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Danger Will Robinson, it's back off the shelf

robogary

The Spring Clean competition inspired me me to pull another project off the archive shelf.

It's unlikely to be done for spring, but it doesn't need to be, it's a Halloween project.

In the movie Predator,  the alien has a weapons controls panel on his forearm. 

I started a project to use a similar forearm mounting for a video screen with an old fashioned green CRT radar display. 

First choice was a functional display using a rotating ToF sensor, lidar, or the like. Second choice was just playing a video that looked like radar is working.

The project went dormant because of the cost of lidar sensors, and complexity of the layered animation. Even just getting a video o play had some unexpected costs and complications. 

I have the Rpi with a touchscreen, ready to start. I was going to add discrete io around it for effect, maybe even controls for auxiliary equipment to go with the costume. The costume is a grownup Lost in Space Will Robinson, with a plethora of spacey gadgets and gizmos. 

I mention the project here to welcome additional  ideas for the radar display. 

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  • in reply to kmikemoo

    The short story about Ducks with Hammers........our robotics club at very first scifi convention program....... We demonstrated all kinds of small autonomous robots and electronics projects. The club founder even had built a robot that carried a lightweight truss bridge vertically on its nose, when the robot found the edge of a table, it laid the bridge down between 2 tables, and crossed over the gap using the bridge. 

    Folks liked all the robots, but after watching them run for a short bit, it was ho-hum, whats next. 

    The absolute #1 favorite robot of the day was a radio controlled "robot" that was built last minute using a beat up corrugated plastic sheet for a base, continuous wheel servos that were hot glued to it, and a rubber duck. A 180 degree servo was glued to the platform, and a metal meat tenderizer hammer was tyrapped to the servo horn. Swinging the hammer nearly flipped the whole thing, but was really funny to watch in its clumsiness. The kids loved it and went into destructo mode with it, like Donkey Kong. From then on, our expression was to put a Duck and a hammer on it. 

    imageimage

    this kinda goes along the the STEM involvement question a couple months back. If you want to engage kids, its gotta have a duck and a hammer and give them the controls.  

  • in reply to robogary

       I remember you sharing a bit of this a while back  It's a FANTASTIC and inspiring story.  I think a Ducks with Hammers project14 would finally motivate me to learn servos and the like. Laughing

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    There was one other project a member built several years later that was more popular than the Ducks with Hammers, it was a full size Dr Who Dalek built on an electric wheelchair frame. I hated when the guy brought it because it weighed 300 lbs and he always needed another person to help lift it into his SUV, and I was always seemed to be that other person. Kids could climb inside and drive it, a favorite for photo-ops. It met its demise when he moved to another state and his wife refused to let him take it with him. The guy also had built a Dr Who K9 robot dog out of cardboard ( mounted on top of a RC car chassis) which alot of folks went completely ga-ga over. 

  • in reply to kmikemoo

    Another project that was unbelievably popular, I built an autonomous witches broom that wandered randomly around a room. It didnt roll well on carpets, it tended to wander off when finding open doors and I'd have to go find it. It was mostly a crafting project but the Harry Potter enthusiasts wanted to use it in parades.

  • in reply to robogary

    If it had been built on an Odex-1 functionoid frame it could perhaps of climbed into the SUV itself.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9wZAjS1TKU&t=152s