Parts Is All I Need

When working on my projects, I try to have a lot parts on hand to choose from. First of all, it cuts down on the cost for things I need for the project, and second it goes along with my philosophy of recycling. And where do I find all of these parts? From old toys, games and other electronic equipment which no longer works. Believe it or not, there are lots of great parts in old kids toys, VCRs, RC cars or even things like old power tools. 

How do I get all of this junk? Well for starters it helps to be known as a fix-it guy, because then people bring me their broken gadgets, which sometimes I can fix but other times I can't but I kindly offer to dispose of for them. Other times I just have "Bring me your junk" drive which can bring in a lot of stuff. Finally, while not really being a Garage Sale person, if I'm at one, I will pick up some broken electronic stuff.

Once I have a pile of stuff, I start working through it, separating out the useful parts from everything else. Mainly what I'm looking for is motors, sensors, wires, screws, gears, LEDs, battery parts and springs. The one thing that I always felt guilty about was all of the plastic that I had throw away, but I think I may have come up with a way of dealing with that.

There are plastic recycling gadgets now that take plastic waste and turns it into 3D printer filament. They are a little pricey but I feel they will probably start coming down in price soon.

Over all, it's pretty awesome that we now are at a point where we have access to all of this great technology, like 3D printers, Arduinos, and other electronic pieces to rearrange and make into other awesome things.

Ball Bot Project #1

After thinking this through, and after wishing for a Ball Bot for years (see my separate page on my history with this concept), I'm starting my project for the Ball Bot. I'm basically following James Bruton's design for his BB-8, which is awesome. Watch his video series on Youtube:

I've started purchasing my own parts and would like to get a working prototype before I give out a list of the parts I have used for this project.

I'm going with a 4 motor solution like James uses because like him I think it will be easier to program. I've seen other Ball Bots and they all use a 3 motor design which may be the way I go in the end but at least I'll have enough parts to start with.

Parts

Unfortunately most of the parts that James uses for his BB-8 droid are no longer available through Sparkfun.com so I've had to improvise. Currently I have some motors which are similar to the ones that James uses, a motor controller for the Arduino, and an Arduino Uno. I'm still waiting on my Accelerometer-Gyro-Magnotometer unit and then I start engineering the basic design for the Ball-bot.

Expenses

The most expensive part of the project so far has been the motors which for 4 of them have cost a little over $70. Everything else has been under $20  we'll see how well these all work together. I still need batteries though and they can be expensive depending on the type.

Another potentially expensive piece to this would be the type of ball I choose for the robot to roll on. I'd like to make it so that it could ride on anything about the size of a basketball/ soccer ball, this would help with that cost because first of all we all have something like that in our houses, and second they don't cost too much and third, you can play with the ball when you're not using it for the robot. But for something that is durable and would only be for the robot, I'm also looking at bowling ball blanks. I've done a little pricing on these and they are pretty expensive, mostly because the blanks are usually for custom designs on the bowling ball.

Next Steps

Now that I already have the motors, the motor controller and the Arduino, I'd like to hook those up and play with some of the code to familiarize myself with how all that works together. This will mean finding some batteries to help power the motors but I may be able to find a temporary solution for this for now.

Keep on rolling!