Build a REAL Robot - Episode 5 - Base Electronics

In Episode 5 of the “Build a Real Robot” series I will show you the electronics modules that I have mounted on the base of the DB1 Robot.

Today I have taken the tower off of the DB1 robot and am going to concentrate on the base. While we have already done a lot of work with the base, all of this has so far been mechanical components like the frame, wheels and motors.

Now it's time to look at some of the electronics.

I will show you the electronic modules that will be used with the Navigation layer of DB1. This consists of an Arduino Mega 2560, a Raspberry Pi 3B+, two Cytron MD10C motor drivers plus two custom boards.

You will learn what each of these modules is going to do in the final design, you’ll also see how I have designed the Power Distribution board.

As always you will find an article accompanying this video on the DroneBot Workshop website.

Stay tuned to this series by subscribing to the YouTube channel, DB1 will be moving very soon!

[Handskemager]

Did not think of fusing the motor drivers and power rails, makes perfect sense! Thank you for a great channel with lots of great content.

I recently ordered an Arduino Mega.
Cheers from Denmark

[noahgarcia]

I am a mechanical engineering student from the University of Nebraska. I am funded for research to design a simple exoskeleton device, but none of my classes really teach me about the electronic sides of designing a machine. These videos are helping me so much with my project. Thanks for putting in the work to teach and help people.

[Scott_C]

Man... You're like the Bob Ross of robotics. So informative, empowering, and relaxing.

[cheesecake]

Man, ROS! I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. Very exciting.

[newburypi]

PS: This series is encouraging me to make headway in my own project, and I thank you very much for that.

[tameral-rodainieh]

Things getting excited 😊...
Wish you all the best waiting next video ...
Thank you 🙏

[samuela.prieto]

You're pretty much right about the Pi struggling with ROS. I'm quite familiar with ROS and in the past few months I've been using a Turtlebot3 burger model, which features a Raspberry Pi 3 as a main processor unit. The Pi easily overheats whenever you're trying to run a simple SLAM, and the Turtlebot3 doesn't handle as much payload as you're planning to handle with DB1. I ended up attaching a fan to the Raspberry and you can get away with some autonomous navigation (sticking to low resolution costmaps) as long as you're running the master and the navigation nodes on a separate computer... leaving the Raspberry running only the motor/sensor nodes.

Can't wait to see you using ROS on a custom build robot!! Keep up the good work :)

[MysticDreamer]

I don't know how you are able to create such complex content in such a short amount of time. You must be a super-genius on steroids. I love your videos precisely because you cover so much material in such a short amount of video bandwidth. And then you even keep up an entire website with all the details as well. You must have additional people working with you behind the scenes. Surely you don't do all of this yourself? Super amazing channel to be sure.

[alanullmer]

I'm a retired Machinist and I started dabbling in electronics as a hobby and I find your YouTube tutorials fascinating. So in return I'll give you some advice with my working with plexiglass. When you drill or machine the plexiglass it has a tendency to form minute fractures around the holes you drill and the surfaces you machined. It doesn't happen right away maybe within a week or two and faster if there is a lot of vibration. The fracturing will be more noticeable when you use a worn drill or endmill. Plexiglass May not seem like it but it's quite brittle. Its the pressure from the cutting tool that causes the the hairline fractures you can't see the fractures at first but from the the vibrations they increase a become noticeable. And closer to the edge you drill a hole the more the problem becomes. The Chinese use lasers to cut the holes and shapes into the plexiglass that why the robot cars bodies you get with the electronic arduino kits don't have the fractures.

[azyfloof]

Great to see some electronics on her now! :D Excellent work! Won't be long before we hear the pitter patter of tiny wheels xD

[stompreaper]

This is a great series. I'm definitely liking the improvements with the two cameras and cutting between them. It looks far more natural than the deliberate turning between the cameras 😀

[MartinBgelund]

Congratulations on yet another excellent episode from the workshop! A lot of exciting stuff you're putting into DB1, and it is my luck that you use pretty much the same components I plan to use on my robot, so I'll get a lot of good and free guidance.
Thank you!

[DocMicha]

That is exactly, whatI wanted to hear: ROS. That would be very nice becaus I wanted to build a camera Robot with ROS since more tham one year. Very nice tutorial in SUM! Many Thanks from Germany!

[admiretechnologies]

Great video!
I’m working on a very similar project. I was also planning on communicating from the computer to Arduino with SPI or I2C.
When I sarted to learn ROS, I found communicating odometry to computer not practical (lots of data throughput!)
Resorted to communicating by USB cable and ROSSERIAL module.
Wiring less elegant, but works.
Would love to share code in future.

[newburypi]

Good piece, Thank you. Looks like we are using SPI and I2C similarly :) One extra item, which I have on my "power distribution" board, is a Nano-like processor to control, monitor, and report power supply/battery status back to the Pi. I am looking forward to your adventure into ROS. I poked at it earlier and found a little overwhelming. hopefully your videos will help me figure it out.

[dafloca]

Nice video, im learning so much with you. Thanks a lot!!

[itisonlyadream]

This series is so extensive that I've never seen anything this well done before on YouTube. I'm only up to Part 5, but I'm already sure I want to build the exact unit Bill is working on, so I'm wondering if there will be a complete parts list somewhere down the line. Better yet would be a complete kit of parts for the first module that I could purchase bundled together. Even better would be a a kit of parts with Bill's custom boards pre-assembled on printed circuit boards. At this point, I'm only talking about a kit that would include the base unit with the motors, wheels, chassis parts, and drive electronics, plus access to the code needed to make it work as the foundation for building any robot. I'd gladly pay extra for the convenience of being able to buy all the parts from one source at one time. Hopefully, I'll discover later in the series that a company like Sparkfun already offers this extraordinary design as a kit, or a set of kits.

[MakerTutor]

Thank you so much. Great Youtube Channel.

[tomWil]

ROS! Really! I have some experience with ROS and using RPi, I can't wait to see the solution. Keep up the good work!

[DaveEverett]

Nice to see the robot progressing. For clarity, it's I -squared -C, not I-two-C