Join us today, 8/26/2014, at 3 p.m. for the latest episode of "SparkFun Live!" In today's episode, our very own David Stillman and Ben Leduc-Mills will be talking about balancing bots and we'll be doing some live hacking of some new robots (including the WowWee MiP). Here is the video feed (of course, there's not much to see until 3 p.m.):
ReplaceMeOpen
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We hope you can join us for the final episode of "SparkFun Live" that will take place in our current building!
Juan must have a hundred photos of me, yet Mike had to choose that one for the youtube tile image. Thanks, Mike.
I'm almost positive there are less flattering ones out there...
I've been fascinated by balance 'bots for a while now, and hope to build one someday. Thanks for a great SparkFun Live episode.. it was very informative, and Dave does a hell of a good job of keeping things interesting without a script in front of him.
Uh, I need to cancel an order for a red board; maybe after a month, I'll re-enter it. Just don't want to get one of the ones from the end of the show that fell on the floor.
For those of you are humor (or humour) deprived, yeah, that was a joke. I have no order for a red board and further more, I am totally sure no red boards were harmed making that video. No, none at all. For future videos, I suggest that the hosts quaff a beer every 10 minutes of the video - might make things more entertaining.
Was just in Colorado, don't think you had tours of either old or new buildings on Thursday... Maybe a "virtual tour" of the building before the live event? :)
Can we get a summary here of all the internet links shown on the livestream? Or in the youtube video description?
If you guys are interested in building a balancing robot, I have put together a kit that uses many of SparkFun's components boards for easy soldering. Its called the PIDDYBOT and he is completely open source and ready to be built by you! You use 3 pots on the front of him to tune the system until it balances. There is bluetooth available as well. The code is pretty sloppy but it works. The body is 3D printed. Here is a link to a revised version I have made.
http://www.idlehandsproject.com/piddybot-a-needed-update/
Keep an eye out for a KickStarter. There will be a more refined version in the future that includes encoders and a much more solid circuit board platform. I'm aiming the bot as a development tool for children to have a fun way to learn about different control theories. My university has built a number of these as a demo for when younger students come in to learn about our school and what they are potentially getting into. There are also a number of maker spaces that are going to be using them as a workshop as well.
Happy Hacking! Be sure to tweet or tag #PIDDYBOT if you post any videos or images of your builds on the internet. I love seeing them!
Check out my twitter for a sneak peak at the latest balancing bot I'm building. https://twitter.com/IHPArchives Those who love tiny remote control bots will love this... Be sure to follow for updates, it will be release open source as well once proven it works.
PID = Proportional, Integral, Derivative
Does the location (high/middle/low) of the IMU matter? How about the alignment to the vertical axis?
George
Just exactly regarding Balancing robots, have you seen the projects and research we have been doing on this field with Arduinos, which have now evolved to the project called "Balanduino" See more ion how the project started and how to build your own here: http://blog.tkjelectronics.dk/2012/03/the-balancing-robot/ Or read more about the Balanduino here: http://www.balanduino.com
watched the show a bit looks very nice. (its late in my region so i`m off). just wanted to share my own self balancing i built a long time ago (i admit there are no sparkfun parts there, but it can be built from what sparkfun holds and i got familiar with sparkfun only later on). Documentation: http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=143261.0;attach=33884 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2tlKteO_ZU hope it helps someone to built his own, enjoy.