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Hello everyone, I’ve posted a lot on LMR, and I build robots for a living, but this is the first time I’ve built a personal robot that I’m able to tell you all about. First off, I got this idea from Fritsl (http://letsmakerobots.com/node/928 ) and I decided I wanted to build a pair of wall racers for my nephew who has always asked me to build him some robots. If you’ve never heard of a wall racer it is a modified RC car with two sonars, one pointing forward the other pointing to one side.

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A while ago, I got hold of a car alarm unit and its two remote control fobs. When i hooked it up to 12V I realized that it didn’t  work, not responding to any of the commands from the two fobs even though their batteries were OK. Naturally, I opened up the unit to start harvesting parts and noticed the RF module within (the one that sticks out perpendicularly) and I figured it shouldn’t be too hard to use the module with an Arduino.

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[nickatredbox] keeps up to date with the improvements of his project [yellow plane]. As you can find on this blog, the project is evolving week by week. Let’s see what’s today submission

1200 mm Wing space
280 mm cord
14% Clark Y
Target AUW 1300 Grams

Missing battery and camera box have a design which should weigh 140 grams empty.
The assembly shown below weighs 684 Grams no motor or electronics.
Electronics shown weigh 110 grams ESC Arduino board, Xbee, antenna and Gyro board
Motor & prop another 120 Gram

Here you have a [video]  and there you can follow the project on the [website]

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Hi all, I'm Matt and currently a junior in high school. I built first robot called the "A.S.R.B." over the summer for the Authentic Science Reseach Program and I wanted to share it with all of you! *I'm going to apologize in advanced if my spelling/wording/grammar is terrible--It's been a long day and I'm in a rush to get this posted.* Using the chassis of the duratrax evader EXT-2, I built this robot from the ground up.  I swapped out the esc and dc motor for a traxxas 12t 550 that I had lying around, and the esc is now the traxxas xl-5.

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Codebits is the most geekest event in Portugal and surroundings!

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[nickatredbox] has sent this interesting project with Arduino involving wireless comunication. The fun comes when you have to decide to buy something already done or DIY.

I wanted a remote control system of my own design for may various RC model projects planes and boats. I set about researching the options and and Xbee with / Arduino solution poped out as a viable option, having failed performance testing using both WiFi and TinyCLR. The other feature I get as the Xbee is a transceiver is real-time telemetery. I’m sure I could buy this functionality from HobbyKing but where is the fun in that.

More project on the [website]

Controlling an Arduino with a standard RC transmitter/receiver

There are many ways to remote control an Arduino, Xbee, RF link, IR…

I decided to try and use something I had laying around and that is common among large group of hobbyist : RC transmitter and receiver pair

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Ok, I think it's about time I start delving into the Radio Controled business. Initially I though I would just canabilize a rc toy and hack it's parts, and also use one of R/C transmitters I have at home (2.4GHz & 25MHz). However, the 2.4GHz is for my micro heli and I don't have any intentions of disposing of it seeing that it still flies (even after so much abuse :p). The other (35Mhz) is a micro r/c I wouldn't mind scraping that, however the car is too tiny, and the circuit-wire mashup inside does not appear very appealing.

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There are many Quadrotor Projects out there. But, they require a hobbyist to deal with the Frame Designing (Mechanical), a bit of Microcontroller knowledge as well as dealing with the Motor Control (Power Electronics). You may purchase a commercial Radio and a readymade Kit for flying. But, to Do-It-Yourself, is an achievement in itself.

Here is a picture of a Quadrotor designed by Shane Colton using Arduino Pro mini as its flying brain. Shane is a Ph.D Student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On being asked about the Project, he replied:

I heard about Arduino some time in 2007/2008 and have used it for a few projects since then. I built the quadrotor for fun / hobby (not related to research). I wanted to build my own (quadrotor) from scratch because I could integrate all the parts onto a single circuit board, and because I like designing the control system myself.

When he says he build the quad from scratch, he literally did it. Neither did he use any commercially available Radio Control, nor did he use any Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs). Instead he went for creating his own Brushless DC Motor Controller, that too, on the same PCB which acts as the Quadrotor’s Frame.

He spent a lot of time researching about propellor balancing as well as vibrations in the PCB. Here is a video:

Now, that is called a hobby. In a detailed Instructable, he shows how you too can build a Quadrotor on a PCB. He has a project blog at http://scolton.blogspot.com with documentation on most of his projects.

Enjoy the ride:

We love badges. And we’ve really got to thank [Charliex] for taking the time to write a huge post about this year’s LayerOne badges, especially since they’ve got their backs up against the deadline for pulling everything together in time.

Here it is, the stock badge on the left, with an add-on shield on the right. Now the original intent was to make this badge the chassis of an RC car. [Charliex] chewed through his development time trying to source toy cars that could be gutted for parts that would mount easily on the badge. This looked promising at first, but turned out to be folly. Instead what we have here is an Arduino compatible board with an RF transmitter which can be cut off and used separately if you wish. Attendees will be able to use the badge to take control of the toy cars (cases of them have been shipped to the conference), with the option to use the USB functionality to facilitate automation.

So what about stopping bullets? There is a bug in the module [Charliex] used to export the board design from Eagle. They came back from the fab house as 0.125″ substrate. That’s pretty beefy!

The conference is this weekend… better get on that!