Dangerous Prototypes
Whilst Dee and Jules play videogames downstairs, I sit in a beanbag in my makerspace and contemplate the various hardware projects that I would like to complete over the next couple of years.
This weekend I finally convinced Jules that we should take his robot apart. Admittedly, he might have been less enthusiastic if Agent Bingo didn’t already need surgery — one of the DC motors in her legs had stopped working, so the poor thing could only walk around in circles. “Don’t worry,” I promised, “We can fix this.”
If only he knew that my idea of “fix” was a brain transplant…
With the shell open, and Jules starting to get bored, I sketched out what I thought was our best option:
- resolder her leg motor (!!)
- take everything out of her cybernetic skull: controller board, “eyes”, IR sensor.
- leave her body mechanics alone (it’s a hard plastic gearbox surrounding a single DC motor, which makes her arms and head move)
- replace her controller with an Arduino, her eyes with ultrasonic distance sensors, and maybe a display on her chest
So I’ve ordered the parts, but still haven’t resoldered the poor ‘bots leg — tonight I’ll do that, reassemble her in her “original” condition/capability-matrix, and let my son have his toy back.
For a little while.
