Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Weekend Projects – SunBEAM Seeker Bot”.
Hi, I’m Sean Regan, I’m technical editor with make today. I want to show you how to build a light seeking beam robot that uses just a handful of simple components to produce a surprisingly complex behavior. This little robot uses a simple power, amplifier chip and to light detecting eyes to follow the brightest light. It can find it’s a great example of beam robotics, which is inspired by biology, rather than relying on complicated microprocessors programming and digital logic, beam, robots, favor, simple components, responsive control systems and analog logic.
So what does that mean? Basically beam? Robotics is about getting the most complex and interesting behaviors. You can using the simplest possible components, it can be pretty challenging, but it can also be lots of fun. You’Ll need an afternoon some soldering skills and the following parts to complete this build. You can head over to your local Radio Shack where you can pick up all the electronic components. You’Ll need you’ll also need the following tools before we get started with the build. Let’S go over how the circuit works at the core of our circuit is the lm386 power amplifier chip we can think of the chip as a black box with inputs and outputs that respond in predictable ways.
It’S able to compare the voltage levels coming in from the two light sensors on pins, 2 and 3 and trigger the motors to turn toward the brightest source. The key is: pin 5 with one eye sees light and 5 acts as a current sync, and only motor number one is powered when the other eye sees more light than five acts as a current source, and only motor 2 is powered, we’ll start by building the Power system, which consists of two battery holders and two switches wired in series, a master power switch and a taildragger roller switch that cuts the power when the robot is not resting. Upright remove the threaded ears from the ends of the slide switch by bending them back and forth with pliers until the metal, fatigues and breaks next clean.
The back of one of the battery packs and the sides of both switches with rubbing alcohol use, double-sided foam tape to secure the switches to the battery pack Center. The roller switch along the bottom edge and put the slide switch in the upper right cut strip and solder. The red battery pack lead to connect the two switches in series use the leftover wire to make two leads attached to the master switches remaining terminal then cut the red lead off the other battery pack.
At the point where it connects to the terminal inside the battery holder, now we can finish up building the body of our robot, apply additional foam tape to the exposed sides of the two switches route, the wire, so that one red lead goes out. The side and one goes out – the top then thread the black wire into the second battery holder then attach the battery holders back to back with the switches sandwiched between them clean the front side of the body with rubbing alcohol then cut and apply a piece of Super lock, fastener tape to fit it cut, strip and solder. The black lead to the battery clip terminal where you just remove the red lead earlier.
This connects the two battery holders in series. Now our bot needs some legs, or rather some motors on each motor clean. The side that has no vents then apply two small strips of super lock. Fastener tape use a sharp hobby knife to cut two fresh pencil erasers off right at the fair you’ll stab one eraser under each motor shaft to serve as the wheel attach the motors to the front of the body. Using the super. Lock tape attach the front red lead to the outboard terminal on the starboard or right motor attach the black lead to the inboard terminal on the port or left motor attach a second black lead made from leftover battery holder wire for this same terminal. Finally, attach a lead to each of the two remaining motor terminals.
These will both connect to pin 5 of the integrated circuit. Next, we’ll build the BOTS head, which will hold its eyes and brain we’ll start with the eyes cover the leads of both IR detectors with heat shrink tubing, except for the very ends the leaves function as maneuverable eye stalks and the insulation keeps them from shorting if They get bent or twisted together next side of the brain or lm386 integrated circuit, resistor LED and a black jumper wire to the PCP, as described in the schematic. You can find the circuit diagram and detailed descriptions of how it works on the project page. The last step is to run the loose wires from the motors into the body, then back up out the top cut strip and solder. The remaining four wires to the PCB power red black ground and the two shared motor leads green should be attached.
As shown on the project, schematic apply double-sided foam tape to the bottom of the PCB and attach it to the top of your body. Now install the four triple-a batteries find a Sun beam on a smooth floor, flip the slide switch forward and set your completed bot down on it. If everything is working right, the robot will come alive when the roller switch presses down and will speed off. Happily, in search of the brightest light in the room, it’s easy to adjust the angle of the motors on the front of the body which will affect the speed and power of the robots drive system. A steeper more critical angle will drive slower but stronger, while a shallower, more horizontal angle will be faster but weaker.
You can also adjust the bot stance by bending the roller switch. The IR detector eyes can be adjusted, left right up and or down to bias. The bot steering in one direction or the other, a bot that prefers turning one direction or the other, can often be corrected just by adjusting the eye stalks to compensate. What about adding or using other components in your bot circuit reach into your junk box and pull something out at random? How can you hack it to add interesting behaviors to your own beam, robot designs, as always, we’d love to hear about your creations in the comments section of the project, page .