SANTA ONE (Simple And Neat Trembling Automata One)

I thought I would go for something relatively easy as my contribution to Hack the Holidays as I have not done any programming or electronics for 9 months, plus I have wanted to build a balancing robot for some time. So I purchased the Elegoo Tumbller V1.1 (https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ELEGOO-Tumbller-Self-Balancing-Compatible-Arduino/dp/B07QZQMR4N/ref=sr_1_1?crid=259WFEWK644K9&keywords=tumbller&qid=1671812720&sprefix=tumbller%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-1&th=1) and spent several days savouring it's construction.

The above photograph shows the motor and wheel assembly onto an aluminium base plate. This makes for quite a heavy bottom third of the robot which improves the balancing capability.

Then the controller is added. 

No soldering involved, just screws, nuts and pillars. The wiring is all plug and play. The Arduino Nano is already programmed so I did not have to stir my brain into too much action, although I still managed to use the wrong screws - the pan head screws provided are very similar to the countersunk ones.

Then finally the battery pack is added, charged and everything connected and turned on.

I had a cardboard head left over from my Elegoo Penguin walking robot so I tried it out. Good, but not very festive, so I moved on to a Santa Hat/Head.

Not a brilliant hack but good enough for part one. 

I added this photograph as it shows some of the landscaping I have been putting into my garden. If you look carefully you can just see some snow (Snow! In Surrey! In December!). And just to show it does actually balance:-

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Sadly, the battery in my trusty camera decided that this was the perfect time to completely give up on charging and holding charge so the video is only 6 seconds long but it is just enough to illustrate that it does balance. A new battery arrived yesterday so the next steps in my Hack The Holidays can be visually documented.

So far I have not been able to control the Tumbller as a mobile phone is needed for that and the Sim for my phone was dis-connected by the provider some years ago. Something to do with not using it for 9 months - during the early days of Covid. Who needs a phone anyway. Now I am hoping that Santa might bring me a new Sim for Christmas although I fear my 'hints' might not have been sufficiently 'loud'. 

Dubbie