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USER GUIDE

Dagu ''Playful Puppy'' Quadruped Robot Kit 

Step 1. Center your servos

The QuadBot chassis kit includes 8x miniature servos and the Pan/Tilt kit includes 2 miniature servos. 
These servos have clear cases so you should be able to see through them well enough to check that they 
are centered.

When the servo is centered it can physically turn the same amount in each direction (approximately 90 
degrees). Before you begin assembly check that all 10 of your servos are centered. This will save you 
time in later steps. Once the robot is assembled, the center position of each servo can be refined in the 
software if required. 

Step 2. Attach the foam rubber feet

Instructions are included with the QuadBot chassis and can also be downloaded from my DAGU 
product support site . I will go through them in detail here.

Summary of Contents for Playful Puppy

Page 1: ...e servo is centered it can physically turn the same amount in each direction approximately 90 degrees Before you begin assembly check that all 10 of your servos are centered This will save you time in later steps Once the robot is assembled the center position of each servo can be refined in the software if required Step 2 Attach the foam rubber feet Instructions are included with the QuadBot chas...

Page 2: ... the equivalent of using a seperate washer and screw The pan head screws in this kit are also self tapping screws Machine screws have a fine thread and are designed to screw into machined parts where a thread is already present Step 3 Mount knee servos to legs Mount 4 of your servos on the leg segments with the foam rubber feet Use 2 3 x 8mm self tapping screws Make sure the output shaft is away f...

Page 3: ...plied 2 x 8mm pan head screws With your knee servo centered the thighs should be at 90 degrees to the leg segment with the foam rubber foot Step 6 Left and Right legs So far all of your legs should look identical Now we will seperate them into left and right legs The only difference between a left leg and a right leg is the way in which the thigh servo is mounted Mount you thigh servos as shown in...

Page 4: ...s used to mount the pan tilt kit require a 3mm screw but the miniature servo housing has a hole designed for a 2mm screw Previously I have tried using a 3mm drill bit but it bites into the plastic which can break the servo mounts and it can accidently dig into the servo cable Since the hole only needs to be opened by a small amount I found it was easier and safer to use my phillips head screwdrive...

Page 5: ...ny different sensors Look at the photo below and make sure you attach the correct bracket to the pan servo as the compound eye cannot be mounted if you use the wrong bracket The assembly instructions for the pan tilt kit are included in the kit They can also be downloaded from myproduct support site Use 2 x 6mm pan head servos to mount the bracket to the round servo horn and another 2 x 6mm pan he...

Page 6: ...to the tilt bracket Use holes that will allow the center hole of the servo horn to align with the bracket as shown without allowing too much play if the screws come loose Step 12 Align the tilt servo Use a 2 3 x 12mm screw to align your tilt servo The servo will be a firm fit in the tilt servo locating bracket Adjust the position so that the servo alignes with the pan bracket and allow room for sp...

Page 7: ...shown in the second photo Use a plastic cable tie to gently push the washers into position as shown in the third photo Once the holes line up it s easy to insert your 2 3 x 10mm screw through the brackets and washers into the servo output shaft Tighten all the way being careful not to overtighten and then back off 1 4 of a turn The tilt bracket should be able to tilt up and down fairly easily Loos...

Page 8: ... outputs Because 80mm is not long enough I have then attached 80mm male to male jumper wires This gives me 160mm female to male jumper wires as shown in the third photo By runing the wires under the tilt bracket and then over the tilt servo as shown I find the head can move freely in any direction without pulling on the wires Step 15 Mount the head onto the body Use two 3 x 10mm pan head machine s...

Page 9: ...f the wires before you starts so that they can t short out before you are ready to connect them and then install 6x fully charged batteries Cable tie your battery holder to the center of the mounting plate with your wires on the right hand side Make sure all legs can move inward about 45 degrees without hitting it Do not make the cable ties too tight You should be able to just slide the battery ho...

Page 10: ... download the manual from my support site Connect the red and black power wires from the eye The motor control circuitry connects to the processor via 4 jumpers remove the jumpers on D8 and D10 Leave the jumpers on D7 and D9 This allows us to use D8 to control the IR LEDs on the eye D10 might be used to control a small speaker or LED The left motor control circuit is still connected and can be use...

Page 11: ... by about 0 6V By adding a second diode in place of the jumper that selects the servo power we effectively have two 3A diodes in series with the battery that is reducing the voltage to the servos by a total of 1 2V Our leg servos are now getting the 6V they are rated for The leads on a 3A diode are slightly thicker that a male header pin bend the leads close to the body of the diode as shown and f...

Page 12: ...re your white orange control wire is closest to the female header Step 21 Connect your batteries Make sure the power switch is in the off position and then remove the tape from your black negative wire strip the wire back twist the strands together and then bend it over before inserting into the screw terminal as shown in the photo This will help to ensure a good connection Now remove the tape on ...

Page 13: ...ding on your OS you may need to install drivers You can download the USB drivers as well as the QuadBot Puppy program from my support site Once you have the Arduino IDE running you can open the program Make sure you have the version suited to the batteries you are using so that the robot will be able to stand on it s hind legs You will see that the code has a constants tab and an IO pins tab The c...

Page 14: ...obot will try and walk on it s back legs to follow your hand This trick might not work with the NiMh batteries as they are heavier than the LiPo battery used in the demo video Step 25 Trouble shooting The robot probably won t work very well at first Each servo is a little bit different so some tweaking is required At the start of the main loop add the line return This will cause the robot to stand...

Page 15: ...kward The knee servo allows the leg to move up and down If the robot cannot stand on it s hind legs then check you have the correct version of the code NiMh batteries are heavier than LiPo batteries This affects the robots ballance You may need to play with the code or adjust the position of your batteries a bit If you are Using NiMh then you will probably need to remove the voltage drop diode and...

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