Meet the Custom RoboBrrds!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, June 19th, 2013

Here are the custom RoboBrrds that we created for some of the backers of the Indiegogo campaign (who backed at that level or above)

Here is a video of them all flapping their wings and working:

Let’s dive in to what each RoboBrrd is about!

This one was supposed to be a ‘horse theme’. We weren’t exactly sure what that was supposed to be like when combining it with a RoboBrrd, but we came up witha nice sunset-esque colour pallet:

A penguin themed RoboBrrd! Definitely one of my favourites, check it out:

This RoboBrrd’s theme was to be simply, blue and white. Almost like a blue jay! There are stripes on it so that it can speed through the air very quickly:

And last but not least… a very special fancy RoboBrrd with the Brrds Nest front face! It was a blast to decorate this one:

We sent them on their way flying to their masters earlier this week! Some may have already received them by now. Bye bye Brrds!

It was a pleasure to make these four customized RoboBrrds. They took a lot of time and effort, but definitely worth while. THANK YOU for backing the RoboBrrd Indiegogo campaign!

We posted two new updates on the RoboBrrd Indiegogo campaign, be sure to check them out if you are interested!

(this was originally posted over on the RoboBrrd.com blog)

Posted in: RoboBrrd (thx Adafruit!).

RoboBrrd 3D Printed Pieces – OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

Introducing the new RoboBrrd 3D printed pieces!

These are all the 3D printing files for creating your own RoboBrrd! You can download the .stl files and get printing right away and also view the dimensional drawings. Check out the webpage!

The dream of having RoboBrrd as a widespread toy all around the world is what is really motivating us. OSHW combined with availability of 3D printers, it can be possible!

One day, there will be more RoboBrrds in the world than Furbys, and everyone will make it themselves.

It seems odd that we go to a store to purchase a toy when we can create one ourselves. So let’s do it, and make a positive impact! Manufacture our own toys, customize them, learn about them, build them into robots, make them better.

We put a lot of effort into the webpage by making the pics look fun & groovy. With the 3D Viewer Mode, it’s great to be able to spin, zoom, rotate 3D files. Many people dismiss RoboBrrd as goofy/stupid/useless, so it is also nice to show the thought that went in to RoboBrrd.

On the technical side, creating the pieces to work with both the laser cut pieces and 3d pieces was interesting. The two variables were the extrusion width, and the kerf. Figuring out the extrusion width was straight forward- we measured the mdf with calipers, and they said 3.05mm. As for the kerf, it was exactly +0.2mm different than the laser cut ones. Funnily enough, the laser cut kerf adjustment was -0.1mm, which meant all that needed to be changed was the – sign to a + sign.

There is a donation button on the webpage, which will help us to create even more robots. Each donation will come with a ‘RoboBrrd Name Card’ that you can fill out and give to your newly created RoboBrrd. If you do donate, thanks a bunch!

Well, what are you waiting for? LET’S GO PRINT A ROBOBRRD!

Posted in: 3D, Fun, RoboBrrd (thx Adafruit!).

Custom RoboBrrds Progress

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Friday, March 1st, 2013

Here is a progress update about working on 6.5 custom RoboBrrds started ~1 week ago! 4 of these RoboBrrds are for backers of the RoboBrrd Indiegogo campaign. The other two are RoboBrrd chassis we had lying around half built, and the other half was a not quite complete RoboBrrd.

They are waiting, just glued together

Some of them have been painted now

Here they are drying their nice coat of gloss. Look at all of the beaks!

This was bad. We were trying to get the top face on, but it must have been stuck by some excess glue, gloss, or paint. Nothing we were trying was working, and the slots were already carved out with a knife. Standing on it seemed like a good idea, and worked for the previous Brrds. Except for this one. We were really upset about this

Here are all of the Brrds so far

Rivets installed, wing servos added

Red RoboBrrd takes a break to enjoy looking at a multimeter

Time to solder up all of these RGB LEDs and their resistors. This part is so mind-numbing and boring.

