The motors that I ordered from American Science and Surplus arrived this morning. I got a pair of Trico windshield wiper motors, originally destined for installation in a Saturn, but now pinched to serve a more noble purpose. Haven’t powered ’em up yet, next stop: a deep cycle battery or gel cell.
Nothing like the smell of fresh grease to get those creative juices flowing.
Glancing around the surplus market yielded the following computer which seems like it would be entirely capable of driving my as yet unstarted robotics project.
Dell Optiplex GX1 PIII 450Mhz./ 128MB/ 6GB/ CD(Desktop)
I found out that tigersurplus has the same sort of systems for less money, but it’s about the same when you add in shipping. I think I’ll travel down south and have a gander at one of these this weekend.
Well, in an effort to push my as-yet unstarted robotics project forward, I decided to begin as I always do: by spending money! I ordered two windshield wiper motors from American Science and Surplus which I hope will do for powering my little robotic minion around. I’ll have to do an evaluation of their power before I set too many more design parameters, but they should be good enough to push a fairly good sized little bot around.
Now, I need to line up some 12v batteries and a charger, dust off my ammeter, and think about a test rig.
Addendum: I found this page which details a lot of the tests you can do on motors to help establish your robots overall performance characteristics. Good stuff.
Today’s book recommendation is Brad Graham and Kathy McGowan’s Build Your Own All-Terrain Robot. Brad and Kathy are the authors of a book which was highly recommended to me, Atomic Zombie’s Bicycle Builder’s Bonanza. I’m not all that interested in building strange bicycles, but robots, hey, that seems like more up my alley.
I’ve got quite a few books that concentrate on making robots which are little more than toys, but I was beginning to think of a bit grander project: a robot that could navigate outside over realistic if not rugged terrain. And this book delivers! It gives detailed descriptions of two different robotics projects, and tells you what you really need to know to get going. You won’t find chapters entitled “how to solder” or “PIC assembly code”, but you will find lots of information on finding the right motors, batteries, how to design and fabricate a welded steel frame, how to get it all working with remote control, and how to mount cameras and even a FRS radio to allow you to see what your ROV is doing.
Great book, highly recommended.