Tutorial to make a bluetooth remote controlled 1980's retro robot, that I named Master Blaster!

I found this robot shell for cheap in china town the other day. It is plastic and cost me $9.99. Its original motion was to walk forward and flash its eyes. Not very exciting...

I added the EZ-B Robot Controller Board and some servos. The DIY robot is now remote control from my computer. You can modify a similar robot to do the same. Here are the steps :)

What You Need
1 x Plastic Robot Shell
1 x EZ-B Robot Controller (www.ez-robot.com)
1 x EZ-Builder software (www.ez-robot.com)
3 x Standard Servos (http://www.hvwtech.com/products_view.asp?ProductID=878)
2 x Modified Servos (http://www.hvwtech.com/products_view.asp?ProductID=877)
1 x Battery Pack (http://www.hvwtech.com/products_view.asp?ProductID=1206)

Tools
Hot Glue Gun
Small Screw Driver Set
Soldering Iron
Dremel

Video
I suggest watching the video first, before looking at the slide show. This will give you an idea of the order of steps. Your robot may be in a different shell, so watching how I build this robot will give you an idea of how to plan ahead. Take your time :)

Step 1: Dismantle Robot Shell

Take robot apart. Use a small screw driver set and dismantle the robot. Be sure to keep screws and all the peices seperate. You'll never know what you may need, so don't throw anything out until you are done.

Step 2: Start Modifying Shell

This shell had a walking motion, so the feed would slide. In order for the feet to slide, there are little hingest at the ankles.

I put screws at the hinge points to hold the feet steady. My robot will be driven by wheels, so i don't want the legs moving at all.

Step 3: Modify Shell With Dremel

The dremel is my favourite tool when building robots.

You'll need to modify the original shell to fit your servos. I use straight cutting bits on my dremel.

I removed the battery holder. And that exposes the insides so i can fit the EZ-B board and batteries after.

Step 4: Plan Servo Placement

You will be adding servos to joints and movement.

Make sure you plan where they will go and how they will fit. Take your time, because if you cut the shell and it doesn't work... You'll have to start all over :(

In these slides, i figured out where i wanted to mount the modified servos for the wheels. Then i used the dremel to cut. And test fit.

Step 5: Mount Arm Servos

Becuase the size of the holes in the shell were already quite large, i did not need to modify them. The standard servos fit well. I drilled little holes for the mounting screws.

Step 6: Mount Movement Servos and Wheels

This robot will move with wheels, rather than a walking motion.

You should have already prepared the modified servos to be mounted. Now its time to mount them.

You may need to drill little holes for screws. Otherwise, a glue gun works well too!

I used large wheels I got from the hobby store attached to the modified sevos.

Step 7: Mount Arms

It took a bit of thinking to figure out how to mount the arms. Fortenatly, I keep lots of parts from old builds and robots lying around.

The best way to mount things to servos is to use servo hardware. The little gears and levers you get in a servo package? Yah those! :)

I used two larger servo gears and hot glue gun'd them to the arms.

Step 8: Mount Head... We're Almost There!

The head was mounted in the same fashion as the arms. Use a servo lever and screw it to the base of the head. I used 3 tiny screws to mount mine.

Tiny dremel bits come in handy for making tiny holes for tiny screws:)

Step 9: Connect the EZ-B to the Servos

Now you need to connect the brains of the robot. I chose the EZ-B Board because it is the easist to work with. It doesn't require any programmin experience, so I can build robots quickly with it.

I plug the Servos into the EZ-B and connect the battery.

The EZ-B comes with a software program called EZ-Builder. I loaded EZ-Builder and now I can remote control the robot from my computer!