As we thought out the designer for children's robotics. # 2

Hi, Habr!

Today, as promised, I will talk about one of the alternative applications of our designer.


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• As we thought out the designer for children's robotics. # 0
• As we thought out the designer for children's robotics. #one

Problem # 1. Structural elements

For about a year we have been making funny gadgets from various electronic semi-finished products.
It could be a duck feeding boat , a flower watering system or a strange thing, like the Becha RFID tape recorder .
The result of this work is the gadget itself, a video review and a wiki article. The article describes the process of assembling the device and ideas for its development. Well, the source code at the same time. In general, we are trying to make a full instruction for assembly, so that the repetition of the device would cause as little difficulty as possible for the novice cyber-model builder.

We take ideas for projects from requests on our forum or on social networks. Well, or just realize their own dreams during working hours, insolently using their official position.

During the manufacture of the device, with the electronic part and the code, everything is usually more or less clear. But the invention of the design itself is always a leap into the unknown. Here all the covenants of Andrei Alexandrovich Bakhmetyev, the “Modelist Constructor” column and the advice of fathers are used. Stones, scissors, paper, cardboard, stationery, glue, plastic bottles - everything that can be found at hand. Or "get it."

Clearly, not everyone who wants to repeat the project will want to “get” the necessary for the construction of “matches and acorns”. Especially when we get into courage. The apotheosis of design madness was the case when we were seriously considering the purchase of the old Kopey for such a project. In the end, let go - made another project.


Most often, we just need a body. Typically, the body is made of cardboard boxes from the "Matryoshka", which we have heaps.

The development cycle is two weeks. These two weeks include inventing a device, developing an electrical circuit, developing a construct, writing code, debugging, shooting a video, and writing a wiki article.

Often, the entire technical part is done by one person, who at the same time is also engaged in technical support. Very often, the time is barely enough. And it takes too much of the time to manufacture the structure.

Problem # 2. Provodochka

We have time to design and build everything, mainly due to the use of Troyka-modules. These are special scarves performing one simple function. They connect 3-wire cables to the Arduino using Troyka Shield. They took ready-made modules, connected to the Arduino - the scheme is ready, we write the code.

Face lock ordinary

If something is not in the form of triples, then a mini-layout and single wires go here. We try not to use soldering.

If there are a lot of wires and they are located in a small volume, then a “jigurd” (the term for internal use) is formed. When using three modules, the “dzhigurda” smile is already floating in the air. If the number of modules is still increased, the “dzhigurda” quickly manifests itself to the tip of the tail and loudly declares itself in verse. For my practice as a developer of such devices, I have seen both a jigurd without a smile, and a smile without a jigurd.

With the appearance of "dzhigurdy" the appearance of the device suffers greatly. Sometimes the wires sticking out from different places can be accidentally pulled out of the socket, and then strained to look - where did this wire go? In such cases, it is just necessary to somehow “comb a dzhigurda”.

Designer to the rescue

At the very beginning of work on the constructor, General Mikhail said that if a cube cannot be assembled from a constructor, then it is not a constructor. Well, we collected a cube. They called it "Sundae" and forgot it. Since then, this cube quietly stood peacefully on the table and waited in the wings. Two weeks ago, we puzzled over the constructive for the next project. Cyril twisted the cube in his hands in thought. And here it dawned on us - "Yes, we now have a designer!". Well, we decided to zababahat body directly from the "Sundae". It turned out chudnenko!

As a result, we spent a minimum of time on the assembly of the device. This is the technocube:

Instructions for assembly .

Thanks to the designer, we have significantly reduced the time for the manufacture of the device, and the whole "dzhigurda" was packed in a small volume and did not shine from there. The design turned out a small, neat and pretty. We liked this thing so much that we decided to wrap up all the components in a beautiful box and put it on the shelf .

