Building your Ambot

Parts:
- 1x body plate
- 2x motors, with 2 wires attached to each motor with 2x wheels
- 1x ESP8266 NodeMCU v2 Devboard
- 1x NodeMCU motor shield
- 1x jumper
- 1x plastic egg (used as skid plate)
- 1x 4xAA battery case
Also needed:
- 4x batteries
- 1 small screwdriver

2019 Amazing Robot Assembly Instructions
- - - Skid Plate:
      - Glue Skid Plate (egg) to Body:
    - Battery Pack:1
      - Glue Battery Pack to Body
        
        Batteries should run across the body, not from front-to-back.
        
        Be sure to center the battery pack very carefully so that it is flush with the body plate on the sides!
    - Motors:
      - Glue Motors to Battery Pack & Body
        
        Place motors so that “solid color” wire is “Up”: Place Blue or Green on Left; place Brown or Orange on Right.
        
        Works best to place a thin layer of hot glue on battery pack and body where motor will make contact, then quickly attach motor
        
        Attach at an angle, with axle not touching battery pack and body!
        
        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!
    - Jumper:
      - Insert Jumper onto Motor Controller, shunting Vin and Vm pins:
    - Motor Controller:
      - Glue Motor Controller to Body (blue headers facing toward back):
    - Wheels:
      - Carefully press the wheels onto the motors
      - If you press too hard and the motor becomes unglued, remove the glue residue before re-gluing!
    - ESP8266:
      - Insert ESP8266 into Motor Controller
        
        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:
      - Attach Motor wires to Motor Controller:
        
        *** WARNING ***
        The joints 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!
        
        Carefully straighten a bit of the coiled wire away from the motor.
        
        Loosen the four screws above “A-/A+”, “B-/B+”, and “VIN/GND” a bit.
        
        Insert the wires from “Motor A” into A- and A+, and the wires from “Motor B” into B- and B+, and tighten the screws.
        
        Place the colored wire in “-” and the whited wire in “+” (it can work otherwise– you just have to adjust things in your code!)
    - Battery Pack Wires:
      - Attach Battery Pack wires to Motor Controller
        
        Using a fingernail, bare a bit more of the wire
        
        Insert the red wire from the battery pack to VIN and the right wire from the battery pack into GND, and tighten the screws. (See previous picture!)

Building your Ambot-2019 Gripper

Parts:
- 1x left gripper arm (without servo horn cutout)
- 1x right gripper arm (with servo horn cutout)
- 1x gripper plate
- 1x bolt
- 1x nut
- 2x washers
- 1x jack
- 1x jack plate
- 2x servo
- 2x servo horns
- 2x servo horn screws
Gripper:
- Insert the screw through gripper plate
- Add one washer to screw above gripper plate, then add left arm (the one without the servo horn cutout) to the screw, oriented properly (facing “in”)
- Add second washer, then screw nut on. Tighten nut “finger tight” so that gripper can move freely but not flop around too much!
- Put a dab (a bit but not too much) of hot glue over screw head and over nut to keep them from coming loose
- Check that servo fits tightly into gripper plate
- Using another dab of hot glue, attach a servo to the gripper plate
- Carefully glue one control horn into the cutout of the right gripper (be careful not to obstruct the hole on top of the gripper)
- Using the other servo horn, determine the limits of the servo, then set the servo so that it is at the limit when the horn is pointing to the back of the bot
- Set the left arm to point to the back of the bot
- Place the right arm onto the servo, adjusting both arms so that they are aligned. Gently move the arms between open and closed, readjusting the right arm’s location on the servo as necessary.
- Attach the right arm to the servo with the servo horn screw.
- Add a little line of hot glue to the inside of the grippers to make them more gripper-er
- Note the center of the front of your bot (I marked mine lightly with a screwdriver.)
- Glue the servo onto the bot, aligning the center of the grippers (not the servo) to the center of the bot!
- Attach the servo wire to “GPIO 7” with the red wire toward the outside.
Jack:
- Insert the jack into the jack base, ensuring that it can slide up and down within the base and that the slot on the jack is facing sideways
- Glue the jack base to the center of the back of the bot
- Determine the limits of the servo and set it to “mid-way”, then glue the jack servo to the base right beside the jack base, with the servo knob facing back and toward the top
- Insert the servo horn into the jack slit then place it on the servo
- Move the servo up and down to ensure that the jack lowers and rises as the servo rotates
- Screw the servo horn onto the servo
- Attach the Jack servo to “GPIO 8” with the red wire toward the outside