Meshbot 1

thingiverse

This small robot chassis is designed to work with the Pololu 30T Tank Track set and related micro motors. Originally, it piggybacked on robots before the owner acquired a 3D printer, allowing wireless communication between drones and central command via Xbee antennas, which have useful mesh features. The latest update includes mounted edge detection sensors but not yet the upper compartment housing the brain or IR sensor array forming the head. Support for various boards, including Arduino Mega, is planned along with a custom-designed ATMEGA328P-PU board. Battery case modeling has faced issues with hatch designs, so a rotating latch with screw attachment is being targeted to allow easy battery changes in either 4AA or 8AA configurations using Radio Shack housings. The STL file for the tread housing has been updated as version 2.1, but it's recommended not to print yet due to ongoing work on mounting 4AA batteries and an Arduino controller. The current model features motors sticking out too far, affecting rotary encoder performance, which will be resolved in the next version. Initial upload includes the chassis with pending additions of mounting holes for Pololu quadrature encoders and space for batteries and a microcontroller.