» MAKE: NOISE — Discuss this article

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• Mousey Parts and More Info
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  Just wanted prospective builders of the Mousey project to know that Solarbotics.com has a parts bundle for the project for US$19.60 (dead mouse not included). Also, there's more info about the project on my robot page, at streettech.com/robotbook, and on the "Projects" discussion on my site's BBS: streettech.com/shoptalk (in the "Building Robots" conf).

  Posted by garethb2 on June 01, 2005 at 13:22:45 Pacific Time

• Just wondering...
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  Has anyone out there successfully completed this project?

  Posted by michael.brutsch on June 06, 2005 at 12:44:31 Pacific Time

• Trouble...
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  I'm working on this product, having ordered some parts from solarbotics, and harvested others from old gear. I'm curious though: my old mouse has three pronged IR emitters and receivers. I'm not quite sure if they're usable, or how to connect them up. Anyone have an idea? Also, one of them is red, and one of them is clear with a cover. I'm assuming the red one is the emitter and the covered one is the receiver. Thoughts on that too?
  
  Thanks!

  Posted by jfournier on June 10, 2005 at 19:10:38 Pacific Time

• 5V DPDT relay...
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  Just wondering if anyone's actually been able to find one of these without doing the mailorder thing... All the "electronics" stores in my area don't carry it and, per Murphy's Law, I'm unable to find the 2400 external modem I've kept for the last decade for just such an occasion. I tried it with a 12V relay and - as expected - it didn't quite work.
  
  Anyone know other common places from which one can cannibalise this part? Or is mailorder my only option?

  Posted by anatinus on June 13, 2005 at 18:04:16 Pacific Time

• 741 Op Amp
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  I think a 741 Op Amp would probably work the same too right? looks like the internal power dissapation is lower (500mW vs 1.25W). I still have to get the motors, the transistor and relay though :(

  Posted by sasimpson@gmail.com on June 14, 2005 at 12:23:11 Pacific Time

• Attaching motors
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  I have the 4.5v motors, and looking for a better way attach them (other than putty) to my chasis. I'd like to build an adjustable mount so I can experiment with tyre type and motor angle.
  
  I've noticed that the motors I have (marked N247) have two parallel punched slits on one side of the cylindrical housing (presumably for mounting). Can anyone let me know how these slits would normally be used to mount the motor?
  
  The motor specs can be found here (Jaycar, Australia)

  Posted by JayZee on June 20, 2005 at 06:42:41 Pacific Time

• instruction 14b from building the mousy bot
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  I have never used a multimeter before. I have the "22-Range Fold-Up Pocket Multimeter" from radioshack. The toggle switch came with the kit from solarbotics.
  
  I actually have all the components soldered already inside the mouse case, but the battery is getting hot. So I am trying to find a short somewhere.
  
  I want to make sure I soldered the bump switch properly. I see no wires or soldered connections touching where they shouldn't.
  
  I just need to know how to test the switch using the multimeter.
  
  Thank You

  Posted by nyjohn on June 23, 2005 at 17:51:26 Pacific Time

• Parts list?
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  Didn't the article say something about a parts list or something like that at this link??? hmmmmm

  Posted by Zodaonly on June 24, 2005 at 21:17:37 Pacific Time

• UK Maker
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  Hi,
  
  I'm really interested in making this project, and have bought the magazines and stuff and am now hunting for the parts. I can get most of them from maplins (the big electronics company here in the UK) but some are named differently. I'm pretty sure I can figure out the same part here, but I was wondering if there were any other UK Makers, and if they knew of any good UK based electronics stores? I'm new to all this stuff.
  
  :-)

  Posted by gkoshra on July 02, 2005 at 07:51:02 Pacific Time

• How does the circuit work?
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  As a non-electronic-guy I'm trying to pick my way through how the circuit works. Can anybody help explain (or know of a website that can help?).
  
  I don't understand how the motors can move differentially since they both share negative leads and only one output comes out of the LM386. Won't that make them go the same speed no matter what the input? The relay is just for the speed reverse feature, right? I've looked up the pinouts on the LM386 and I'm still just as confused? Hmmmm.

  Posted by jack42 on July 15, 2005 at 14:10:55 Pacific Time

• instructions
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  hello.
  where do i find the instructions to make my mouse? please post back

  Posted by bloodshot09 on July 15, 2005 at 21:49:42 Pacific Time

• instructions
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  Where are the instructions?

  Posted by Master_M on July 16, 2005 at 16:39:31 Pacific Time

• Bump Switch Problem
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  i've got a problem with my bump switch. the motors run fine forward but when i hit the bump switch the motors reverse but they stay in reverse. i'm not sure what's wrong.

  Posted by EpsilonSun on July 20, 2005 at 06:43:54 Pacific Time

• Bump Switch Problem
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  After further investigation I found that the bumps switch does switch from forward to reverse and back. But it takes about 20 seconds for it to go back to forward. is that supposed to happen?

  Posted by EpsilonSun on July 20, 2005 at 08:24:48 Pacific Time

• Only Motor Runs!!!
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  I'm using the Solarbotics kit but can't get more than one motor to run at a time...anyone have this problem and solved it??? VERY FRUSTRATED! Tested everything I can think of...but I'm no expert. Thanks Mouseybot fans!

