Hereās my attempt at creating a fully 3d printed Hand Spinner. Iām using Thingiverse user emmittās awesome Gear Bearing in place of a skate bearing.
This could be a good Christmas gift for a fidgety coworker.
This plastic spinner does not spin as well as one that uses a skate bearing, but it spins well enough to use as a fidget toy. The more I spin it, the smoother it seems to spin⦠Spinning it to make it spin smoother is tapping into my OCD and becoming a bit of an obsession⦠so I guess the toy is doing its job!
You can find the 3D printable files at Thingiverse here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1958605
If you print one, please write a message to let me know how it went!
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The iOS version currently only supports Bluetooth LE connections. (Apple does not make it easy for people to publish apps that make use of regular Bluetooth).
Like the Android version, the app has speech synthesis, and computer vision. (It has the peek-a-boo functionality and also the ball tracking functionality.)
However, the iOS version also doesnāt currently support voice recognition. This is something Iām still trying to figure out a solution for.
Iām still tweaking and testing this version of the app, but Iām planning to release it on the iTunes store soon.
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Most of this weekend has been spent updating the code to use the latest versions of all libraries, and also updating the app to the latest version of Unity (5.4).
Things are looking good after the updates.
However,
Iām hoping to have these maintenance updates completed soon. Then Iāll be working on extending the app. I have a lot of ideas for new functionality and interactions that I want to implement.
Iām excited to finally get an iOS version out soon (finally!). I know quite a few people have been asking for it, so I apologise for taking so long. The iOS version wonāt have voice recognition initially, but the other features should be there.
Iām hoping to get these updates completed this week and will upload new versions to Google Play and hopefully also iTunes.
]]>Also, check out his Github page for more details about the app and also the course that he is creating.
https://github.com/tharvey/BlocklyBot/wiki
Really fantastic project!
You can read more about it here: http://www.cevinius.com/mobbob/#comment-989
I am looking forward to checking it out!
]]>DFRobot does provide example iOS and Android projects. However, as I was making my app with the Unity game engine. I could not use that directly.
So, I ended up going through the example Android and iOS project examples provided by DFRobot to āreverse engineerā information about the Blunoās pass-though serial service/characteristic.
This post is a write up what I figure out (back when I first started working with the Bluno). This information should be useful for anyone who wants to connect to the Bluno by means other than a standard iOS/Android app.
(Iām writing this to answer Pabloās question: http://www.cevinius.com/2015/09/19/detailed-mobbob-build-instructions/#comment-987. Let me know if this helps. I connecting using Bluetooth LE.)
At the time, I was brand new to Bluetooth comms and didnāt even really know how Bluetooth LE differed from regular Bluetooth.
The examples provided by DFRobot were based about using Bluetooth LE āGATTā.
After studying the supplied Android/iOS code, reading up on GATT, and some trial/error, I figured out how to use the Blunoās GATT Services/Characteristics for doing serial communication.
The service and characteristic to use for serial comms is:
Service UUID : 0000dfb0-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
Characteristic UUID : 0000dfb1-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb
Note, the above UUID were reported back by Android when I queried the Bluno. When I queried it from iOS, the Service/Characteristic were identified by:
Service : DFB0
Characteristic : DFB1
So how do you use these to communicate with the Bluno?
On the Bluno Side:
That should be the main pieces of information you need to start talking to the Bluno!
For my app, I bought an asset from the Unity Asset Store (for about $10) which wrapped the iOS and Android Bluetooth GATT APIs into a platform independent API. I then used this library for doing communications between the Unity app and Bluno. (This enables me to deploy the Unity app to both iOS and Android.)
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Sorry it took so long, but Iāve uploaded some new MobBob parts to Thingiverse.
Nexus 6 Phone Holder:
This part is a phone holder designed for the Nexus 6 (that accounts for its curved back).
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1566146
It looks giant next to the Nexus 5 version!
Bluno Beetle Backpack:
This set of parts form a ābackpackā that fits onto the V2 mounting points that is designed specifically to fit a Bluno Beetle.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1566136
Let me know if you try these parts out for yourself! Have fun!
Kevin
]]>Sorry I havenāt posted any robot updates for a while!
My day job has been keeping me really busy lately. In āreal lifeā, Iām a Game Developer at Robot Circus (http://www.robot-circus.com/).
About a month ago, I went to San Francisco for GDC (the Game Developers Conference). The conference was AMAZING, and I got to be part of Good Gameās GDC Special!
Good Game is a fantastic, Australian TV show about video games. The special is awesome and has a lot of great info about GDC.
The show aired on TV here this week, but you can also find it on YouTube here:
The game that weāre working on at the moment is called Ticket to Earth. It has a game mechanic that blends the genres of Puzzle RPGs and Tactical Combat games. Itās a lot of fun, and Iām looking forward to getting it out there for everyone to play.
You can see a trailer of our game here:
I promise there will be some robot updates soon! I have a long todo list for MobBob and for Sphero Companion. I also have some new parts that I want to play with. This upcoming weekend is a 3-day weekend and Iām definitely planning to work on some robots then.
Updates soon!!!
Thanks,
Kevin
Now that Iām settled into the new place, Iāll be doing app updates and designing new robots again.
I have been working on some hardware updates to MobBob and Iāll post details (and STLs) soon!! Hereās a sneak peak of this update⦠This MobBob iteration has a Nexus 6 phone holder (Phablet!) and with a newly designed case for the Bluno Beetle to keep the wires hidden away and tidied up!
]]>What I found was that the app would sometimes have difficulty connecting to MobBob. And even after it manages to connect, the connection would be lost after one or two animations.
āDana Homā posted in the blog comments about a similar issue, so I thought Iād post how I solved it in case itās helpful to other MobBob builders!
It turns out, the problems went away after I used the Bluno Beetleās AT command āAT+SETTING=DEFAULTā (The DFRobot website has detailed instructions on how to do this: Link)
Iām guessing that either the Bluno Bluetooth settings were never initialised properly during manufacture, or they got corrupted at some point before reaching me. This command seemed to correctly reset the Blunoās bluetooth configuration.
Using that command seemed to fix the issues I was having. After doing that I was able to connect and had MobBob walking around my desk for about 10-15 minutes straight without any connection problems.
So, if you are having connection problems, give this a try!
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