Hull Pixel Bot

thingiverse

Hull Pixelbot Welcome to Hull PixelBot. A fast moving, easy to make, Arduino powered, tiny robot .I'm using very cheap stepper motors which seem to work great. They are a bit speedy, but they provide a precision of movement that you just can't get with standard DC motors. I'm also using catapult ammunition (really) for the caster and four AA batteries power it up. There are holes you can use to attach sensors and I'm going to work on remixes that can be used to move pens and, eventually, making a moving pixel display (if I can get enough of them together). More detailed build instructions along with programs will be going up here. Construction Details You can make the Hull Pixelbot in stages. The files have been ordered to make this simpler. There are separate files for left, right, front and back elements. At the moment these are identical, but that may change in future. You can use M3 bolts to hold the robot together. The holes are the right size for the bolts to engage with the filament and hold the robot together. You'll need 6mm, 10mm and 16mm ones. You can find a list of the other components you'll need here. Basic Chassis To make the basic chassis you'll need a base, top, motorTowerLeft, motorTowerRight, skidFront, skidBack, wheelLeft and wheelRight. If you fancy adding style, you can use alloyWheel. It's quicker to print too. If you want to mount a power switch on the rear you can print out powerSwitchHolder. If you want to add a distance sensor and three light sensors to the front you can print out distanceSensorHolder. Pixels You can add either a single pixel on the top, or a ring of pixels. Either way you'll need to print out ledSupportLeft and ledSupport right. When you mount them, make sure that the square holes in each face inwards. If you want to add a single neopixel you can print out the ledCrossSuport and shade elements. If you want to add a ring of neopixels (much more impressive) you can print out ringCrossSupport and ringShade. I've been playing with shades that contain light pipes, you can too if you print out ledPipeShade. The shades should be printed out in white or clear filament. All the shades are push fit. If you want to add a pixel to the back of your robot, print out shadeBase. The shade will fit on this. Adding a Breadboard You can add a breadboard, mounted on top of the Arduino Uno. The breadboardShelf is bolted over the Arduino using the same screws. Carrying Cheese If you want to carry cheese, or other small comestables, you can print the cheesePlate. That fits around the large pixel and has a brim to stop your camenbert hitting the carpet. Version 3 Upgrade We are now up to version 3.0 which has quite a few improvements and extra bits. There is a new wheel type (alloy?) which has a specially designed tread that provides excellent traction. I've also added a tiny change to the distance sensor and the rear light supports to stop them from fouling the bolt that holds on the front skid. Print Settings Printer Brand: Ultimaker Printer: Ultimaker Original Rafts: Doesn't Matter Supports: Doesn't Matter Resolution: 0.15mm Infill: 20% Notes: I used a brim to stop the edges from lifting, apart from that it prints absolutely fine. I printed the shade for the lights using the "spiralise outline" feature of Cura to make the layer as thin as possible. The neoplixels I'm using are so bright that this actually worked rather well. See the website for details of the pixels I used. How I Designed This Designed with Python The entire robot was built using a Python program running inside the FreeCad design tool. It turns out that I can do 3D design, but I can also do programming. Three HullPixelBots on the rampage Pixelbots being controlled over MQTT using an Azure IOT Hub. Displaying patterns usign massed Hull Pixelbots The original platforms, doing the Hull Pixelbot dance.