Afghanistan robot

[Dick Linn]

Update from Nate:

I’ve got an update on our parts scavenging. We found a box originally used to control a camera. Contained inside (the box was brand new, too) was a 12VDC motor with a 4:1 tranny, a 24VDC motor with a 3:1 tranny. Don’t know how fast they spin or what their output is, but we’ll figure it out. Also we got 4 limit switches, 2 sensors that measure how far the sprocket has traveled, a circuit board, and there is a voltage regulator that controls 24V to 12V, but I haven’t figured out exactly where it is. If it’s on the board it could get interesting. This thing was a miniature goldmine for hardware. Got some really small chain and sprockets, 2 worm gears, and some bearings too. We’re going to look for another one so we’ll have two 12V motors and then test their capabilities to see if we can use them as drive motors. We’ve got the drive wheel and the tread itself drawn up in CAD, just need to put a few more components in and we can design the drivetrain/chassis right there in the computer with full 360 degree views of a 3D model. There’s tube stock aluminum over there, though it seemed a little thin to be a good frame material in my opinion. I’ll send a flashdrive or a CD with pictures and our design as we progress. The search for parts is coming along nicely and we’ve got some good prospects on where we might find another one of these boxes.

-Nathan
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Keep in mind folks, this is a project to keep them occupied in the off hours while they are stationed in a flat, featureless desert camp. I hope they don't start swiping parts off an Abrams tank or something.

[enrgizerbunny]

Originally Posted by Dick Linn

Update from Nate:

I hope they don't start swiping parts off an Abrams tank or something.

On we would never do anything like that. The camera box that was practically new was damaged. It suffered some sort of trauma that caused all 4 of the screws attaching it to the mount to be sheared clean off, which also caused some internal damage, but it seemed to be practically new otherwise.

[MarioGal56]

Nathan said they have enough games now, He would like snacks such as:

Nip Chee (its a cracker by Lance)
peanut butter crackers
and any kind of snack you may take for granted over here.

[MarioGal56]

AND GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!! he loves Samoas.

[Dick Linn]

This just in:

"...Christmas wasn’t too bad and New Year’s was pretty good we had a fire in our burn barrel and made s’mores....."

[rkelly23]

If we sent them a few parts they could mount thier M-4's on thier robot and it could keep them occupied and safe!

[NC GEARS]

Originally Posted by Dick Linn

One of our former team members just deployed to Afghanistan. He says:

"One of my sergeants and I are starting on a robotics project, we’ve got some treads and we found some chain and sprockets, I even found a gear box, I’m still looking for another one."

So if anyone knows where there is "another gearbox" over there, holler.

I'll keep posting if anything comes of this project. Robot enthusiasts are nuts.

that makes sense homie g in the hizzle

[enrgizerbunny]

Eh, the whole thing kind of fizzled out when we had no controller for it, if anybody sent parts that I haven't recieved I'll ship 'em back when I get them, but I moved to a different FOB (Forward Operating Base) and we never started building. I'm going to send back the parts I have and probably do something in my spare time, lots of spare time.