Soldered up, labeled, and with heat shrink

It took us ages to make all of these… phew!

Soldering up the LDR, resistor, and wires

Installing front face onto Blue RoboBrrd

Wiring up Black RoboBrrd

More LEDs to wire! AAAH!

The CTV RoboBrrd was sitting around doing nothing… painted it PINK!

Time for the TMP36 and Piezo speakers!

Remade Orange RoboBrrd

Black RoboBrrd is set up, calibrated, and working!

That is it for the progress so far. Much of the time gets chewed up in the little things. Here is a list of fine details that no one will know about, except the custom RoboBrrd, myself, and now you the reader!

• Excess glue was carefully taken away
• Lighter colours were two coats of paint
• Gloss was added everywhere on the Brrd (except the Skotch-Yoke pieces)
• Gloss left to dry for 24h
• Slots & holes ‘careved’ out from excess gloss & paint with knife
• Actually got a blister on my finger from all the carving
• Test fitting and more carving is done
• Adding heat shrink and labels to all the wires
• Twist wires by hand for neatness, and add additional electrical tape

It takes time to create a RoboBrrd. Hopefully you will appreciate the time & effort spent into the them. We really care about the Brrds, and it’s the same amount of effort that we put into our own as well. It’s pretty tough trying to stay focused on them, especially when there are quite a few to create! We’re aiming for the end of this weekend to finish them, but we’ll see how it goes.

Back to building the Brrds! ^_^ CHIRP!

Posted in: RoboBrrd (thx Adafruit!).

Happy Holidays from RoboBrrd & all the robots!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, December 24th, 2012

Posted in: Fun, RoboBrrd (thx Adafruit!).

RoboBrrd Indiegogo campaign funded! 151%!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Thursday, December 6th, 2012

Last night was the final countdown for the RoboBrrd Indiegogo campaign, we surpassed our stretch goal!

Big thanks to all the new and old friends of RoboBrrd, for backing the project and/or spreading the word!

We will be keeping everyone in the loop as to what is happening, and we will be posting pics and vids of the behind the scenes action on twitter/facebook/g+, so you can follow RoboBrrd!

If you have any questions about RoboBrrd feel free to ask them!

It is extremely exciting to be able to get RoboBrrd in the hands of even more people now. I can’t wait to see what people will be making with them!

YIPEE WOOT WOOT CHIRP CHIRP BEEP BLOOP WHIRR SQUAWK!

Thanks again!

Posted in: Fun, RoboBrrd (thx Adafruit!).

4 hours – RoboBrrd on Indiegogo!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

It’s getting close to the final time, so exciting! Still trying to meet our stretch goal ($15,494), hope we can make it!

Thanks everyone for the support so far, it has been a blast! Time to spend the last few hours in crazy anticipation

Posted in: Fun, RoboBrrd (thx Adafruit!).

27 hours left! & RoboBrrd Dashboard Beta!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

There are only 27 hours left for you to support RoboBrrd on Indiegogo! It’s the final countdown! Check it out here!

As you might have seen in the teaser video from last week, we were working on an application called RoboBrrd Dashboard. Now, it is available as Beta 1! Check out the video overview:

This was made entirely in Processing with controlP5. It was quite straight forward to code it, the things that took the most time were in the details, like positioning, colours, and buttons. It also writes to an xml file, to save your current theme and servo positions. Handy!

Here is a screenshot:

RoboBrrd enjoys being calibrated with RoboBrrd Dashboard!

You can download it over at robobrrd.com/dashboard! It’s open source, check out the Github repo!

This is version Beta 1, so let us know if you find any bugs so that we can fix them

Help spread the word of RoboBrrd on Indiegogo and share the inspiration of robotics! Thanks!

Posted in: apps4arduino, Programming, Projects, RoboBrrd (thx Adafruit!).