Hardware

Normally I'm not into kits, but I thought my wife would enjoy this one since she is a big fan of robots and droids on StarWars!

We are done with the basic mechanical assembly and starting on the electronics assembly today.

The robot's "brain" consists of three levels. The Arduino board, on the bottom, is the main controller. Then on top of the Arduino board is the motor control board and on the very top is the sensor board. Makes perfect sense to me.... LOL

Tomorrow we will finish I wiring, I guess

Some FYI on this project.

I'm currently waiting on KeyeStudio, the supplier of this RobotTank kit, to come off their Chinese New Years holiday and provide us with the basic "demo" Arduino sketches for this, instead of the Mixly graphical "code" they provide.

There are a few reasons for this. First, I'm personally not into graphical programming (like Mixly, which seem like a child's programming toy to me) and strongly prefer the C++ like Arduino IDE coding. Second, when I downloaded the mixly archive file provided by KeyeStudio, my Avast anti-virus scanner complains the archive contains some malware; and I'm just too busy to debug and "de-virus" the KeyeStudio Mixly archive.

KeyeStudio has kindly informed me they would get me the actual Arduino demo sketches for this robot kit after the Chinese New Years holiday is past, sometimes in February. I was going to make a video on the "virus alert" when unarchiving the mixly archive from KeyeStudio, but I've just been busy and making a "look at this virus alert" video for a supplier has not been a priority here. KeyeStudio was not satisfied with my photos of the virus alert(s) and requested a video!


I imagine, however, I'll start coding this robot long before I get the demo Ardunio sketches from KeyeStudio, but let's see what happens. My plan is to go beyond the kit and add some other sensors plus some other command and control boards. Let's see how long this kit can hold our attention. We have been playing with the kit little by little, not in a hurry, since we are waiting on supplier to get us the Arduino demo sketches before diving too far into this.

More later as we progress......

Note: The spelling is correct. It is KeyeStudio, not KeyStudio.

I hope that you'll post us a video of this thing in action when it's done.

Currently the pace of assembly is controlled by my wife and her "when she feels like to assemble the robot" mood,. LOL.

We have not been in a hurry since we are also waiting for KeyeStudio to get us the Arduino demo (C++ like) sketches versus their current Mixly IDE controller code; which they have promised after the Chinese holidays.

So far, except for the Avast "Mixly virus warning" on the Mixly archive; it's been mostly smooth sailing and a lot of fun!

Update:

For those who like to Google these projects and learn / enjoy with me; this is V2 of the KeyeStudio Tank Robot.

V2 adds more sensors / capabilities and a new front LED panel. The V2 version also introduced Mixly to the project line, as I understand it. There may be other V1 to V2 robo-mutations.

KeyeStudio has already promised me they are going to upgrade their V1 demo C++ like Arduino code for the V2 model soon.

I would like to take this time to wish the KeyStudio team a safe and coronavirus-free Lunar New Year holiday season!

Please stay safe and healthy!

I would also like to thank hicksd8 who is always watching over my Arduino projects in the background like a kind of "Arduino guardian angel". Thanks Dennis!! Always appreciated!

Update:

This mini robot tank is fully assembled. Keyestudio sent me the sample code for an earlier version (version 1), not the current version (version 2), which I have attached here (the code is open and free to use from Keyestudio for similar projectsm, but I recommend the Mini Robot Tank V2 project kit).

At the moment, I'm busy on other projects, still hoping to get the V2 code, and need to buy the batteries; but hope to this this up and running in the not-to-distant future and sending data via MQTT and Node-RED, as "just another node on the network".







Mini Robot Tank V1 Code (Photos are of V2, not V1 robot):