Archive for May, 2010

3pi Coaster Bot

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Time to write about another robotics project I did! Make hosted a robot building contest, where you had to build a robot that was able to navigate around an area on its own. However, this project had to use a CD or disc somewhere in the robot. I took the wheels off my 3pi robot, and taped them to a blank CD for wheels! ;)

3pi Coaster Bot

I taped the wheels that came with the 3pi to the blank CD, and I had to try taping it several ways before I found a way that worked well. Once I did that, I was able to upload some of the line-tracking code to the 3pi.

DSC02822

Once that was all done, I was able to make the 3pi navigate through a maze, and since the coasters made it taller, it was able to track a wider area (with a few ajustments).

I didn’t win, but I still qualified, I get a Maker’s Notebook, and it made it on the Make site today! :D

Thanks to everyone who helped! :)

iPad-powered Arduino

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

So, after much, much waiting, I finally got my iPad Camera Connection Kit! When I got it, I wanted to discover what it could be used for (which many have already found many uses for it). Anyways, I plugged in my Auduino with a USB cable into the USB adapter, and it worked! :D

I was able to power LEDs with it, but a servo required too much power. :( The iPad will also display a message that the attached USB device isn’t supported, but it will still work anyway. You’ll also need to make sure the iPad isn’t sleeping, otherwise, it will power off. This also doesn’t work on an iPhone.

Anyways, it’s lots of fun, and if you have an iPad and a Camera Connection Kit, you should try it and see what you can do with it!