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Mouse
The Mouse is a photovore 'Herbie' bot built in the shell of a mouse. It is the same type of robot as the Ray that I built, however, I spent more time on this one. The Herbie photovore uses an LM386 audio op-amp to compare two light sources and move in accordance with them.
I am currently upgrading this robot... hence in this picture the missing wheel! If you look closely at the picture you can see the photodiodes, they are pink in color and are just behind the blue coils of the 'whiskers'. These photodiodes were actually salvaged from the original mouse that I took apart and used for the shell!
The Mouse is powered by four AA batteries, it has two long bump sensors at the front, which have been crafted from guitar strings (see Tips and Tricks)
The motors that I used originally for this robot were nice and small, this was ideal allowing me to tuck them inside the shell. However I soon discovered that the small wheel size did not lend itself to carpets, yet on a smooth surface they bombed it along. I am now planning to use larger gear motors which have far more torque.
25/02/06 - I have now updated the Mouse photovore with new gear motors.
I have also installed a rechargable battery, and as you can see in the above photo, a DC plug so that I can just plug it in to charge. The wheels that I am using here are the ones from Police V2, they are interchangable because good wheels are hard to come by!!
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