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Portable Electrick Storage Device – Mark I

Robotguy — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:29:33 +0000

My daughter has swim meets every Saturday morning from 7am until around 1pm. During this time she is actually swimming a total of about 4 minutes, so the entire family tries to stay occupied the rest of the day. Almost every week someone complains “Oh, man! My iPod is dead!” Answering the tinkerer’s call to arms, I would like to present the Portable Electrick Storage Device Mark I:

Outside

Inside

USB Connectors

Charging my iPad

Schematic

Closeup of foot

Battery and Connectors

Internal partition

The yellow piece is some scrap expanded PVC left over from a laptop desk I built for my wife a while back. The PCB is mounted to this, opposite the battery.

Partition & chamfer

The bottom of the partition is chamfered and held into place by another piece on the bottom. This lets it set into place easily, but still holds the battery in place tightly.

Specs:

Box – $6 brand new at the local thrift store, I only added electronics and handles. (I need to head back and get a couple more!)
Battery – 12V 7Ah (~12 iPod charges or 3.5 iPad charges)
Output – 5V @ 1.5A (will charge iPad while watching video)
Connectors – 3x USB Type-A female
3A fuse directly on battery
Power switch with blue LED indicator

Plans for the future:

“Working” steam power plant
Microcontroller based monitor (Battery charge level, internal temp, etc) with 128×128 OLED screen
Embedded wireless web server (WRT54G based)

Steampunk PDA – Again

Robotguy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:47:50 +0000

I have been convinced to add the Steampunk PDA back to my list of projects I am allowing myself to work on, so the list currently stands as Deskpet, Mazetrix, PDA and notebooks. I ordered the accelerometers for the next 3 Mazetrix tiles (should be here Monday), and I should be building a couple of notebooks for some guys at work, but this sounded like more fun.

I have been thinking about the PDA for a week or two now, and decided to make a custom case rather than attempting to use a pocketwatch case. I picked up a 2″ brass pipe fitting from the hardware store and started shaping it on the lathe. It should be just about the right size…

Steampunk PDA Case - Size Comparison

Steampunk PDA Case

CAD Assembly

Item 1 – I/O

Robotguy — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:06:36 +0000

Sufficient output to be “interesting”

Motors – move, dance, wiggle
Audio – At least beeps and boops, possibly recorded audio, but no extra audio hardware (like mp3 decoders)
RGB LED Eyes – Maybe even moveable (if I have extra time on my hands)

Sufficient input to be interactive

Location sensing – using dual color sensors and a colored mat
Light sensors – need to know when it’s dark out, follow a light or find a dark corner
IR obstacle detection – don’t want to bump into stuff
IR homing sensor – to find the recharge station
Hall Effect Sensors – locate and play with toys
Capacitive touch sensing – how else is it going to know when it’s being petted?

Laser Cat Toy

Robotguy — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:34:48 +0000

Stuff like this usually generates the reaction “You have too much time on your hands…”

I was working on my pan & tilt for a Defconbot (defconbots.org) when I realized it would make a great cat toy. A PC is controlling the P&T, running a random pattern with the laser pointer.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN6q3La3BAk

Well begun is half done

Robotguy — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:26:44 +0000

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).

And now for something a little different…

Robotguy — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:34:14 +0000

Looking for tiny Li-Po batteries? Try here.

P.S. I have uploaded a bunch of robot pics to my new Picasa web album here.

Spoka project – Begin

Robotguy — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 23:46:14 +0000

I was at Ikea the other day (they just built one in town, so i get to go all the time) and saw a rechargeable nightlight that I thought would be cool with some RGB LEDs. As I was working on the RF link yesterday, I realized that I could make a wireless, pc-controlled RGB LED light. So I headed over and picked up a Spoka from Ikea. This thing is just begging to be hacked. It comes with a 4.8V 400mA wall wart, and an internal 3.6V 550mAh NiMH battery. The silicone rubber outer cover diffuses the light nicely.

Contents Nightlight

Once you get the plastic shell out of the silicone rubber cover (it takes some work), remove the bottom by releasing the tabs on either side. Then split the shell by releasing the tabs at the top (circles), and prying lightly. There are two alignment posts on each side (arrows) that are a snug fit.

After a little circuit tracing, I had the schematic: I should be able to take out the LEDs and place my circuit in the same spot in order to keep the battery/AC/rechargeable portion working.
I am planning 2 RGB LEDs (That’s all I have at the moment) behind the eyes, and a red LED behind the mouth. I’ll use a small AVR (maybe a 2313) and the MirfV2 with a ceramic chip antenna for the RF.

Watson, come here. I want to see you!

Robotguy — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:58:00 +0000

I finally managed to send some data over the RF link. Somehow I managed to break the printf function, so I only saw the data on the scope as it clocked out of the transceiver on the SPI bus, but it was the correct data. Here’s a hint if you are using the NRF24L01 chip. Go to the Nordic website and make sure you have the latest datasheet. There is a step by step guide to the minimum config for enhanced shockburst mode. Once I had all of my generic SPI problems worked out, it just fell into place. Now to wrap it all up into a nice library and install it on a robot!

P.S. If the title didn’t make any sense, try here. Be sure to check out his notebook.

Slight change of plans

Robotguy — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:30:55 +0000

As per usual, I got distracted and changed my mind about the Hackaday design challenge. I decided that it would be cool to have a general purpose AVR board with a voltage regulator and motor controller. I drew up a version last night with large prototype areas, but I think I will change it tonight to have a smaller prototype area, and a cage-clamp style connector.

Here is a preview of the initial board.

Too many projects, too little time

Robotguy — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:51:49 +0000

In an effort to keep track of the projects that I want to work on, I created a little list. See theÂ “My Current Projects” link over to the right—>