Gift for daughter

Once, after shooting this video, I sat and, as always, sawed the robot. There were about 20 minutes left until the end of the working day. I thought that somehow I hadn’t spoiled my two-year-old daughter with presents for a long time.
She just recently started a crisis of two years. This is a well-known teenage “NOBODY UNDERSTANDS ME 11!”, But only in two years and without most consonants. Therefore, she sometimes likes to shout. My wife and I came up with a simple way to counteract - we start in chorus, smiling, shouting in response: “AAAAA!”. My daughter laughs - the conflict has been settled.
Then my eyes fell on our cube, and the idea came to my mind: “What if you collect a toy that you need to scream during the game”?

1. He quickly picked up a noise sensor from the shelf and a white supernuclear LED.
2. Stuck in Troyka Shield in the Arduino. In shild stuck sensors:
   
   

   I spent more time on drawing this circuit than on building and programming a cube

   
   
3. I wrote the simplest code so that the LED lights up when the microphone signal level is exceeded.
   
   The code does not deserve special attention, but for order I cite

   // - #define LED_PIN 10 #define MICROPHONE_PIN A5 void setup() { pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT); Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { unsigned int val = 0; for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) { val += analogRead(MICROPHONE_PIN); } val >>= 2; if (val > 700) { analogWrite(LED_PIN, map(analogRead(MICROPHONE_PIN), 0, 1023, 0, 255)); } else analogWrite(LED_PIN, 0); Serial.println(analogRead(MICROPHONE_PIN)); } 

   
   
   
   The signal level at which the LED is triggered I put on the noodle. The necessary level was then adjusted by the potentiometer built into the module directly below the voting daughter.
   
4. Wrapped it all in "Sundae":
   
   

   That's how the cube is going. Unfortunately, there are no 3D models of modules and Arduino

   
   
5. That's all. The whole process took about 20 minutes. I threw in a backpack and went home to enjoy the result:
   

Simple, fast and pretty. And it is not so offensive when, after the same 20 minutes of fun, the daughter with the ends switched to the puzzle.

Universality cube

Yes, we all love to sit and pick with the development of electrical circuits for LUT, with the debugging of interesting algorithms, with the design of beautiful buildings for laser cutting of Plexiglas or plywood. Well, or from fiberglass - as anyone.
But sometimes you want to quickly zababahat some simple little thing. In this case, Arduino, Troyka Shield and Troyka modules are a good way out. And if we add to this the constructor, then the “dzhigurda” will not work. Yes, and the child in his hands can be given, without fear of immediate destruction of the electrical circuit.

And here I have thoughts about the universality of the resulting cube. In principle, if you take a set of various Troyka-modules, Arduino and "filling", you can very quickly assemble the device for a specific task. But such tasks may be mass.

Wanted to assemble a thermostat? You are welcome! You take a module with a thermometer and a module with a relay, pack it in a ice cream maker - you get a candy. I wanted, for example, to collect ... uh ... hmm ... Something here left me muse. Okay, let's do it like this - offer up to 4 units of three modules and an idea for a device with them. If the idea is liked by the majority, a boxed techno-cube with the “ice cream” and the modules you offer will go to you. After a week I will write to whom the package will go. In order not to turn everything into a post of good, perhaps I will add all the ideas to the survey.

PS If it’s interesting to see what we will invent in two weeks, subscribe to our youtube channel AmperkaRu

UPD That's Friday came. It's time to sum up.
The competition was not a competition at all, but simply not my deliberate impromptu. Therefore, what happened, turned out. I will try to take into account all the wishes, and henceforth to impromptu is more responsible.

Well, the cube goes to nemilya .
I also could not remain indifferent to the ideas of AlNinyo and ivansimonov . Therefore, we decided to send two more dice to the trip.
Thank you all for your participation and great ideas!

PPS Today on Instagram I came across a photo of a cube that already serves in Kaspersky Lab . Such things are always a pleasure to watch. I hope the cube will warn them about the detection of threats.