Introduction: Poor Man's Robot Chassis for MediaTek LinkIT ONE

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I have always had a love for robotics, in fact its what i wanted to do for University before deciding to attend the University of Life instead.

The issue is, robotics can be expensive.

so i decided to build my own chassis. The 1st thought was to make it out of laser cut wood, but my kids wanted to play with the robot same day and all we had on hand was a cardboard cereal box and some scissors. So i went to work.

This is a slow and cheap bot. There will be future improvements using more of the MediaTek features like bluetooth, wifi and gps but this is just the start.

parts should be able to be bought for about 13usd if you went for the cheapest options and then just add a MediaTek LinkIT One or another micro controller.

Please let me know what you think.

Step 1: The Parts and Tools

Parts:

    Tools:

    • Packing tape
    • Scissors
    • Ruler and or Square
    • Pen and or Pencil
    • Optional but recommended: Drill and Drill bits.

    The parts are fairly straight forward. its just a microcontroller, motor driver, ultra sonic range finder, some motors and a cardboard box.

    UPDATE: the mediatek is NOT compatible with the arduino motor shield out of the box. it only has 2 pwn pins, 3 and 9, i have not tested software PWM yet.

    UPDATE 2: i changed the code to make it work with the motor sheild

    If you wanted to go super cheap, swap out the mediatek for this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Pro-Micro-ATmega32U4-5...

    you wont get all the upcoming bluetooth, gps and wifi features but it will work for the code attached.

    Step 2: Chassis Design

    So this is the body of the design.

    This took about 45 mins to make from start to finish. I Started with the parts i needed, Laid those out on a bit of paper, and then drew around it.

    I then cleaned it up a bit and transferred it to the cardboard box.

    then it was just a case of cutting it out and using the packing tape to stick it together.

    Note the packing tape is key, as its the strength of the design.

    the final part was to drill the holes for the wheels and rangefinder. Be careful drilling cardboard, its very soft and there is a risk of drilling into your finger.

    i have included a rough layout that i made after the fact for you to print out and cut it yourself at home. i left out holes for the wheels as it my very depending on what gearboxes you use.

    My idler wheel did not arrive on time so i used an extra bit of cardboard to make a front skid instead.

    Attachments

    Step 3: The Code

    Here is the code.

    Its work in progress and currently has some issues but i will update this as i improve it.

    its supposed to drive forward until it get within 10cm then it should turn left and measure again and keep doing this until it can go forward again. Simple but fun.

    I borrowed the distance code from Aviv Mussali, as i could not get the NewPing Lib to work.

    Electronic Air Buzzer by Aviv Mussali:https://www.instructables.com/id/Electronic-Air-Buz...

    Attachments

    Step 4: Conclusion

    All in all this was knocked out in about an hour. the chassis works well but the code needs some work.

    let me know what you think in the comments!!