< my apologies for my lack of progress on like, anything this week > distractions have included: Sleeping Fetching garden tires from auto wrecker Sleeping Changing the tires on my truck Sleeping A bit of code on the milk jug crusher Replacement engine for truck Sleeping

I have finally finished the spinning cube project!!! 😀 #Z80 #Coding #RetroComputing #SpinningCube

ok, and here I did a spped run. My big compressor be like "WTF ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE?" :D The air line isn't really big enough to keep up with the flow.

It seems that in my infinite wisdom, I solved the problem of it leaking oil by filling it with vegetable oil. In case you don't know, over time this turns to goo. I drained it and filled it with WD40, because obviously thats a good idea. Anyhow its running!

Wait, thats not a robot. I had to put the all-season tires back on my truck.

aha, I realized that the robot can be a stationary bot I've already finished, and then I could use the larger "steam engine" (I would need a boiler)

ugh, I had 4 hours sleep last night and my brain is currently useless.

This week I would like to build a steam powered robot, but I'm very not sure if the engine I have can generate enough power. I dont want to have an over-before-it-started robot :/ HMMMMMM.....

Its Monday! May the fourth be with you! ." Happy Monday!" CR

ok, I have 1 hour left to live, I can get some code written for the milk jug crusher. (There were many distractions today, mowing the lawn and setting up a replacement engine for my truck inclusive.)

From the archives... Apr 4, 2016 on Instagram: Heh

It's my Weezer guitar From the archives... Apr 4, 2016 on Instagram: Good job Ben. I gotta make some room in the garage to play.

Ka-chow! From the archives... Apr 27, 2018 on Facebook: This was fun

I'm just trying to mow the lawn and all the batteries are dead! }:/

We’ve been frog-boiled into this folks. It is a good tweet.

I'm revisiting "Sol v2". I tore it down, rewired the 1,628 pixels into eight parallel channels, and went from 20 to 72 FPS. 😁 www.evilgeniuslabs.org/sol-v2

Tomorrow I can work on finishing the firmware for the milk jug crusher and maybe get it going too. It would be nice to catch up.

I came out of this build-style (ai images for ref) with some thoughts. It feels very hack, like "haphazardly assemble out of whatever you can get". Serviceability seems low, getting into those cramped modules is effort. I dont feel like I hit the mark on this style tho,

< in a week! > Here is a short clip of how the battery holder works. If I do this again, I will change the lock path a bit, and put a small compression spring in it. One of my goals for this robot was to try out the construction style of the AI generated droids.

To build this robot, I: Designed/refined 11 printed parts. Pulled off a new method of electrical system interconnect. Designed my first omniwheel. Designed my first printed twistlock connection. Tried post-print hand-formed prints for the first time. Applied art style to a bot.

ok, lets not ask how well the robot works, but what I accomplished and learned in the process of building it...

I am using a hair dryer on high to heat and hand form the printed plates. They totally change the shape of the robot. I'm still learning.

so, as all the plates look like random potatoes, I managed to get install the first plate in the wrong location. oh well, VERY light 3d print, I can do it again.

Some testing shows it would be ok for the subwheels to be a *bit* thicker. (its my first omniwheel!)

And there we have it, from pen to print.

omniwheel is smol.

For the white plates of this robot I have made some paper templates, coloured the outer edges with a sharpie, and placed a 5cm reference mark on them. I will trace and scale them in 2d, extrude and print them. (then form them with heat)

ok, all the wiring is confirmed, I'm a bit worried about the amount of torque from the motors, next I need to make that omni wheel and figure out white cover plates.

Its a bit of a trick to know how much space to leave in the case for the extra splices and things. I think I'm doing ok.

Did I mention there is not a lot of room to work? Those pipes are 4mm diameter. I'm using wire insulation as a splice cover.

hahaha! again, the hurry to build a robot in a week shows. The red wire here is from the negative side of the battery! 🤪 I will fix this with a black pen...

< cram cram cram > Get in there! This style does not leave a lot of room to work.

Anyone want to take a shot at helping out with this weeks bot? I need a *tiny* 3d-printable (fdm) omni-wheel, the shaft is 2mm, I'm assembling other stuff, but there is a few hours if you would like to try helping out!

yay! the wires are in! < solder solder solder >

so, the pipe I'm using is medical air pipe. It is "kink-off resistant" which makes getting the wires thru them quite a pain. It turns out the wires go thru better if *not* twisted. < wire wire wire >

I'm painting a few of the parts white. The white paint I have is TREMCLAD paint and it is SO FRUSTRATING. one of the cans I have are brand new, and doesn't work, another worked for like 3 seconds and clogged. a third seems to be working enough to paint my parts. }:(

ok, the power switch module is in, I need to start wiring. I still have to design a rear wheel, and I have some parts with paint drying.

ok, I figured out a cell for holding the switch and its printing time!

ok, so, reassembly with the painted frame is looking good. I'm not sure on the pattern for the white plates tho. 52 robots in 52 weeks.

The other thing I'm not sure how to address is these white cowling plates. From what I can tell they mount to screw points that stand off the main frame. They exist on pressure points, I'm not sure where those are on this bot :]

One of the things this robot does not have yet, is an off switch. The ai droids have no control panels or switches alike, so I'm not sure how the theme works in this scenario. I think I'll make an inline module with the switch on it and run the motor lines thru it.

masked and painted. awesome, Its 1am, so I will let that dry overnight. I have a few more bits to figure out.

The next step is to strip it down and paint the frame. I'm not done yet, but if I get it generally painted now, it will just be touchup later.

Its neat, they make themselves complex, just like looking at traces after routing a PCB. 52 robots in 52 weeks

So the idea for this weeks robot is to build the little bumper-bot, but, in the AI-droid style. I have finished designing all the modules to adapt electronics to the tubes, the frame is solid copper wire that will be painted. A robot begins to form on the workbench...

I should make a mix tape and use my walkman again.

This design is carried over from the failed buddy I bot-week, its a motor-pipe-cap for this weeks robot. 52 robots in 52 weeks.

Post your warning sign (Objects removed from a box, will not fit back into that box.) (Only took 5 minutes? Check that clock again buddy.)

ok! I think rev. 3 is good! This is the switch module 52 robots in 52 weeks, finished or not?