Update

Firstly, apologies for not updating this blog for a while. It dropped down in my priorities.

So, I'll update on what has be going on for the last few months.

New Projects..

I've started researching/working on a new project, which is very ambitious. I won't go into details just yet, but it'll involve various ARM Boards, cameras and servos. I'm currently busy acquiring parts and learning about them and various software libraries. Some parts are kickstarter projects which have been delayed.
One of the parts that'll be in the project will be the BeagleBone Black, hopefully this will be better than the Raspberry Pi for some number crunching.

(c) BeagleBoard.org

I'll try to add some posts about parts of this project, like my experiences and differences of the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black. After a while you'll probably guess what the project is :)

Making Parts..

One of my latest acquisitions has been a Replicator 2 :) A Desktop 3D printer. This will be perfect for creating parts on all of my projects in the future. It has already proved useful for fixing things around the house.

The Replicator 2 is a great 3D printer, which was up and running in within minutes of its arrival. Although I've spent some time trying to fine tune it, and learning what it is good at and not so good at.
First thing I printed was this gear cube (dowloaded design from thingieverse)..

I'll try to add some posts of my 3D Printing experiences and stuff I've designed/printed.

Old Projects..

My older projects are effectively on hold/ended. All my available time is going into research for the new project.

Hexy

Ok, I know I said I was going to update the Mobile Pi project to have speed control..but .. my Hexy finally arrived :)
What is a Hexy? Well it is a Hexapod robot kit by ArcBotics.. I backed thier Kickstarter project last year, and after a few delays the kit arrived.

Hexy as was delivered.

So, step one.. open box and unpack..

Straight out of the box.

The kit came pretty complete, with a spare servo, parts for a spare leg, and even a screw driver to put it together with. Although the screww driver was small and not very useful.. I used one of my own.
The laser-cut acrylic parts came with protective paper on, which taking off was the most tedious part of putting the Hexy together. Also some acrilic parts needed a little trimming.

Now I could write about the whole building process, but better than that, here is a time-lapse video of a guy called Rob Cook building his (hats off to him for a very well created video)

Unfortunately, I didn't have a trouble free time with my Hexy. First I broke one part of a leg, but as they supplied an extra leg, I was able to replace this :) Second, one of the servos didn't work, but again they supplied an extra servo, so was able to replace this as well.

And the final result..

Once built, next came testing. Arcbotics supplied a python application for controlling the Hexy, the program is simple and contains some pre-programmed moves for the hexy. So after downloading this, connecting the Hexy to my laptop with a USB cable.. time for Hexy to dance..

With the Hexy I also got the Bluetooth module (you can see the flashing red light of the module on the Hexy). I did try to use this instead of the USB cable, unfortunately it would only work for one move and then stop working.

So, next thing to do is get this working properly, and to also write an Android application to connect to the Hexy via Bluetooth, and control it.