Yet another new member

[tinman1]

Hi guys,
I just bought a new Robonova, and man am I excited! It should get here by the end of the week!
I chose the Robonova after much long deliberation. But the final decision making fact was the amount of support from the owner base. WOW!
I've tinkered for a long time and I'm also in the process of building a home made biped using some lynxmotion brackets and some custom made hardware.
I've been reading these post here at Robosavvy for about a year and this is as you can see my first post now that I have something to play with and add to the discussion.
I have a background in composite fabrication (primarily in the aerospace field) and am working on making some vacuum formed shells for fun.
Can't wait for my new "bot" (thanks to my wife) after all she knew I would dismantle her Roomba if I didn't have something new to fidget with!
Tinman

[Humanoido]

Congratulations on your excellent investment. I've had my Robonova for over a month and every day is a new exciting day. I think many of the people who frequent this forum also have other humanoid robots too. It's a great learning experience. I'd like to thank everyone here who helped me as I was getting my Robonova up to speed. You guys are really great.

Your mention of vacuum formed shells brings back some memory. Growing up, I had a mattel vacuum machine that heated up sheets of colored plastic, some even aluminized, that formed over a shaped piece of clay when you pumped out the air. The plastic was tough, and came in two different thicknesses. It could be cut and sanded. I used mine to fabricate some amazing parts for a space ship. I could really use this toy now, for fabricating Robonova parts - mainly lightweight body shells, various heads, hands and fingers, protective component shells, and add-on molded customized parts. Unfortunately, the vacuum pump quickly wore out in the toy, and any units still existing today (from 1962) would undoubtedly have failed hardened or disintegrated rubber. But I wonder if there's any other kind of machine being sold which is similar?

Humanoido

[Robo1]

You could probably make a crud one using a vacuum cleaner and some wood and a metal mesh. Don't know how strong the suction would be on my henry to it could be a good project for a rainy day.

bren

[Mikie711]

If you are interested in vacum forming have a look at this guys home made table. Makes it look so easy!!!!

http://www.halloweenfear.com/vacuumformintro.html

But after reading his how to anythings possible.

Tinman 1, welcome to the club. Ive had my Robonova about a month (wife bought it for christmas to keep me out of trouble or was it out of her way) and so far have added giro's, accelerometer and sonar. So let the fun begin !!. Enjoy.

[tinman1]

Thanks for the welcome guys!
I found that very same site for building vacuum tables over a year ago and am currently in the process of putting it together, I'll let you know how well it works. I once did this for a living with big industrial forming tables and this particular one looks pretty promising.
Well, no Robonova today , I think it should arrive tomorrow. Any starting advice is greatly welcome and appreciated. I down loaded the PDF files about a month ago and have been studying them. It looks pretty straight forward.
Tinman

[Ric]

Hi Tinman

Are you expecting an RN1 'ready-made' or in kit form?
The kit can't be that difficult as even I assembled it successfully first time. I would suggest, however, you just run through some of the assembly posts here and Savvy's excellent photo guide becuase unless Hitec have issued a new manual there are a few errors and some confusing areas in the existing one.

Have fun

Ric

[tinman1]

HE'S HERE!!!

Are you expecting an RN1 'ready-made' or in kit form?

Kit form, of course
I'm a tinkerer (is that a real word?) the fun is the building and modding. From what I can tell 99% of the rest of this community are kindred spirits!

I would suggest, however, you just run through some of the assembly posts here and Savvy's excellent photo guide becuase unless Hitec have issued a new manual there are a few errors and some confusing areas in the existing one.

Thanks for the advice, the book says on the back "English Manual V1.0". I don't know if that is the same as the version it originally was released with or if this is updated.
I even purchased the correct Japanese screw drivers and set up a designated work area in my office as the "Droid factory".
I can't wait to get started!

Have fun

I think I will!
Thanks, Tinman

[srobot]

Hi,
I remember there was a good thread about vacuforming on this forum a while back, I just look around a little bit and can't find it, but if you spend more time to look for it, you'll probably be able to find it.

Oh, yha back to what this thread is about. I hope you really like, and have fun with your RN-1!

--srobot

[tinman1]

Well, I'm finished with the construction. Wow! All those little screws will bring a guy to the brink of madness. Heh, heh.
I had very few snags during construction, but the wire management was the most irritating. I did great until it came time to put the back cover on. Somehow mine didn't look quite like the picture, it took some time to get everything comfortable. Still there isn't any room for extra beneath the cover.
So here I sit, staring at the little red light on the charger...........
All in all, I would say it was fun, can't wait to start playing. (fingers crossed), hope I did it all correctly or the wifes gonna have a good laugh!
Tinman

[slashsplat]

Can't wait for my new "bot" (thanks to my wife) after all she knew I would dismantle her Roomba if I didn't have something new to fidget with! Tinman

Roomba CREATE!
http://store.irobot.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=2597845

[tinman1]

Roomba CREATE!

Yeah, I saw that a few days ago! Pretty cool.
Hey Slashsplat, I see your in the great state of Georgia. I'm originally from Savannah, might be moving to your neck of the woods here in about a year and a half. Can't wait, the desert is frying my brains out.

BTW, what does it mean when the Robonova stands on power up and the light flashes blue in the faceplate? No response from the remocon, I went through all the process to set it up and loaded the zero settings as required but no control response. Anyone?
Did I hose up somewhere?
Tinman

[slashsplat]

Let me know before you move. Love to have you back. If you are missing the humidity, we gots it. I am a Manoi guy... Plenty of RN help here.

[Bullit]

tinman1 the flashing blue light on power up is part of the RN-1 standard template checking the battery voltage. I'm not sure about your RN-1 but to the best of my knowledge most didn't come with the hardware (two resistors and a bit of wire) to actually measure the battery voltage. So its suppossed to tell you you battery is low. You can either look in the manual and put together the little two resistor circuit or remove the code from the template and it will all be ok.

[Widgits]

Hey Tinman1
I'm hoping you got those servo motor leads wrapped up on your new bot

Have read the horror stories of wires that have chaffed thru to ground
and let the magic smoke out

I think Matt has an article on this subject on his webpage
And it's cheap insurance
I bought little Ricky 16 ft of the poly snakeskin wrap for $3.69
It took him a bit to do it this way, but well worth it

[tinman1]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, the charger light turned green so I assumed the battery was fully charged but it acted as discribed if the battery is low. Meaning the robot did finally respond to some of the commands but not all and some like the walk forward it did but irratically.

I'm going to retrace all the wires to ensure the walking problem is not due to a servo or pair being somehow in the wrong location or the leads plugged into the wrong location on the board.
Widget I have not wrapped the leads yet, I thought I could get some at work but they stopped using it (FAA regulation change) and now they use the spiral wrap. I would prefer the snake skin like on Bullit's wiring, it seems more flexible. Where did you get yours from?

Hey Bullit, is it possible this Robonova has the hardware you described? Would I be able to recognize it if visible?
The entire time the bot was on the light flashed. It charged for about an hour and the charger indicated a full charge, but doesn't most batteries on initial charge take longer? Sorry for all the newb questions. The help is greatly appreciated.
Tinman