  Posted by nycmckay on July 22, 2005 at 09:05:53 Pacific Time

• Mousey motor problems
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  I have gone over my entire circuit several times and can not find the problem I even swapped out the relay in hopes that it was bad. What happens is only one motor turns until I hit the switch and then it stops and the other motor turns backward for a short time then back to only one motor turning. I have switched the leads on the motors and even connected them both to pin 4 or 13 of the relay. Pin 4 only gives the motor reverse when the reverse button is hit and pin 13 only gives forward when the reverse button is not hit. The LED get’s brighter when one eye or the other or both has light so I think that part of the circuit is O.K. At this point I’m determined to get it to work so any advice will be appreciated. ~~ Tom

  Posted by bent_pipe on July 26, 2005 at 16:25:01 Pacific Time

• Mousey spins in circles?
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  I'm hoping somebody can offer some advice . I built mousey on the breadboard and he worked great. I could definitely hear the motors changing speed when I ran a flashlight over the sensors and the bump switched worked great. (BTW, I built my mousey from the kit from solarbotics).
  Now that I've got him built proper (what with solder and all), I'm having a problem. He spins in circles. The good news is that my bump switch works great! However, my left motor is always going faster. Differences in light don't seem to affect mousey at all. When I connect the multimeter to the motor leads when power is switched on, the left motor has about 5.4V and the right has about 2.3V or so.
  Also, I have a question about the LED. My LED doesn't light up at all, until I grab the wheel on the left motor and slow it down. Then the LED lights up. When I do the same thing to the right motor, the LED doesn't light up.
  I'm sure I did something foolish, but I'm hoping someone can tell me (based on these symptoms) what that foolish thing was.

  Posted by volumen-1 on August 06, 2005 at 00:58:49 Pacific Time

• Mousey Tires
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  Great tire material: O-rings. Get 'em in many sizes. Make a hub out of anything round that you can get some sort of groove in. Like a wooden dowel. Even an imperfect groove will hold the o-ring in place.

  Posted by jack42 on August 27, 2005 at 00:54:25 Pacific Time

• Mousey works!
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  My son (9yrs) and I built mousey from 100 percent scrap. Had some dificulty desolidering surface mount stuff, but all ended up OK. Ran it this evening, and we can not wait to build the next one.
  It was not encouraging on the breadboard. The motors seemed to spin too fast and the sensors made the motors react in an all or nothing fasion. Either the left would spin or the right but not both.
  In the actual mouse the inertia plus the frictional resistance causes the motors to act totally diferently.
  We used it in a dim room and it would chase a flashlight VERRRRRY acuratley.
  
  I changed only 2 things.
  1) I used the IR detectors not the "emitters" as suggested in the article.
  2) I changed the LED wireing so that it is just 350 ohms away from VCC.
  and hooked the + end of both detectors to a 1k resistor and that to VCC.
  
  LOVE THE MAGAZINE, I CANNOT STOP TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT IT.

  Posted by mcmspark on September 12, 2005 at 20:30:24 Pacific Time

• free mousey
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  you can make tons of these mouseys for all most nothing! But not with out spending about two weeks hunting down parts in old electronics. So befor spending any thing on mousey check some old stuff and garage sales. A trip to a junk yard wouldent hurt. But if you give up just by the stuff!

  Posted by hbpron on September 16, 2005 at 17:38:25 Pacific Time

• mousey's motors.
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  hey, I got mousey to work.. however he's too fast! I think this is because im using a lower voltage motor? from radioshack its 1.5-3vdc. how can i slow it down? resistors? I'm a new guy to electronics so if you could help me out that would be awesome. :)

  Posted by monkeybbusiness@msn.com on August 15, 2006 at 16:10:42 Pacific Time

• DPDT relay wiring
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  The wiring diagram for the relay is designed for the Solarbotics RE1 (and others of this type with common poles on 4 and 13).
  
  I got my relay elsewhere (from Hobby Engineering - RTE24005F), and the wiring had to be adjusted.
  
  Pin 1 (+ voltage)
  Pin 4 (connect to pin 9)
  Pin 6 (right motor +)
  Pin 8 (connect to pin 1 and pin 13)
  Pin 9 (connect to pin 4 and ground)
  Pin 11 (left motor +)
  Pin 13 (connect to pin 8)
  Pin 16 (connect to 3904 transistor)

  Posted by gibsonmax on May 26, 2007 at 17:50:55 Pacific Time

• mousy the junk bot
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  Dude i cant find a list of the parts. HELP!!!!!!!!!!! Please post back or send them to my email (akcatfish@comcast.net)

  Posted by akcatfish on January 05, 2008 at 22:28:16 Pacific Time

• mousy the junk bot
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  Dude i cant find a list of the parts. HELP!!!!!!!!!!! Please post back or send them to my email (akcatfish@comcast.net)

  Posted by akcatfish on January 05, 2008 at 22:28:18 Pacific Time

• Mousey Bump Switch Stops Motors
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  I've breadboarded my Mouse Bot and have gone over the wiring a few times. I'm using the wiring diagram from Gareth Branwyn. You can see it on page 102 of this pdf:
  
  http://makezine.com/images/02/mousy.pdf
  
  I'm having this problem: when I hit the bump switch, the motors stop for a few seconds instead of spinning in reverse. I'm using an LM386 Op Amp. Instead of the 3904 transistor I'm using a PN2222. My 5V Relay is an Aromat NAIS TX2SA-5V 2A DPDT SMD relay. And I'm using a 22microfarad capacitor.
  
  I've tested the motors in forward and reverse. They work fine. But the bump switch is making them freeze instead of reverse. I've tried a new capacitor. Any ideas?

  Posted by rjp9ryan on January 02, 2010 at 09:21:12 Pacific Time