Smartphone Controlled DIY Rover Using Websockets -- Episode 438

Who doesn't love robots? In this episode, I build a hardware kit and program the software to drive a small, wheeled, non-autonomous robot. The hardware is based around a Raspberry Pi 4 and a Motor HAT used to drive a couple of DC motors. The software is based on Python, using the Flask module to run a web server, the socket io module for sending and receiving commands, and HTML and JavaScript to build a simple Graphical User Interface (GUI) for driving the rover..

Bill of Material:

Product Name	Manufacturer	Quantity	Buy Kit
Development Kit, STS-Pi Roving Robot Kit For Raspberry Pi	Pimoroni	1	Buy Now
Raspberry Pi DC Stepper Motor Hat Development Board	Adafruit	1	Buy Now
Single Board Computer, Raspberry Pi 4 Model B	Adafruit	1	Buy Now

Supplemental Content:

Smartphone Controlled DIY Rover Using Websockets

element14 presents | About Cisco | Project Videos

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Top Comments

acrobotic over 4 years ago in reply to celcius1

Hey, Paul. Yes you can drive 1 stepper motor. There's a limit into how much current the board can handle, but it should be fine for a NEMA-17 or even a NEMA-23. The HaTs are stackable as they use i2c so you can connect more motors if needed. HTH!
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celcius1 over 4 years ago

Can you drive Stepper motors with that Pi Hat
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acrobotic over 4 years ago in reply to dubbie

Heya. I'm glad you liked it. We all started from scratch, so don't be discouraged. I agree that the info at times is terse, and assumes some experience instead of breaking down each step. By all means shoot me any questions you have, and keep at it!

Cheers,
-Cisco (ACROBOTIC)
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dubbie over 4 years ago

I liked the mobile robot chassis construction, especially the two batteries/power banks and the custom made 'wings' for holding them. That's a great approach that I will have to think about using in some way. However, while I followed the beginning of the software design I was soon lost. I guess it all depends on how much background in the subjects you have.

Dubbie
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acrobotic over 4 years ago in reply to DAB

Still getting used to the site so trying this again. I'm glad you enjoyed the episode!

I had the same thoughts about my youngest dog (featured in the vid) so I recorded those scenes last. I was surprised she completely ignored it—probably due to the noise of the motors. Nonetheless, poor little Yoda was promptly skinned as soon as it was taken off the rover.
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acrobotic over 4 years ago in reply to photojames

Thanks! Here's the direct link to the code repo.

By all means let me know if you have any questions!
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DAB over 4 years ago

Very good episode.

My dog would quickly destroy both the toy and the rover if it moved like prey.

DAB
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photojames over 4 years ago

Great project!
Since I'm going to have a little bit of time off I'd like to try to build one. Am I missing something? Is there a place to find the python code? Thanks in advance
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tariq.ahmad over 4 years ago in reply to dougw

Hi dougw , thanks for the heads up. Its fixed.
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dougw over 4 years ago

Great project.
tariq.ahmad I think these element14 Presents postings should include the name of the presenter somewhere on the page.
Even the link to Maker Bro is confusing - it goes to AirborneSurfer.
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