competition, and is designed around the GM-10 motors. I may end up selling these as just the body, or as a complete robot kit.

Syndicated 2008-05-13 21:57:58 from robotguy.net/Blog

The impossible takes a little longer…

Take a look at this: http://wiki.airsoftcommunity.co.uk/Gatling_Gun.

According to the Airsoft Wiki, what I am attempting to do is nigh impossible. Cool! That’ll make it even more fun.

Syndicated 2008-05-03 00:23:29 from robotguy.net/Blog

And now for something completely different…

So for anyone looking for an update on the Steampunk PDA: It’s dead. I was building it so that I would have something to sync with Outlook and remind me of appointments, tasks, etc. Well, the company gave me a Blackberry, so I now have no incentive to finish the PDA. Would it be cool? Sure. Would it be cool enough to entice me to finish it, even though I already have something that works? Probably not, but maybe someday. Who knows?

My next project is an automated sentry gun for the Defconbots competition at Defcon in Las Vegas this year. I was going to build a level 1 sentry from TF2, but a buddy here at work is already doing that. So…. I decided to one-up him and aim for a level 2 sentry.

Yep, complete with dual, counter-rotating gatling guns. I have picked up a few parts, enlisted a partner, Nate, who may be posting on the blog later, and even made a gatling-esque paperweight on the CNC mill:

Sorry about the image quality, I took that with my cellphone this morning.

Syndicated 2008-05-02 18:44:05 from robotguy.net/Blog

Well begun is half done?

My board showed up today from BatchPCB:

I managed to get the 3V power supply built and tested. Yay!

Tomorrow I will get someone at work to solder the processor on for me, as it is well beyond my skills (64 pin MLF).

Syndicated 2007-08-29 04:26:44 from robotguy.net/Blog

Route 66

I received the display (no pics yet :’( ). It is teeny, but the contrast is really nice. Last but not least, I just finished the routing of the PCB and should be sending it out for fab at BatchPCB by Friday.

I have three “airwires” left. The auto router choked on this board, so this was the best I could do manually. I added some vias so I could solder a jumper in to connect the nets.

Syndicated 2007-08-09 05:43:50 from robotguy.net/Blog