Budget ConnectR / Rovio

[mfortuna]

Do your cats respond at all to the audio? When I tested the ConnectR I discovered the dog and cats do not seem to respond to the robot audio at all. In person I can get the cats to meow when I talk to them. And the word Treat had no effect on the dog when spoke through the robot.

[Fraggboy]

The first time I started calling their names, they came up all close trying to find me.

That was short lived though. After the first few times, they just ignored it. They would look at it once it started off the dock and after that, they would go about their lazy day, regardless of video..

I did catch my cat trying to play with the Rovio's wheels tho. She would chase the Rovio around digging at the front wheels (Thank goodness she is de-clawed)..

[mfortuna]

Not much of an update. I use my security bot a couple times a week. The only issue I run into once in a while is when I connect and attempt another command I sometimes lose contact with the robot. When I get home it looks like the BAM has no power so the create has turned off for some reason. If I press the power button the BAM will come up. Battery charge appears to be OK. I'm thinking of adding a 5V BAM power supply that is sourced from battery power. Not sure I want to open up the BAM and rework it.

[yhmmc]

two thoughts on that. If you want my roomba to turn off, you hold down the button momentarily. If your pusles are too long, maybe they accidently turn it off.

Second, if you want a motion detector like a PIR, then you simply have to make the robot become perfectly still and then take your measurements.

I really love what you have done with the create.

hope that this helped.

[mfortuna]

My battery, which had low run time, was sourced from another roomba. It finally got bad enough that I put a new APS pack in my create. Now I can connect to and drive the create 100% of the time. So a bad battery was the cause of some of my connection issues.

[mfortuna]

I was looking for a part the other day and came across the draw that has my create command module and some other stuff. My create has been my security bot platform but now I would like to free it up for other experiments. I'm going to use a broken dirt dog I got from suzi-bot for my security bot. It has no brush deck or side brush. I need two control signals to control the camera servo so I'm thinking I can use the main brush and side brush signals in place of the output signals the create provides via SCI command 147.

After I get that going I plan on working on my brushless motor brush deck that I documented in another post. That's the other thing I found in the draw.

[Fraggboy]

Nice!! I know it may be troublesome, but could you post a few pictures during your DD to SD(Security Dog) transformation?

[mfortuna]

Will do! It will end up looking like a dirt dog with a wifi camera on top. I will show the wiring etc. I also need to get a rootooth. I'm going to need three signals, I hope I can get access to the signal for the vacuum motor, even though the dirt dog doesn't have one. Hopefully it is just a depop'd board.

[mfortuna]

I'll add pictures soon. I have the DD apart enough to get the circuit board out. For some reason the circuit board did not want to budge. I thought maybe Irobot added a retention point other than the two at the top. After a lot of struggles it finally came out.

My Create uses the three cargo port digital output pins for camera control.

DOUT0 = Power on camera and Propeller.
DOUT1 = Move camera up
DOUT2 = Move camera down

On the dirt dog I'm going to use:

main-brush motor on - camera on
side- brush motor on - camera down
vacuum motor on - camera up

The first one is easy to find since Irobot included the mounting points for a through-hole MOSFET for the main brush motor. The other two may take some digging. Gordon's schematics will hopefully have the info.

I'll also need BAUD rate change, ground and VCC connections. VCC is used to power the BAM, which is one reason it is cheaper than a rootooth. It has no power regulator.

The other design decision I'm making is to use a BAM instead of a rootooth. I will have to wire it in but at $40 cheaper than a rootooth its worth the effort.

The dirt dog controller board appears to be a swivel wheel board minus the jacks and components for the vacuum motor and dirt detector. I wonder if all swivel wheel 400 series only have a single dirt detector. The missing socket is half as wide as my old disco's

The PCB power regulator and servo show in the create based pictures will end up inside the dirt bin. I will need to make an opening for the servo arm and camera power lead.

[vic7767]

Mike, you don't have a spare Roomba PCB that you could stick into that DD ? That would simplify things a bit for you.

[sageman]

how are you thinking of doing the brushless mod since brushless motors have 3 wires

[mfortuna]

Hi vic. Either PCB is the same since I need to find the MCU (0-5V) signal rather than the actual motor signal (0-16V or so).

Sageman, here is the other thread:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11682&hilit=brushless+brush+deck

[sageman]

ah thanks

diddnt realise would be that complicated but when you start working on it again i might understand better
thanks again

[mfortuna]

A brushless motor relies on carefully spaced PWM pulses to actually make it turn. The motor I'm using is sensorless which means the controller, while applying a pulse to a pair of wires, uses the third wire (referenced to one of the first two wires) to determine where the motor is in rotation and applies the power pulse at the proper time. A snsored motor has separate leads for the sensor, which is very similar to the wheel tachs used on 400 series. Sensored motors tend to be smoother but that is not needed in a roomba application.

I'm relying on a airplane ESC to control the motor but it would be possible to do it with a controller chip on a custom PCB board. I could possibly use the prop board as a brushless controller. I would need to add three power MOSFETS. That could be a future project.

The prices of brushless motors and controllers are coming down, they would be a nice improvement to a robot vacuum because of the greate effiency and much less maintanance.

If you want to discuss it further please use

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11682&hilit=brushless+brush+deck

[mfortuna]

I have the camera ready to go and will add some pics later today. Using a SCI cable with USB adapter, I ran the first round of testing on the DD. I can connect up with sci tester and roomba status. It looks like the right wheel motor may have issues. It turns slower than it should. Time to run some diags.

[mfortuna]

Here's some pictures. There is a screen dump of the serial port. The robot identifies itself as a garage-bot. There are a few pictures of the dirt dog. I had already removed the brush deck and also removed the side brush assembly. I will have to put the side brush assembly back to properly anchor the suspension spring. There are pictures showing the depopulated circuit board and the roomba under test with a serial to SCI cable.

I will have to figure out the wheel issue before going through the trouble of adding the wires for the BAM and camera.

[Fraggboy]

Thank you for taking pictures of your project Mike!! I look forward to seeing your SecurityDawg getting closer to completion.

[mfortuna]

That's a great name Chris! The project is now called SecurityDawg!

[mfortuna]

Last update until next weekend probably.

Thanks to Gordon's schematics and the SCI pinout supplied by Irobot I have what I need to hook up the power supply and BAM.

side brush on - etch connected between R79 and R81 - to prop board
vacuum motor on - etch connected between R59 and R60 - to prop board
main brush on - etch between R176 and R215 - to on signal for camera power supply board

+5V - U5 pin 1 - to BAM pin 8
GND - U5 pin 2 - to BAM pin 25 and to camera power supply board

+BATT - J1 blue and white - to BAM pin 12 and to camera power supply board
TXD - J1 yellow - to BAM pin 2
RXD - J1 orange - to BAM pin 1
DD - J1 black - to BAM pin 15

[mfortuna]

Minor update. I figured out what I'm going to do for a cable. I will cut a DB25 extension cable and connect it to the BAM DB25 on one side and the dirtdog on the other side. So in effect, I will be replacing many of the create supplied signals with the Dirt Dog supplied signals.