#replicas
Wheatley, Portal 2
‘Glados’ animation sequence
Wheatley, Portal 2
‘Fact Sphere’ animation sequence
Stabby the Roomba Update
A little test run of Stabby with the impact trigger hooked up to the audio. The battery pack is not secured yet so it tends to fall off the back a little. The next step is continuing to put his frame back together while making sure all the wires stay out of the way of the motors, and continuing programming.
We attempted to retain his original wheels but couldn’t make them work, so we’re using two wheels meant for scooters/roller skates. The original front wheel of the roomba remains as that was never motorized and exists for balance support.
Introducing Stabby the Space Roomba!
The idea of Stabby the Space Roomba has been going around Tumblr for a long while, and about two years ago we decided to made this little guy out of a broken 1st Gen Roomba. There won’t be a long post about his creation because it basically consisted of forcefully ripping out the vacuum parts and screwing a rc car on in their place.
We are excited to begin our process of upgrading him to a walking, talking, stabbing, controllable Roomba! Progress updates will be done the same way Wheatley’s were, so stay tuned to hear about Stabby’s progress!
Note: Please don’t use real knives on your Stabbys; that’s dangerous. Real knife is for photo purposes only because we temporarily lost his plastic one.
While waiting on the replacement electronics that we accidentally smoked last weekend, we’ve worked on adding live streaming video from K-9’s nose camera to the remote.
We first found an example on the web using the Flask server that I am using for K-9’s new control. However, the example uses the Flask HTML server as opposed to the Flask Socket server and they could not be run together. In theory you can stream video over sockets but the client (IPad) script gets complicated.
We then found an example using the Python simple server that I tried to run as a Subprocess/Thread. However, we could never get this to work.
We then attempted to run the Python server as a separate instance with the os.popen object. This would launch the server program and run as long as the main control sever was not running, but since we use the PiCamera in the main program for previewing K-9’s nose camera on his side screen, the server program could not access it simultaneously. We then moved the preview to the separate python video server program and added a parameter to the separate python program to either 1 – preview only, 2- stream only, 3-stream and preview. We also added a frame into the IPad/HTML control program that links to the separate streaming video server using the :8000 port. Success! This may not be the most elegant solution; but it works, its quick to load, and cpu usage is minimal.
Here is a photo of the IPad control with streaming video. The PiCamera was looking at the ceiling, but you can see how it works.
K-9 Version 3!
Back in the summer of 2016 we built a full size replica of K-9 from Dr Who based from BBC drawings and operated by a model airplane RC control. (K-9 V1)
During the winter/spring of 2017 we updated K-9 to include a Raspberry Pi and control through an I-Phone using a local Blynk server and app; Python, and Node-Red. This also added voice and video capability. (K-9 v2) K-9 won best prop at Anime Iowa that summer.
Now it’s time for another update! V3 planned updates will include:
- Conversion of the remote control from the Blynk app on an I-Phone to a local web server and an I-Pad/I-Phone control. This will allow increased flexibility in the user interface and reduce software complexity eliminating the node-red and Blynk servers on the Pi.
- A change from heavy SLA (Lead Acid) batteries to LiFePo or Lipo batteries to reduce weight. This will increase both operating time and improve counter-rotation.
- An update to the electrical system to allow for speed sensitive “hover lights”, control of eye brightness, and to better balance the load on the batteries.
- The ability to stream video from K-9’s nose camera to the I-Pad.
Keep an eye out on the blog for K-9 updates! Since he’s already on V3, his updates won’t be numbered like Wheatley’s but they’ll all be tagged/titled K-9 V3.
Post link
We want to give a shout out to Adafruit for featuring us on their website’s blog. We couldn’t have built Wheatley without all the help from them and the wonderful folks on their forums.
Time is getting short! We’re hoping to take Wheatley to cons beginning this July so we’re in the final rush to the end. The top and bottom covers are complete (not painted) and we started mounting the electronics (Pi, audio amp, servo control) inside. We’ve also started ordering things to make the human side of the costume: the jumpsuit, tank tops, and long fall boots.
The game plan is to complete internal wiring, the additional animatronic scripts, mount the pole for the base, and mount the batteries in Cube this week. Then, with luck, paint this weekend. His handles are at risk as we have to fabricate the brackets, bends the PVC pipe, paint, and mount them. This is for static handles, not moving handles. Hopefully we can get static handles in for cons this summer, and then we’ll go back in and replace them with moving handles for next year.
Friday we worked on adding more servo’s to the animation sequence. However, in the process we locked up once of the eye control servos and did not notice it until it was smoking. A replacement servo is on order….woops.
Sunday we worked on the physical Portal Gun. The center tube is now glued in place and then we added details using styrene to the front. We then filled the gaps with Bondo. Bondo is a filler used for cars that is a thin paste once mixed, dries very hard, and sands easily. However, it sets up in about 3 minutes so you have to work fast.
Wheatley’s eyelids and eyebrows are now covered. They will eventually be painted to match the rest of him.
We also merged the control software for the servos into the main voice/lights program so you can use the remote control to select an animation and play it. We started on the instruction file that drives the servos in sync with the soundtrack. This is just an excel spreadsheet for fast updates and testing of the animatronics.
Our next goals are to finish the animation scripts, install the Pi, and put the cover on him. He’ll be done before too long!
photo©jadoretotravel
Palos de la Frontera is where Christopher Columbus left Spain to find the ‘Indies’ and to change the World (for good or bad)
