Alternatives to Rovio for home surveillance?

[Patrick Goebel]

Hello HBRC'ers,

I have a Rovio robot that I can remote control from any web browser and
keep an eye on the cats. :-) It seems that the Rovio has been
discontinued and I'm wondering what I will do when the Rovio eventually
dies. After much Googling, I can't find a single other (inexpensive)
robot that does the same thing. I don't care about the omnidirectional
wheels, just a mobile robot with a wireless webcam and a web interface
for remote control. I realize you could roll your own using a Lego NXT
(+ wireless webcam) or an Arduino/XBee controlled 'bot (+ wireless
webcam) but is there really nothing else out there that just works out
of the box like the Rovio does?

Thanks!
patrick

[Wayne C. Gramlich]

Patrick:

I think you should look at the Spykee. It is basically a
Wi-Fi webcam on wheels. My recollection is that it has
treads rather than omniwheels and it also has a docking
station for recharging.

-Wayne

[Patrick Goebel]

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for the suggestion. Ask far as I can tell, the Spykee also seems
to be nearly extinct--at least in the US. There are 2 available on
Amazon for approx $600 which I think is way over the original price.
And there are a handful on eBay. The Order Now" link on the Erector
website " says "Sign up to find out when this product is available"
while the Meccano European site (www.spykeeonline.com) seems to have
them for sale for 199 Euros but you can't ship to the US.

Go figure!

--patrick

[James M. Geidl]

Patrick,

This is a ways from a Rovio but I am putting a Foscam on my current robot
that will eventually be remote controllable through the web. The Foscams
work great and aren't too expensive and since they are pan/tilt controllable
the robot doesn't have to move as much. As to the cost of the robot...well,
you know how that goes. :-)

James M. Geidl, K6JMG
D.B. Cooper, you have a message.

Hi Wayne,

Go figure!

--patrick

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[Wayne C. Gramlich]

Patrick:

I thought Amazon was selling them for $60, but apparently
they are selling the Spykee Micro which does not have
either WiFi or a camera. I just love it when marketing
deliberately tries to confuse the customer base.

Sorry,

-Wayne

[Alan]

I have a Foscam "kittycam" on the web. Plan is to move it to a 'bot
eventually.

Alan KM6VV

> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of James M. Geidl

[James M. Geidl]

I got one to try and figure out which one of my dogs was doing bad things
when I am gone and it worked great. Now I am going to plant it on top of my
latest bot.

BTW, I think they are on sale right now if anyone wants one. (no
affiliation)

Jim, K6JMG

-----Original Message-----
From: hbrob...@googlegroups.com [mailto:hbrob...@googlegroups.com] On

[Patrick Goebel]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the tip--looks like a promising camera and having it on sale
is nice. I guess one solution would be to stick it on top of a
TurtleBot (or just a Roomba or iRobot Create). Then you would have the
self-charging capability. You could do the same on a Neato XV-11. Are
you planning on designing your own self-charger?

Rather than a web interface, one could VNC/Remote Desktop into an
always-on home PC then do all the rest on the PC. Of course, that would
require a way to teleop the robot from the PC. A ROS-bot could use the
keyboard teleop package(s).

Windows users could use RoboRealm to do everything including streaming
the video--it even has a driver for the Foscam! RoboReam has built-in
interfaces for a whole pile of different robots including Lego NXT,
iRobot Create, Roomba, Rovio, Spykee, Boe-Bot, Surveyor and more. There
is also an Arudino interface
(http://www.roborealm.com/help/Sparkfun_Arduino.php) in case one already
has a mobile Arduino bot.

So many options, so little time.

--patrick

[James M. Geidl]

Patrick,

The Foscam requires 5V at about 1.5A (at the most). I have modified a USB
adapter for a car cigarette light socket to connect to my 12VDC gel cell
that powers the rest of the robot. Early signs are that it is going to work
fine. I connected the camera to the gel cell and let it run overnight and
it worked fine into the middle of the next day. At that point I decided it
was an OK solution and discontinued testing it.

James M. Geidl, K6JMG
D.B. Cooper, you have a message.

-----Original Message-----
From: hbrob...@googlegroups.com [mailto:hbrob...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Patrick Goebel
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 1:30 PM
To: hbrob...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [HBRobotics] Alternatives to Rovio for home surveillance?

[Patrick Goebel]

Ah good idea--use a big enough battery and you don't need self
charging. What are you using for your robot's brain? And do you
already know of a web interface for it, or are you going to roll your own?

--patrick

[James "Jim" M. Geidl]

I am using an Arduino. I don't know what to do about a web interface but I am soooooo far from needing to worry about that.

Jim K6JMG
--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

Patrick Goebel <pat...@pirobot.org> wrote:

[don clay]

FWIW, Spykee comes with a funky plastic rivet system to put it
together. They don't hold well. You'd need to plan to fix them with
real hardware which is doable.

