First Steps

Published on 2016-04-04 in Tote HaD.

With the kits all soldered and ready, I’m focusing on the software development. As usual, I won’t have everything I wanted there at first, so expect software updates after the workshop. However, the basic walking is a must, so I’m focusing on that. The Micropython for ESP8266 is actually usable enough now, and I only needed a small patch to slow down the I²C communication, so that the Arduino can keep up without clock stretching. After doing that, and adding the Python code to the scripts directory, I compiled a working version of the firmware. Here are the first steps of the robot:

Of course for now the walking is slowed down (with long pauses between movements) and the leg reach is small – it should be much faster and smoother when I tune it. I will also need to add a way to control it over WiFi, and to read any sensors connected to the Arduino. By default, there is going to be only one telemetry value you can read, the battery voltage, but of course you can connect pretty much any sensor you can think of.

Also note that the front left hip servo is broken and only moves into two positions – that’s because I had to use recycled servos for the prototype. On the workshop we will use the new servos that just arrived, and they should all be fine.