Introduction: Rensouhou-Chan
"This instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com)"
Step 1: 3D Design
Part of Ren-chan's design process was being able to accommodate the supplied black box given in our Make Course kit. Our instructor notified us later that it was not necessary, and thus Ren-Chan could have been scaled down. Moving along, the design of the parts also took into consideration the build volume of my 3D printer. Some parts were bigger than expected, and thus requiring the part to be split into multiple parts, such as, Ren-Chan's floatie, body, and head.
Continuing with my design goals. His head was designed to house a TFT LCD Screen for his face, as well as two speakers on the side. On the top of his head there exists two openings for his turrets. The turrets were designed around the dimensions of Nerf darts. My intent was incorporate a pneumatic system to launch said Nerf darts. Due to limited funding this was not achieved. Lastly for Ren-Chan's Head, slots were designed to physically swivel his head a total of 60 degrees. Future iteration may include the use of motor to turn his head.
Next, his body or torso was designed to house the previously mentioned black box. Last minute design changes were made to include mounting holes for an Ardunio Uno, and Adafruit Perm Proto board.
The STL files are included for download.
Attachments
Step 2: Tools and Parts Needed for Ren-Chan
These are the parts you will need in order to complete Ren-Chan.
(1)7.0" 40-pin TFT Display - 800x480 without Touchscreen
(1)Adafruit "Music Maker" MP3 Shield for Arduino w/3W Stereo Amp - v1.0
(2)Speaker - 3" Diameter - 4 Ohm 3 Watt
(2) Arduino Uno boards
(1) #0, #1, #2, Phillips head screwdriver
(1) Soldering iron
Screws: Stainless Steel, Phillips Pan Head 18-8
(8) #2 - 1/4"
(8) #4 - 3/8"
(8) #6 - 1/2"
Wires
Super/Crazy Glue
Step 3: Assembly of 3d Part Files
1) In the STL files the head is split into 4 parts, Top left and right halves, and Bottom Left and right Halves.
Join the halves with superglue. Sanding may be required to align them correctly and/or sit flush. After the left and right halves are joined use #4 screws to fasten the top and bottom together. Do this only after fastening his head to the body using #6 Screws
2) His body is separated as two part files as well. Join the top and bottom portions of his body using superglue. Attach arms to body using #2 screws.
3) The floatie STL part file will be required to print four times. Assemble with superglue and paint. To fix the floatie to the bottom of the torso. Wrap the torso with duct tape around two times. This will allow the floatie to fit snugly onto the torso. Another option is to permanently fix them with screws. Superglue propeller in the position shown in the photos
Step 4: Assembly of Bread Board and Electronics
1) Solder wires on to the speakers. As well solder pins and speaker terminals on the Adafruit Music Maker Shield. follow these instructions for any further questions on the Music Maker Shield. Attach speakers to Shield.
2) Solder pins for RA 8875 Driver board. Refer to this tutorial for further information on how to use the TFT LCD Screen. Attach TFT LCD Screen to RA8875 Driver board.
3) Connect the SG92 Servo to 5V(Red wire), Ground(Brown wire), and digital pin(Orange wire) to the same Arduino that is used with the LCD, there should be plenty of digital pins unused to run the servo.
Step 5: Coding Ren-Chan
1) One Arduino will be solely used for the Adafruit music maker shield. Download the VS1053 library and upload it to one of the Unos. The code for this is shown in the first three images. Upload the simple player example to this Arduino. Add your favorite tracks and enjoy! The tracks must be labeled "Track001.mp3" etc otherwise the code will not be able to read it from the SD card.
2) The second Arduino will be used to control his LCD and servo. It is possible to drive everything off a single Arduino Uno, but it will require an extra micro controller chip and stackable headers. You will need to download and install the "Arduino GFX" and "Adafruit RA8875" Libraries. The code is shown in the last 4 images. The .ino file is included to run his face. It is a modified version of one of the example codes. In addition there is simple coding for the turret to run. It programmed to position Ren-chan's turret at three different angles. Future iteration would include bluetooth control to move his turrets.
