Introducing TRRSTAN, the audio controlled Cellbot:

TRRSTAN is now for sale on the inventor’s site: robots.allthingsgeek.com

Truckbots are still available at the cellbots store.

Look for a full post explaining how TRRSTAN works soon.

We have some video streaming from the phones to the big screen TV and people can also use the remote to trigger still pictures to be snapped. The demo shows off the use of Android Nexus One phones as remote controls using the accelerometer to drive the robots. That sends XMPP commands over Google Chat to another Nexus One on the robot, which act as the main brain. That phone then sends commands over Bluetooth to the robot hardware.

We hope the excitement continues and we see more kids making Cellbots this summer. Our parts lists for the Android robots and the source code project site can help you get started. Those short on time can also check out our robot kits page where we can put together a package for you. Then be sure to jump in on the discussion list to ask questions and share news of your projects!

Getting this demo ready was a big team effort that took a lot of work to go from short five minute demos to having four robots run all day for a week. Damon Kohler came through with awesome upgrades to last week’s Android Scripting Environment. Charles Chen was extremely helpful in getting the video and still image streaming setup, and used some code from Darrell Taylor’s work. Jason Holt, maker of the Boxbot, helped with the remote control mathematics and getting the demo table ready. Tim Heath upgraded the kits page for those of you interested in using one of our designs, and Glen Arrowsmith’s recent Arduino code that saved calibration data to the EEPROM was critical. Many thanks to you all!

If you are in the San Jose area this week, be sure to stop by the convention center on Thursday May 13, when the International Science and Engineering Fair is open to the public from 9am to 9pm.

The only tricky part was getting a thin 30 gauge wire to run into the back of the phone and wrap around the positive battery terminal. We tried some thicker wire at first but it prevented the phone from maintaining a connection and it would shut off accidentally. The thinner wire sits there nicely and we might try making a permanent connector on the outside of the phone so it can fit back in a pocket without a wire sticking out.

The top picture is a working version with the red 30 gauge wires above is an early test with a thicker green wire that had a flaky connection. You can see that we’re still using the HTC breakout board wiring for TX, RX, and ground, and we’re not yet connecting the fourth wire that you see here. That would be used for charing the phone but doesn’t provide enough power out to run the robot.

This video overview shows you the whole thing moving around to prove it works. No word yet on the effects of doing this on your battery so please do so at your own risk.

If you get something similar working, share it in the Cellbots support & discussion group. Bonus points if you hook your robot up to a wireless charging station!

Let’s look at two options, starting with the least expensive, but more complicate method we started with in 2009. This involves using a $0.25 hex inverter chip such as an 74LS04 chip and two resistors. We used this to send the 3.3v signal from the phone into the chip, back out at 5v but inverted (0’s were 1’s and 1’s were 0’s), and then through again to come out properly at 5v.

Handling the 5v to 3.3v side of things is even easier with two resistors. We used a 20k and a 39k resistor as described here on Make Things, but we’ve also used a 1.8k and a 3.1k as described here. Both did the job just fine and made sure we didn’t fry our phone or Bluetooth module.

The above method has served us well but we’re moving on to using this $2 logic level converter from Sparkfun.

It supports two channels of conversion and we’re only using one so far. You simply connect it to your 3.3v and 5v power sources and it handles converting the signal in and out. You can use the Arduino for both power sources since they typically provide you one of each level, even though the RX/TX pins are always 5v. All you need is a little soldering when you get the board to connect the header pins and it will plug right into your breadboard.

Some of you have pointed out that the Arduino will often treat as 3.3v RX serial input just fine. We’ve tested this as well and found it usually works. You’ll still want to lower the returning TX voltage going back down to 3.3v  to not damage your phone or Bluetooth module. To be safe though we recommend using the proper conversion each way to avoid headaches by eliminating the chances that something isn’t reading right.

We’ve posted some additional pictures of what we’re doing in our gallery and embedded it below for convenience. Read the captions to see what is going on in each shot and reach out to the Cellbots discussion group if you need a hand or want to share some tips of your own.

