© 2002 RobotstoreUK all rights reserved
 

Avoider-
Construction

to pages- 0 - 1 - 3
 


The front and rear sets of legs can now be incorporated into the rocking mechanism.

M3x10 screws are inserted through the remaining holes in the rod panel and through the central holes in each of the four legs, as can clearly be seen.
It should be noted that at this stage in the construction, the front legs of Avoider are not attached to the side panels. this step is done at a later date since the screws locating the legs will also hold the rear dome in position.

   

Double check all the screw types used to attach the legs
and
make sure the correct type is used in each case
- it is easy to make a mistake with this one

   

Having now assembled the main body of Avoider, we can now turn our attention to the electronic aspects of the construction.

The motor wires must carefully be inserted through the plastic pipes, blue and orange through one pipe and green and yellow through the second pipe. One wire should be inserted at a time, with the second wire passed through the pipe rather like sewing, through each section at a time. Although rather fiddly, this can be achieved quite easily if this method is followed.
The round terminal of the wires are then fed through the holes in the plastic rear dome for connection to the PC board, as can clearly be seen in the right hand photograph.

   


Once the motor wires have been fed through the holes in the dome, the red and black wires from the battery holder and the 9V batter snap can likewise be fed through the two remaining holes in the dome ready for connection to the PC board.
The next step is to wire in the PC board itself, carefully following the wiring table in the instruction manual. All the wires must be fed through the opening at the top of th ePC board before connecting the terminals with the aid of long-nose pliers. This can be a fairly fiddly operation, and care should be taken not to damage any of the terminals.

 

   

Further views of the PC board. The left hand photograph shows the board in position within the plastic dome. The black object top left on the board as seen is the phototransistor, which has been covered with a 5mm length of black tube. This in effect aims the phototransistor frontwards. Together with the LED this is the "eye" of Avoider. The robot emits a red light and judges by the reflection if there are any obstacles ahead. the light sensor (phototransistor) distinguishes obstacles in front and gives signals to alter the rotating direction of the motor to evade obstacles.
The right hand photograph shows the wiring sequence of the PC board: the red and black wires connect the battery terminals, the adjacent four wires are the motor wires passing through the plastic tubes, while the blue and yellow wires on the extreme right are for the LED.

   

The LED with its yellow and blue wires is passed through the white stopper and pushed into its locating hole in the front dome. Crimps have to be fixed to the bare ends of the wire for attachment to the PC board.
Attention can now be passed to the two motors, one for each set of three legs.
Each motor has to be inserted into its special plastic holder and the pinion gear pushed on to the end of the drive shaft. This requires a certain amount of force. The plastic cover should be placed over the motor allowing the terminals and the flat side of the motor top to locate in their holes. The terminals should be bent out a little to prevent damage and the cover gently tapped with a hammer until properly located. the pinion gear can then be pushed on until flush with the end of the shaft.

   

The motors must then be mounted onto the base. One clip of the motor cover should be slid into position on the motor base. The motor housing sides should then be squeezed slightly to allow the remaining two clips to snap into place. this should be repeated for both motors.

Here you can see two different views of the motor housings correctly mounted.

   

The dome and the PC board can now be secured, held in place by the M3x14 tapping screws which also attach the tops of the front legs to the side panels, as can be seen in the left-hand photograph. As before, the screw passes through a metal spacer which allows the leg to move freely.

The right-hand photograph shows the batter snap and battery holder ready for insertion into the battery cradles - Avoider is almost complete!

 
to pages - 0 - 1 - 3


© 2002 RobotstoreUK all rights reserved

HOME