The size of Wahoo is much better. Weight much lighter for it to run. The arduino nano will fit inside shortly once I solder the connections on the circuit board. Stay tune today.

The progress from inside head is being pour into Autodesk in the last 48 hours like a rain cloud feeding a water fall. 

This new design should pretty much incorporate everything including the new Arduino Nano board I tested yesterday. The circuit board together with the Bluetooth module should be pretty compact.

The body diameter is reduced back to 80mm. There will be an USB slot behind the back which makes it very easy to program it. Still 12 days to go. Eventhough I am short of my fund raising goal Wahoo will be born and I do not wish to disappoint my supporters. 

 

The past few days I take the approach of just playing around with Wahoo, making it walk and just trying to see if any further improvements are needed. I chopped the heal of both feet and that certainly helps a lot. Wahoo can run as quickly as before but only with half the outer body on. So I want to reduce its weight. 

I am also not very keen on its overall big body size so I want make it smaller and cuter. If the legs are made smaller by not using AAA batteries but instead use Lipo then Wahoo can be slimmer. Using Arduino Nano would make it shorter hence keep the same aspect ratio. That will mean shipping an extra lipo charger... Well.... That beats having to figure out how to connect the connection plates for the AAA batteries. 

During the programming of Wahoo I find it convience not having to plug/unplug the Bluetooth module. Fortunately this is now solved by connecting it to Pin 2 & 3 and with some programming.

It is a lot more convience to have the Arduino USB plug readily accessible behind the robot without having to remove the casing. So I will redesign this too. 

I want to redesign how the inner body is attached to the outer body more firmly. Right now it is very easy to lift off the outer body. The arms too should be more firmly attach to the body too.

Finally I need to figure out how to attach the Arduino Nano, BT module and Lipo to this new design. 

A lot of designing going on in my head. Any suggestion is welcome !

 

 

 

 

The past few days were spent improving the servo horn slopes. Both the body and the legs swing servo horns were redesigned. Finally it is kind of good enough to try some walking. 

 

Hey folks. Been off sick for a few days due to a flu. We have the complete robot with linkages to the servos. Been playing around with different parameters trying to make it walk this morning. I think Wahoo needs bigger feet. However would like to redesign the feet so that they are round and cute instead of flat. Still need to figure out how to draw this in Autodesk Inventor. Printing it with the 3D printer is quick. Will print the new feet with yellow.

The servos are strong enough to support the current weight. The barings inside the legs help. I already have an Arduino nano which should improve both the weight and CG. 

Anyway here are some photos. As always it is hard to take good photo of 3D printing plastics. The end result just lacks the impact. Maybe it is due to the reflective surface.

 

Check out the beautiful single piece main-chassis printed from a 3D printer. It used to be a two pieces design but find that a single piece would save more space and more rigid. The Arduino board sits on top of the chassis inside its beautifully printed case. Stay tuned for the full robot very soon.

After three weeks of designing, redesigning, and 3D printing, Wahoo gets the long awaited Android look and feel. The Ultimaker 3D printer produces a superb finish quality print with PLA plastic. Further calibration to the 3D printer settings would further enhance the quality and speed. 

What else ?  We might be able to get  some night glowing fluorescent PLA plastic. We also tested Infrared communication between IOS device with the Arduino board. The result is positive.

Stay tuned for one walking & jumping Android looking Wahoo shortly.

 

Behind the scene look of the constant desiging and redesigning.

A lot of exciting 3D printed parts had been made using PLA plastics. The finishing quality is superb. I am printing and redesigning the different parts. Stay tune. Will post something up when everything is kind of ready. 

No this is not an update on the Wahoo Robot. At least not yet.

While we are anxiously awaiting for the fully 3D printed Wahoo Robot, why not check out the Terminator T800. I know it is not as cute as Wahoo but hey it is from Skynet and is suppose to be the bad ass robot from the future or is it the past ? We manage to hack into Skynet (or maybe it is call the Internet nowaday) to download the schematic of the T800 Terminator and machine it in the corner of my room.

There is a perk jump from $5 to $99. I think this Terminator Skull perk for $50 can fill this gap. The money will be used to cover the large amount of plastic used in the skull, fail prints and postal cost. The remaining money is used to fund the Wahoo Robot project.

I am hoping this cool little skull which can sit on your office desk can help to attract more people to become interested in the Wahoo project.

The STL file for the Terminal T800 skull is downloaded from Thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18317 ).

The left is from Marlin firmware printing at 100mm/sec, right is from the stock firmware at 50mm/sec. The stock firmware would pause for 1/2 sec every once in a while when its buffer is full. This would create the blob you see at the edges of the heart. Marlin uses 256,000 baudrate does not have this problem. It printed much faster and smoother. The photo shows Marlin quality isn't as good at a higher speed. There are holes at the lower left of the heart from not having enough plastic. We will need to play with the calibration.