It sounds more complicated than it is, so check out this video of us going from the CAD design PC’s to the laser cutting room at the TechShop for printing on the Epilog.

We started by making our first robot using cardboard from recycling bins to flesh out that the parts all fit as expected. Then we moved up to using some nicer cardboard from Michaels craft store for $5 a sheet. After that we upgraded to acrylic from TAP Plastics, which ran us $20 for an 18′x24′ sheet that makes four robots.

We hope this helps you to create your own custom robot design and share it with us. It only took us a few weeks to feel comfortable so don’t be afraid to dive in and start making a personalized Cellbot today.

It’s really easy to use and not very expensive with $8 kits from Sparkfun. Here is video of us using heat shrink to protect some parts on a Cellbot:

The most helpful place we’ve used heat shrink is on the HTC breakout board that we plug into the bottom of G1 phones. We insert and remove this dozens of times a day when testing and this has helped make sure we didn’t fry things along the way.

We have some more pictures in the gallery and you can read the captions to learn more about the process. It’s quick, easy, and fun to watch like the old Shrinky Dinks you might have had as a kid. Just don’t put your Cellbot in the oven!

Here is a video of a Nexus One phone driving the Tankbot via Bluetooth (do not adjust your set, it came out very dark):

The Tankbot is using this $20 Bluetooth module from Seeedstudio, and a $19 Arduino Pro Mini that runs at 3.3v. We’re also using a $12 3.7v Lithium Polymer battery, but you could get away with 3x 1.5v AAA batteries just as easily. The LED’s for watching the Bluetooth module status are handy for debugging but optional for normal operation.

Here is a picture of early testing where we used a $22 USB to serial adapter from Sparkfun. If you get the master/slave combo Bluetooth unit from Seeedstudio, this will be required for programming the device to be a slave (it isn’t either out of the box). If you go with their slave-only unit then this won’t be needed and it should be ready to go upon arrival.

This is the final configuration where the Bluetooth module is wired into the Arduino via a small breakout board. Not pictured here is the $14 FTDI board that we use to program the 3.3v Arduino. You only need this for programming so only buy one no matter how many 3.3v Arduino’s you buy.

The Bluetooth is being used to get command signals out of the phone and into the microcontroller or servo motor driver board via serial. The software on the robot doesn’t change at all since it just receives text strings over serial and doesn’t care if there is a phone hardwired on the other end or a Bluetooth module. The phone software needs to call the right API’s though.

We’ve updated the Python code for Android here, and the Nokia code has always had that capability. The code for talking to the hardware is different where the Nrover Cellbot on Nokia uses btsocket to establish a connection via btsocket.set_default_access_point(btsocket.access_point(btsocket.select_access_point())), while on Android it is abstracted a bit more with droid.bluetoothConnect(“00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB”). Both get the job done and make a nice alternative to serial, which meant using a modded version of Android, and wasn’t possible on Nokia.

We have a few more pictures in the gallery to help you get started. Try using Bluetooth for your cellphone controlled robot today!

The process took us about 30 minutes the first time but it only takes 5-10 minutes once you’ve gone through it once. You will need several tools and be comfortable soldering small connections. A couple of 250k resistors is also needed to replace what the 5k potentiometer was doing. It used the current position of the servo gear to create a different level of resistance in the circuit. We just want to fake it as always being centered so any command to be in a position other than center will result in forward or backward rotation.

We haven’t found any micro servos for sale that have already been modified, but Fry’s often had larger ones available for under $10. Pololu also carries them in case you’re already ordering from them and want to save on shipping. These don’t fit in the current Truckbot body and use too much power to be run directly from the Arduino’s 5v source. We”re exploring some larger robots and would love to hear about your projects using servos in our discussion group.

For a detailed descriptions of how this works and what steps to take, we recommend checking out Tod’s great article on tobbot.com, which has tons of great details on what to do. We’ve also taken pictures of the servo modification process and put them in a gallery with captions to provide you with additional details.