Rover 5, mounting old PC parts as chassis

Some more Rover 5 updates! I dismounted some old PC gear and found some stuff I could incorporate.

2 servos mounted and working. (standard DFRobot Pan/Tilt Kit

Rewired the project for easier cable management and handling!

Added som more pushbuttons, which gives better flexibility
using menus

Currently using 4 buttons to operate the OS

Dismounted DVD drives and PC chassis parts are pretty useful now

Here mounted on the Rover 5

Back view

Rover 5 with pan-tilt kit,breadboard and 2 servos mounted

Some more pictures of mounting a pan tilt kit on a Rover 5.

The robot chassis base plate is on a 50 mm standoff to utilize the mounting holes for a servo instead of getting a second multi-purpose bracket. Saw this on a YouTube vid. Follow the "0.1 assembly guide" that comes with the kit (and is the only one produced) as far as you can get without fastening things much, then take a look here if you need. I had to google pretty hard to find some pictures and a short video snippet, but it's out there. The kit also does not come with enough screws to mount it this way. You are supposed to get an extra MP-bracket, they come with the screws too.

HERE is the images I can find. The ones you can see on this page are my own.

These are not mentioned in the assembly instructions
and many people seek help for this kit, but it's supposedly
agreed on that this is how you do it.

Then, on the multi+bracket, put them in like this.
This will fit quite nicely. Not so much with the U-bracket.

Make sure you don't fasten the center screw until the
servo is centered. Then you can take it off, and re-position it.
Here you can also see the positions for mounting
the Arduino base plate (here with Mega ADK and breadboard)

Make sure then, that you can twist it as much as you want in each direction

Try it out. When assembling, keep using two screws to
test out that you can rotate (slowly!) the servos
The standard servos goes up to about 150 degrees
from the data sheet, but mine almost does 170 or so it seems.

Then fasten center screw

I found that there are two holes drilled in the base plate and they
actually fit quite nicely on the Rover like this.
I found some slightly thinner stand-offs from a
computer with long screw length and short stand-off length
that went nicely trough the holes after trying first with
thinner screws. (the pointy ones, I just randomly picked it from
an old computer as well)

Before the camera was out of power, I didn't get to
take a picture of how i stabilized it completely. I'll post that later. There was
a hole quite far to the left that I put in an M3 standoff with a screw
in and put on the nut. It then just sled into the outer ridge under the
breadboard. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be done this way
but it worked well for me.

Two 9V batteries, supposed to be taped in here
on opposite side of the breadboard to counter weight.
The 6xAA battery pack also helps putting
center of weight down a bit. 

More Rover 5 building

Got some new parts today from Robonor: (ty for quick shipping!)

* 9V to barrel adapters
* Breadboard buttons
* 10 and 50mm standoffs
* Breadboard cables
* Breadboard

Now I can mount both my Uno and Mega with separate breadboards on the Rover 5, and power them both from 9V, as well as having the built-in separate battery pack for the Rover. With two breadboards, I can now add more buttons and sensors too :)

The previous version of my Rover OS used a potmeter for menu selection, so this will make it a lot easier.

Now I just need to wait for some supplies from Robosavvy in the UK....

1 x IR compound eye 

1 x Dagu - 4 Channel DC Motor Controller with Encoder Support 

2 x SparkFun - Optical Detector / Phototransistor - QRD1114

....which should be here in around 2 weeks or so :) Then the Rover will actually be able to run!

Mean while, I have a ton of literally screwing around to do to get the optimal design and layout.