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• Second prototype completed with box

  Emmanuel Lecomte • 10/08/2018 at 11:01 • 0 comments

  I had few hours to at least complete the second revision of the remote, and to program it.

  It's small, it's not so pretty (but prettier than revision 1 ...) but it works.

  And it's much more children proof !

  For now it's only able to drive my mini robot, but I will add other features later.

  And if you are asking, yep, the small robot head is animated. I have less space on screen with this revision than on Rev 1, so I decided to be more "graphic" than "textual" ...

  Here how it works with "robot small" (sorry for vertical video ...)

  I don't think I will be able to work on a new revision with a custom PCB until maybe 6 months or so. So for now I will use this version and complete my robot projects. And then I will start some connected home projects.

• 2nd prototype - in progress

  Emmanuel Lecomte • 09/18/2018 at 12:36 • 0 comments

  I don't have a lot of time for working on my projects, but I was able to prepare something for the 2nd prototype based on standard D1 Mini modules

  I'm not good at all on soldering, and I did a mistake with the D1 Mini Battery shield, so I had to remove and restart everything.

  But at least now it's OK and working. 

  It's built around the ꝺeshipu's D1 Mini X-Pad, using only orginal Wemos D1 mini lite + shields. I have added a LiPo + one on/off button + some button caps.
  

  These shields are very compact

  It works :-)

   Everything will be crammed into a standard 72x44x25 project box like this :
  

  I know it's ugly but it's already better than the 1st proto :-)

  Maybe I will be able to work on it in 1 or 2 weeks

• What I expect to do for the 2nd prototype

  Emmanuel Lecomte • 08/22/2018 at 07:41 • 0 comments

  I want to keep the same stack (ESP8266) for code compatibility, but what I have discovered :

  • The remote needs to be children proof. My girls are using it for the small robot. The 1st proto is "too big" for them. I need to remove R6 batteries, and use something slimier (3.7V battery ...)
  • 3 buttons is "OK" : 1 action button + 2 left / right buttons. Pressing left + right add option menu. But all the debouncing needs to be done, and I need to add more and more sub menu for every features. More buttons is better
  • The screen is quite good, and with color. But I can use something cheaper (this one cost +20$) and smaller
  • No need for status LED, the screen is enough
  • I wanted to be able to read pictures or details from the SD card but it's not usefull

  So I will start something simpler, and I have found an amazing board for this : the D1 Mini X-Pad from amazing ꝺeshipu 

  I will use :

  • The X-Pad. I love the form-factor, it seems more child compliant than arduboy-like button boards, and stay very, very small
  • 1 D1 mini lite (1 MB flash with ESP8285). It's a cheaper D1 mini. CPU core is the same, and I don't need flash space for now.
  • 1 D1 mini Oled shield. Yes this screen is very small and black and white but it's also cheap
  • 1 D1 mini battery shield
  • 1 Lipo 3.7v / 400 mA battery

  So it's just an assembly of standard boards :-/ Total price is well bellow 15$

  But for 3rd prototype, maybe I will try to create my own PCB ...

• 1st prototype building details

  Emmanuel Lecomte • 08/22/2018 at 07:25 • 0 comments

  The 1st prototype is mostly based on standard boards / modules, mixed together with 2 pre-drilled protoboard

  What's inside : 

  • NodeMCU (ESP8266) from Robodyn : https://robotdyn.com/wifi-nodem-esp8266-cp2102.html
  • Adafruit 1.8 TFT LCD with MicroSD : https://www.adafruit.com/product/358
  • A Step-up / step-down voltage regulator from polulu : https://www.pololu.com/product/2119 I love this stuff :-)
  • A battery holder (3 x LR6)
  • 3 push buttons + pull up resistors
  • 1 white LED
  • 1 groove connector for Serial connector
  • 2 custom proto board (pre drilled proto PCB)

  Node MCU is soldered (for space constraints). Everything else can be removed

  The idea was to add everything from a breadboard to space-constrained boards. And to be able to build it with a crappy solder iron, bad quality protoboard, and spare pieces. Everything was done in few days 4 months ago

  Here some pictures I have kept

  The Node MCU is taking a lot of space : at this time I didn't knew about D1 Mini :-) :

  I have tried to organize everything before soldering :

  Once completed : Yes I know, it's ugly ...

  Since then it's programming only. I work with Arduino IDE only, no micropython. Code is on github. Still in "prototype" mode ...

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