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Building your Ambot
- Parts:
- main body of bot:
- 1x body plate
- 2x motors, with 2 wires attached to each motor
- 2x wheels
- 1x ESP8266 NodeMCU v2 Devboard
- 1x NodeMCU motor shield
- 2x small screws (for attaching motor shield to base)
- 1x plastic egg (used as skid plate)
- 1x USB rechargeable battery pack (with short USB cable) for powering ESP, and motors during testing and development
- 1x 4xAA battery case, for powering motors during deployment (optional!)
- 1x jumper
- 1x long USB cable for connection to ESP during configuration, and for power during testing and development
- sensors
- 1x distance sensor
- 1x servo
- 1x temp/humidity sensor
- 10x dupont connector wires
- phone rack assembly
- assembly pieces
- 2x rubber bands
- 4x small screws with washers
- “drone” deployment mechanism
- 6″ or so piece of plastic u-channel (the “barrel”)
- short dowel (the “stopper”)
- long dowel (the “plunger”)
- several rubber bands (the “energy”)
- duct tape (to keep the “plunger” from going farther than the “stopper”, and to keep the “energy” attached to the “plunger”)
- index card (for the drone propeller blades)
- nerf dart (the blades are attached to the nerf dart. The dart is then placed on the “plunger” which propels it forward when the rubber band is released by the servo.)
- Ambot Assembly instructions
- Debur and smooth plastic edges using emory board
- Do this over a trash can!
- Build the Camera Stand (you’ll use this to “put your bot up on blocks” while testing)
- Decide where on the body you’d like the wheels
- front, middle, back; higher (on a piece of wood or plastic) or lower
- Hot-glue the motors in place
- place motor so that white wire is at the top
- place the motors carefully so that they are parallel to each other and to the centerline of the bot!
- The beauty of using hot glue for this: if you mess up, carefully pry off the motor, remove the glue, then reglue it again, better!
- Carefully slide the wheels onto the motors
- Carefully thread the motor wires to the top of the bot.
- *** WARNING *** The joint where the wires are connected to the motors are weak. DO NOT put any pressure on those points. DO NOT stress the joints by pulling the wires!
- If you wish, drill new holes for the motor wires instead of using the rectangular holes. (The rectangular holes are where the phone stand can be mounted. The phone stand only uses four holes, though.)
- For the “skid plate”, pull the plastic egg into two separate pieces. Hot-glue the smaller half over the end of the bigger half, then hot-glue the bigger half onto the bottom of your bot at the opposite end from where you placed your wheels.
- (If you decided to place your wheels right smack-dab in the middle, you could try placing one half of the egg on each end: you could have two skid plates. But, your parts kit includes only one egg.)
- Power:
- The ESP8266 requires at least 3.3v but not more than 9v.
- The motors requires at least 4.5v but could handle up to 12v.
- It is possible to have different power sources for the motors and the brain.
- You could have a 3.3v battery source for the brain and a different, higher-voltage power source for the motors.
- If using different power source, place the jumper beside the power switch over “VM” and “NC” (or, use no jumper).
- It is also possible to use the same power source for the motors and the brain, as long as that power source is between 4.5v and 9v.
- If using the same power source, place a jumper on the motor controller beside the power switch to connect the pins “VIN” and “VM”.
- Your bot parts kit includes a rechargeable USB power pack which provides 5v. This is sufficient to power both the ESP8266 “brain” and the motors for our purposes.
- Your bot parts kit can also include a AA battery holder. Four (4) AA batteries would provide 6v of power. This could be your primary power, or could be the separate power supply for your motors. This is your choice; however, AA batteries are not provided in your bot parts kit. You may glue the battery holder on your bot so that it’s available, or you may decide not to use it at all. (I don’t use one.)
- DO NOT glue the USB power pack to your bot! Doing so would make it more difficult to swap out if you wanted to charge one while working with another. Putty or velcro dots work well to keep the USB power pack in place, or just shove it onto your bot whereever it will stay!
- Motor Controller:
- Decide where you’d like to place the motor controller. Some things to consider:
- the USB cable plugs into the ESP8266 (“brain”) from the same direction as the motor outputs are connected.
- If you mount the brain so that the blue headers are facing “out”, the USB connector will also be facing “out”.
- The location of the brain and motor controller assembly will probably be determined by where you place the phone rack, so consider where you’ll place the phone rack when deciding where to place the motor controller.
- Probably not a good idea to hot-glue the motor controller to the base. Two small “#4” screws are provided for this purpose. Insert one screw through the hole near the power switch and the other at the opposite corner of the motor controller.
- The easiest way: hold the motor controller onto the bot body where you want it. Use a small screwdriver, nail or piece of wire to make a small “starter” hole in the plastic by poking through the two mounting holes on the motor controller. Then, place the two screws into those holes and tighten. (The “starter” holes make this a lot easier!)
- DO NOT screw the motor controller down too tightly: go just enough to hold it in place.
- ESP8266 (“brain”)
- Carefully insert the brain into the motor controller, aligning the “wifi antenna” markings at the outer edge of the two boards.
- The USB port will be pointing out over the blue headers
- Motor wires:
- Below the blue headers are markings: A+/A-, B+/B-, VM/GND, VIN/GND.
- A+/A- are for one motor
- B+/B- are for the other motor
- VM/GND would be for a power source dedicated to motors
- VIN/GND would be for a power source dedicated to the brain.
- Remember to jumper or unjumper if using either of these connections.
- (We aren’t using these connections: we’ll power everything through the USB port.)
- Unscrew the four screws above “A+/A-” and “B+/B-” a bit.
- Fold over the ends of the motor wires to “double them up”– it is easier to insert and remove and secure them this way. Use the flat blade of a screwdriver to help bend them.
- Insert the wires from “Motor A” into A+ and A-, and the wires from “Motor B” into B+ and B-.
- Depending on how you’ve oriented your motor controller, A or B could be on the left or right. So, another way to think of it is, put the left motor wires into the left-most holes, and the right motor wires into the right-most holes.
- I usually put the colored wire in “+” and the white wire in “-“, but you are in control here and can do it however you want: when you write your “code” you’ll need to determine what commands make each motor (left or right) turn each direction (forward or back).
