I added 3 lasermodules 5mW, 650nm, 3V to every hand, one to each finger. For the supply I built a little PCB, brings stabilized 3,0 V DC (like for processors). Source is the RS's 6V DC. To be able to turn the hand-beams off, there is a small switch behind the RS-head, to see on several pix in the gallery.
-Hand-LED's
Who the f... likes yellow LED's ????? I replaced them with blue ones. What else ;) On the left hand I just changed her, on the right hand I added a little optical fx to it. It's a acrylic semisphere, diameter 25mm. The inner side of that thing is made raw with sandpaper. So the light gets diffused. It looks damn "futuristic"...
-Heartbeat
The "Heartbeat" actually is the voltage, that controles the legs. I added directly parallel to the motors for the legs a red low-current LED (with the desired resistor of course). They are on long wires (~20cm), go thru the body and end behind the RS's breastshield (hotglued). So RS's "heart" flashes in two direktions and modes, depending by how RS walks. An amazing effect, and shows good, how the steps and turns "work".
-Voice off
Well, not much to say. I just putted a small switch in line to the speaker. He is located a few mm above the speaker grill. Works fine, if you want to hide the funny but sometimes "toy-like" sounds. I made the experience, everyone was exited 'bout this little guy, but when those burps and grunts where to hear, they changed fast to say, it's not a robot, it's "just" a toy... made me angry, 'cause, what's a toy, what's a "real" robot? I'm shure, the most of us know how to think about it...
-Tunnel-Beam
This shoulder-pack is a 5mW DPSS modul, cw mode, 3V DC, by 200mA. Voltage from the 3,0 V-supply-PCB (LM-30V). A motor, 2V(-5V DC) with potentiometer (see pix), 2 surface coated mirrors, one on a piece of plastic (moved holder) on the motor's axis, one on another piece of plastic (static holder). The components are mounted so, the laser beam first goes to the mirror on the static holder, then to the rotating mirror on the axis. so it produces an laser-generated circle, needing less space to place motor, reflectors and laser-source in the correct position. See the pix for better understanding. Put some fog in a room, turn the shoulder-pack on; U will have a nice green tunnel, everyone knows from disco/concerts and so on. The speed of the motor let's u control if you have a "silent" and standing tunnel-fx or an strobe-effect.
-Blue EYES
I ever wanted a robo with blue eyes ;) Red looks "angry" and is standard. But, blue LED's need more voltage than each other color, I think it's impossible to just replace the red with blue ones. A test showed me, the native LED's in RS's head take by 2 mA at 2,65 V. How much does the CPU drive? Will my blue LED light? I'm afraid, I could kill the output driver for the eyes, so I made a PCB, that amplifies the signal. Now I have 3,5V/15mA per blue LED. Additional I put some capacitors to the amp, to "slide" the eye-flashing. To see at the clip at my vid-page. I used SMD-LED's to keep the eyes small, 'cause I want them "mobile". Why? See the next mod!
-Inside the HEAD
When I do not mod the RS, I work a lot with laser stuff. I'm specialized in non-open-beam fx. One application should be now the RS's head. The old "brain" is off, the receiver is mounted on his left shoulder, the eyes are before the head (as we know), so I have space enough inside the headshells to put in a microgear, a lasermodule, a plastic "cathedral-glass" and a semi-transparent piece of acrylic for the visor. The microgear (3V DC) makes a reduction of 4690:1, rotates the cathedral-glass-disc very slow, the laser beams thru the disc, the result is given to the visor. This one is made from a acrylic semisphere, (I cutted a piece out with a fine saw). The surface of this piece was ground with sandpaper. Another piece of acrylic by the same size comes in front of the sanded one glued into the headshell. So the sanded surface of the first visor-part is protected for greasy hands ;) and gives the visor a polished outfit. The fx looks like "caged fire", unfortunately not nice to see at the clips, so I put a pic of the fx here. I hope they can imagine, how does it look real..
planned mod's :
-a construction for the feet, that make RS able to roll the way (additional to the walk function)
-wireless cam
-MP3-stick and a small amp, flat microspeakers to the arms
-IR-RX to receive/play music from an external source
but no brain-mod's, I think, he shouldn't be smarter than me :)
P.S.: Sorry for my lousy english :P