K9

jodicalhon

New Member
Just a couple of quick webcam photos of the K9 I made for my son.



He was built from clear PVC scrap sheet, (which I got for free from a local plastics firm. Nice blokes!), and which I later painted.

He has hi-brightness red LEDs for his eyes, which shine through 3mm red acrylic, and a 10mm blue LED for a nose laser. A small piezo sounder in his head provides the accompanying 'laser' sound, driven by an 08.



An 18A controls the 16x2 LCD on his left side , and triggers a greeting when he is powered up. "Greetings, master!"

He also has a speaker in his chest and 'speaks' 8 phrases recorded on an HK828 sound chip, which are triggered from the keypad on his back. (I'd like to make them remotely triggered, but that'll be for Mark II).

He is remote controlled via hacked RC car innards - just had to modify the h-bridges to run off 12V, as he is differentially driven via two 12V gearhead motors from Jaycar (cat.no.YG2732). His wheels are rollers from an old inkjet printer.

Here's the nose laser code:
Code:
   '#################
   '# K9 nose laser #        
   '#################                
   
   'Blue LED on pin1
   'Piezo on pin2
   'pin3 is the trigger, held high via 10k.
   
   #Picaxe 08		'Compiler directive
   
main:

	if pin3 = 0 then fire      'fires nose laser.
	goto main

fire:
	high 1			  'lights LED
	
	b1 = 124		     'initial pitch of sound

	for b0 = 1 to 3             'brief increase in pitch
	sound 2, (b1, 1)
	b1 = b1 + 1
	next b0

	for b0 = 1 to 22            'longer falling pitch
	sound 2, (b1, 1)
	b1 = b1 - 1
	next b0

	low 1              'turn off LED
	pause 50

	goto main
He still needs a little tartan collar and dogtags but I, and my son, are very happy with him.

Jo
 

Dippy

Moderator
What an excellent job you've done! Well done. It looks terrific.

All you need now is an inflatable Tom Baker.
 

Andrew Cowan

Senior Member
Wow! Looks great! Where did you get the neck material? How many servos?

Definitly some more photos of the innards and underside needed.

A
 

jodicalhon

New Member
Thanks very much for the kind words. :)

The original brief from 'the client' was for a remote controlled K9, and as soon as possible, please!

I thought of having it switchable between RC and autonomous modes, with moving antennae and neck, but as this was my first try at something like this (most of my earlier robots were just motors lashed to a platform with the electronics dumped on top) I decided to stick with the KISS principle and shoot for something achievable, and deliverable in a decent timeframe.

Consequently, the neck is fixed and so are the antennae. I'd dearly love to put in a few upgrades now the basic item is up and running, but my son is having none of it. A finished project is, in his view, a finished project, and if I want to do any experimenting I'll have to build another one!

Andrew, the neck has an inner strut between body and head and is covered by a length of plain old agricultural pipe (ag pipe), which seemed to look the part. I cunningly didn't take any photos of the insides to avoid revealing the rats-nest of wiring therein!

If I build a Mark II I'll be sure to post the results here.

Jo
 

kevrus

New Member
Jo C, a superb job, very well done, what next, a Dalek?
As a matter of interest, ive always had a liking for the robot from Lost in Space, and have seen some amazing home built examples on the web
 

jodicalhon

New Member
I was greatly assisted in getting a good 'look' by these plans, (see attached pdf), which I got via the now seemingly defunct Dr. Who Prop Builders Club. They make a really good starting point, which you can modify to suit your own design.
 

Attachments

vikingsraven

New Member
Hi

Ive got a copy of the orignal plans published in the doctor who comic, if any one is interested ill scan them back in and post them, i built one of these when i was in school long before pics were around!
looks really well made . i like the webcam as well, maybe a small python program to control k9 via a pc?
Ultimate goal , fully functioning Dalek fully autonimus. Do able but expesnsive and time consumming.
 
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