[Michael]

It is too bad the Brookstone Rover is iOS remote controlled and to my knowledge does not have a web interface for remote access. Anyone hacked one of those or tunneled from iOS remotely?

http://www.brookstone.com/rover-remote-control-spy-tank-for-ipad

Michael

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[Patrick Goebel]

When you get there, this might be of some interest:

https://github.com/sirleech/Webduino

although the list of supported Ethernet shields does not include any wifi models.

--patrick

[James M. Geidl]

Thanks!!

 

James M. Geidl, K6JMG
D.B. Cooper, you have a message.
 

From: hbrob...@googlegroups.com [mailto:hbrob...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Goebel

Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 7:15 AM

[Michael]

Patrick,

I know this is an old request, but I just watched this promotional video and it seems that it may be an option for you:

Xaxxon Oculus ROV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDA4tyNGdi8 

http://www.xaxxon.com/oculus/details

It is $314 (netbook not included).  It does have self docking capability for charging.  Looks quite a bit closer to turn-key for your remote surveillance needs than a Turtle bot or roll-your-own.

Michael

[Patrick Goebel]

Thanks Michael--looks like a very nice setup, especially the included Web/IOS/Android control software and, as you said, the charging station, which, if I'm reading the website correctly, also charges the laptop!

--patrick

[Bob Smith]

You know those ride around kiddie cars? The motors and
gearboxes out of them would make a nice drive for a
floor robot. http://www.kidswheels.com/Gearboxes.html


Advantages:
- usually free, or fairly inexpensive
- durable
- high torque
- wheel axle passes through the drive

Disadvantages:
- no easy way to attach a quadrature encoder
- kind of overkill for a roomba sized bot.


Bill Wegener is a mechanical engineer that I met at
the Electronics Meet-Up. He and I are meeting at 6
this evening at The Bean Scene on Murphy in Sunnyvale
to discuss the design and construction of a small
indoor/outdoor robot.

You're welcome to join us if you're in the Sunnyvale
area and interested in floor robots using surplus
kiddie car motors and gearboxes.

Bob Smith

[Butokim]

Bob,
I've got a couple sets of those motors and they are nice but kind of miserable to mount and mount to. The other thing that concerns me is that the ones I have have a 100A stall current. Lots of juice to engineer around if not engineered for.

Jim, K6JMG

--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

Bob Smith <bsm...@linuxtoys.org> wrote:

[Alan]

I think we need to define the weight of the 'bot, and the expected speed and
terrain.
A pair of Neato XV11 drive wheels would be very good for the smaller 'bots,
although probably a little light for an outdoor 'bot.

I'm considering SuperDroid ATR wheel and shaft sets I mentioned yesterday
(I've used them).

http://www.superdroidrobots.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=385

http://www.superdroidrobots.com/images/TD-023-002.jpg

These would be for RoboMagellan, if I can get my son on board the project.
A bigger team might be nice. Anyone interested? I have some ideas about
right-angle drives and articulation I'd like to explore.


Are we talking about shaft supports and drive trains for floors inside, or
for RoboMagellan? Let's pick one (or both!) and start up some threads to
develop!

I suggest a modular approach, so that builds can be mix and match:

* Drive trains
* Power
* PID drive controller
* Sensors
* Navigation
* Communication/control


Alan KM6VV


> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of Bob Smith

[anfederman@comcast]

These motors are called Fisher-Price (FP) motors.  They used to be distributed as part of the FIRST kit of parts and were used frequently for main propulsion in the early days. I don't think they are used like this anymore. I used to have a bunch, but they all gave up the ghost eventually.  Automotive gear motors are a better choice.  Seat positioning, van door openers,  window lift motors are good.  Another choice is from cordless drills.  OTC industrial gear motors like Globe are good but expensive.

 

FP motors use a 12v (sometimes 6v) DC motor and a multiple set of plastic( 6-7 Nylon?) spur gears. The have a very strange plastic axel, and can move a fairly big payload.  It is easy to break the gearboxes however.  If you buy the motor be sure to get the axel as well, it is hard to make. I don't think they are difficult to mount -  a 1/2" steel rod can serve as a common axel that the plastic axel mounts over.  They do need to be controlled via a pwm. using an H-bridge will probably put too much load on the unit.  Slamming it forward/reverse at 12 volts will either strip the gears over overheat. When they motors overheat the internal plastic holding the fan and bushes lets go and then the motor is dead. They are also noisy (spark) as well.   I don't suggest you place and RF antennas or flammable vapors anywhere near the motors.

From: Butokim

Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 9:57 AM

To: hbrob...@googlegroups.com

[Gmail]

They do, but they tend to be quite noisy. I used a couple of them in my B9 - Lost in Space robot replica.

The nice thing is they have a whole lot of torque, come with a battery and charger, and you can often get them very cheaply at garage sales.



Thomas

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