Comments on: New Product – A Power Bank for your Raspberry Pi Robot

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:32:06 +0000

Hi there,

I don’t know of a product that would allow you to do this easily, but it is something that I’d like to get working with our robots at some point in the future.

You can buy some DIY wireless power kits, but as far as I know they only deliver about 0.5A so you may need to combine multiple to allow you to charge the batteries whilst the Pi is running. You’d then need to build or buy a battery charging circuit to match your particular type of battery, NiMh or Lipo etc.

Sorry I can’t be of more help. Interested to see anything you come up with though.

Regards

Alan

By: Kellen

Kellen — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 19:07:59 +0000

Hi. I don’t have the kit yet but I have a question about powering it.

I would like to power it from a battery pack that can be charged while the robot is on. Something like an induction charger or having physical contacts to a charger base like a robot vacuum.

Do you think something like that would be possible? Do you have any words of advice for accomplishing that?

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 14:58:42 +0000

Hi Jonathan, Please accept my apologies for the massive delay in replying to your question. I saw it come in but then it slipped my mind, and I've just seen it now. We're still not selling the cables on their own I'm afraid. Mainly due to having just a limited supply of the connectors. It is still something we're hoping to offer, but for now, if you're handy with a soldering iron you can find the appropriate connectors here. Regards Alan

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 10:30:17 +0000

Hi, Have you been able to offer the cables separately, or do you know if I can buy them elsewhere if you don’t plan to? I have searched your site to no avail.
Thanks,
Jonathan.

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 02:11:36 +0000

Hi Peter,

That was talking about an old version of the robot kit. Now you shouldn’t need to attach anything to the GPIO pins.

Hope that helps.

Regards

Alan

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 18:16:08 +0000

Hi, i’ve a question, you talked about cabels who are connected on the GPIO’s but i don’t know whitch i must connect.

P.S. Sorry for my bad Englisch

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 21:49:40 +0000

Hi there,

What USB WiFi dongle are you using? Also, what are you using to power the robot? If you’re using non rechargeable (alkaline) batteries, could you use rechargeable (NiMh) batteries instead?

Regards

Alan

By: J

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 09:04:52 +0000

I have built the robot and got it working. When I tried to turn it on to day, the it does not appear as a wifi network. It also turns itself off after about half a minute

By: Don

Don — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:54:41 +0000

I haven’t tried the alternative method, but will take a look at it. Probably need to craft another cable if I do so.

I bought my battery pack from Amazon, so had to make my own cable for the controller, but comparing to what you offer, its the same unit, so I would assume that eliminates the possibility of variations in the size of the battery pack.

I placed an order for some Dasu parts last week from a US based seller, didn’t know about this issue at the time, otherwise I could have ordered a second set of wheels to compare.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 13:15:42 +0000

Hi Don,

Thanks for persevering with this. When I get back into the office on the 5th I’ll try building another robot from scratch to see if I can recreate the problem. It is possible that Dagu (the company which make the 2WD chassis) may have done something like change the wheels to use different tyres without us noticing.

I’d be interested to know if the alternative method for positioning the battery pack works for you? This seems to work well for another customer, possibly using someting like velcro to hold it in place. If it works for you then I might change the instructions to recommend it, and include some velcro with the battery packs.

Regards

Alan