RoboGuts™ & Robotics = BillyBot and the miniFloppyBots ...

SolidWorksMagi

Senior Member
Hi,

I developed the RoboGuts™ circuit board because the other MCU boards and breadboarding was too big to build a BillyBot robot. BillyBot is the primary host of the RoboToons robot cartoons (http://www.brainless.org/RoboToons/) ... When I first designed BillyBot he was based on using five mini servo motors ... then after a few years of publishing the single frame still RoboToons cartoons a couple of people asked me if there were T-Shirts ... so I sent the hi-res images of BillyBot and several other robots to a company in Canada that does Print on Demand t-shirts (http://robotoons.wordans.ca/my/boutique?force_lang=en) ... then a few more years went by and a few people asked me if I was selling BillyBot robots!

I said no of course, but began thinking about it a bit and since I was trying to make animated entertaining educational RoboToons animated cartoons I thought why not use actual robots ... so I started to 3D print a BillyBot and found that I couldn't cram all that he needed into the tiny space inside his body. I looked around on the internet and decided that I just had to design my own circuit board to get the job done right. I'm on about iteration 25 by now but the board design only gets better. I was actually surprised that my first prototype RoboGuts™ circuit board worked!

I still worry after each change that I may have screwed something up, but so far things are working very well, and now I have several little robots that I'm teaching to talk, sing 'n dance to do little skits and other educational and/or entertaining routines on a theater stage I built just for them. Now I have RoboToons Robot Theater and I'm learning how to tell short stories through the little bots ... as you can see in the demo videos I mostly use PICAXE 28X2 modules, but several of the little guys use 18M2's, 20M2's, 28X2 chips even ... the RoboGuts™ circuit board can host almost any MCU chip or module that is 28-pins or less including BS2 modules, ARM chips etc... but I prefer the PICAXE 28X2 modules myself ... they seem to be the best for 99% of applications.

I love the PICAXE 28X2 module and hope Revolution Education comes up with more modules with faster speeds and much more memory to allow my BillyBot and the miniFloppyBots to have more complex capabilities.

I call it; "Intelligent Content for 3D Printing" ... that's is exactly what the RoboGuts™ circuit board is. My goal is to sell the RoboGuts™ Kits and have end users publish their projects including photos and program listings as well as wiring diagrams for the RoboGuts™ on the website too; http://www.R2Pv1.com/ Of course they should also publish them here as well.

It's a work in progress as I build projects as I can afford to buy parts ... like a few parts for another project I hope to finish building sometime in 2016 ... a Flying Saucer like you'd expect from the movie "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind." Lots of different colored LEDs and R2D2 like sounds ... I may have to design a special circuit board just for this project as it will require a PICAXE 40X2 chip, (unless somebody smarter than me helps me do it with a PICAXE 28X2 module to control up to 32 LEDs) and still have the hserout pin so I can program the saucer sounds, speech and cool space songs. I figure once the basic project is built and published, then users can expand on the idea ... maybe turn it into a clock? Make if fly?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the demo videos ... I'm working on many more scripts ... BTW, some of the RoboToons Robot Theater shows air on PADNET TV channels in the LA area both cable systems and I think soon in Berkeley, CA. too.

A BillyBot Christmas Card
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIhwZwyA5XI

The Saga of Watt and Hu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMUtSZ19f8Y

BoneHead Sings This Is America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7aHBiynR4w

Build a miniFloppyBot w/a RoboGuts™ Kit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1DS0eKQ2VA

Build a BillyBot Robot Kit in a Day Singing "This is America"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORxg2PZpbmw

Build a BillyBot Robot Kit in a Day Singing "Electronic"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z9x55EABQs

Skully the Grim Reaper's Skull
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fE8rhQ1f_k
 
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