Recent comments

jbot: Thanks. That 1 pic you are talking about the robot is posed. With the friction of the RC servo gears it could hold the robot up, which is nice since standing then took very little power. The pcb inside of the RC servos were replaced by digital servo controllers of my own design which could detect the floor and thus maintain a level walk over uneven terrain.

borah: My design was not hard to do. The golden parts of the leg are simple brass strips from the hobby shop bent with pliers and drilled. I used Socket Head Cap Screws to put together. Some of the servos are attached to each other by opening the servo cases and drilling a bit, it's not hard and I explain this on my website. The base is made from pcb board and then painted gold and red. The cpu is on the underside of the robot. Simplicity is the key!

Lynxmotion has some good kits for making this style of hexapod so it's the easiest way to get up and running.

My digital servo design inspired openservo, a much more complete and better open-source digital servo controller. Check out http://www.openservo.org/

You can get more info on my website http://www.colinmackenzie.net/

Simple motor control circuit built using parts ALL found at Radio Shack.

http://random-workshop.blogspot.com/2010/12/simple-circuit-to-control-lidar-unit.html

-Hash

We did something similar in college, robot even had neons XD though our tactic was to sweep up all the blocks, then while the enemy were confused searching for them, sort and dump the unwanted ones, before finishing...they changed the rules the next year

Hash79,

What is the sweep area of the NEATO Lidar?

Rick

It is from a university student, so maybe ... :)

chrlsrchrdsn,

We are discussing the idea of selectively scanning an area on the Trossen Robotics forum right now, although it is high res selective 2D scanning. 

http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/showthread.php?t=4470

Take a look at the detailed tear down pics of the LIDAR unit I just posted

http://random-workshop.blogspot.com/2010/12/lidar-unit-disassembled-further.html

I believe it would be trivial to spoof the encoder data and cause the LIDAR unit to believe it is spinning and scan.  Placing the rotating turret on a stepper motor with our own encoder would allow us to control position and then output our own data stream selectively scanning areas.  Maybe keep the unit stationary and use a couple mirrors to scan a 3D scene.  Haven't thought that far into it yet.

-Hash

gallamine,

It may be worth is for specific people at specific times.  $400 is still about .337 of a low end SICK and its got better range and the mapping is more reliable.  BUT yes, I am in that group that thinks $400 is still way too much, though Hash makes a great point on using the vacuum parts for other projects.

BUT for the love of being able to get my hands on a reliable slip ring and Linear CMOS that are both available if a distributor would make them available, we could generate better, longer range, more flexible designs and execute them cheaply. 

Hash, the two most costly parts of that device you hacked was the slip ring and the sensor.  With todays available sensors at available distributor costs + profit, we really should be able to make a basic sensor for about $45-$75 depending how fancy you want to make it.

What would be a really interesting hack would be to nod it and get a limited 3D view of what is in front of you.

I'm all for an open hardware design.  Im sure we could do it for sub $150 in parts in low quantity.  We could also use RF to transfer data like they initially did to avoid costly/hard to get slip rings.

But if you look at the XV-11 it also contains a lot of good parts for someone making their own robot so $400 isn't too bad for all the sensors, drive wheels/motors with encoders, etc.

-Hash

I guess I am a little confused.  The idea is to buy a neato vacuum for $400 for a sensor that the foundation paper says can be made for $30 (I think closer to $45) and pressure Neato into what? Why would they build a cheaper one if they can get everyone to buy $400 little robot?

I would be much happier if I could find someone to sell me a 600 rpm, 6 circuit slip ring capsule available in qty 100 for $12 and get a distributer to sell me a 1024x48 linear CMOS sensor available in qty 1000 for $16 (that has global shutter). I have the .9 degree stepper motor and green laser that will give me about 10-12m assuming I don't care if minimum range is over .6m.

I propose an open project that comes up with the standard triangulation software that will let the user set up the min/max range of the LIDAR, along with laser pulse duration and timing.  Set up a kit that can be vertical or horizontal in configuration and add 3D.  This is doable with sensors and slip rings, but try finding them for sale to individuals.

Then Neato can change their firmware anytime they want.

Hash79, I am sure you worked hard and it would be pretty neat to have that sensor on a robot.

Trossen, spend some time on 6 or 12 circuit slip rings capsules, preferably with a through-bore in the 3-8mm range that can do 600 rpm.  OR look into those Linear CMOS sensors! (and don't forget they need global shutter...) Then watch the LIDAR light up the world.

Thanks Xevel, and great job figuring out the checksum for the data stream!

-Hash

It looks like the board is using a CP210x chip from Silicon Labs. You might try looking at the drivers they provide on their website, and/or working with their support for a solution! Hope that helps.