R2 Trashcan

This was a fun little Arduino Robotics project that I built with my daughter at the AR Regional Innovation Hub an awesome place I mentioned in the Maker Faire post a while back. Come to think of it I need to post about this year’s Maker Faire. Anyways the robot can be controlled via bluetooth using an Android app.

We have everything mounted to a chassis from another robotics kit much like the Ardokit but only to hold the parts. The motors were aligned with arms of R2 that were printed on the trash bin which turns out are not entirely even with each side. It should not have been a surprise but hey we wanted it to look cool. This posed additional problems with the motor mounts being flat which canted the wheels out. R2 moves a bit awkward. The plastic trash can from Target is a bit brittle so I had to tape the drill marks first and drill with care. A caster was mounted under the front of the R2 to stabilize.

Parts

  • R2 trash can from Target
  • IEIK UNO R3 Board ATmega328P from Amazon – Not an authentic arduino but works great and is cheap.
  • Motor Controller – I think this came from an ebay purchase
  • JBtek HC-05 Wireless Bluetooth from Amazon
  • Battery Pack
  • Motors and wheels from something like the Ardokit from Amazon but I’m not a fan of these because the terminals are real week and broke with very little stress.
  • Caster

I have better parts most from Adafruit coming in soon for a cooler more thought out project. Better wheels, better chassis and better motors.

Top