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by angusp 3659 days ago
I wrote a bit more detail here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11903939 but

Still very alpha, specs currently are STM32F446RE (ARM M4), ESP8266 (WiFi, for control from a computer, phone...) and an accelerometer on-board. 9 channel servo control with current sensing, JTAG/USB for programming, i2c and serial interface for talking to it from an arduino, raspberry pi or other microcontroller. We're not expecting to have much GPIO free, and as I said, the firmware it's running is kinda complex, so we're not expecting most people to change it.
1 comments
asimuvPR 3659 days ago
How much weight does the frame support? Does the weight need to be centrally located? I'm thinking this would be very nice with one of those small touchscreen displays attached to it.
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angusp 3659 days ago
It's fine with a reasonable amount of weight - I'd have to ask Sandy how much weight Marty can take before he physically can't move, but a touchscreen should be fine, and won't disrupt his walking ability much. Of course you could re-plan his walking with the weight taken into account, but that's quite complex. We'll probably have standard mounting holes on top of his head, so should be a nice and easy hack :D
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asimuvPR 3659 days ago
If you keep answering I'll keep asking! :)

How many degrees of side-to-side motion can the frame take before it falls down? I'm thinking of getting two of these, putting a touchscreen on each one, and having them play joust. The objective would be to touch a dot displayed on the other players touchscreen. The things I come up with...

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angusp 3659 days ago
Well I like the sound of getting another one...

By side-side motion I'm guessing you mean a tipping force - and the the answer would be that he's pretty hard to shove over, at the limit of his lean he's stable, 10 degrees tilt and he'll fall. From fully upright, you need a bit more of a shove - having just pushed one over. Sandy says they can tip themselves if you wobble fast enough.

We're guessing you were thinking of something like this --> http://i.imgur.com/Cmmwu5A.jpg

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asimuvPR 3659 days ago
Yes, exactly. This platform is very affordable and would make a great introduction to a sumo-type robot competition using bipeds. But not shoving robots around a la RoboOne, but hitting a target drawn on a touchscreen. Its something Ive been tinkering about for a while.

I appreciate the answers. Best of luck with the project!

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