555 Based Balancing Bot

This post on Reddit by [superangryguy] caught our attention today. He’s put together a video explaining the basics of how to build balancing robots, focusing on a 555 timer based one. He’s got two main versions, the 555 based one and another that is based off of two transistors. He says the 555 based one is much easier to build. This has all come about due to the upcoming 555 timer contest. if you go to the Reddit post you can get schematics for both versions as well as a sneak peak at what he plans on building for the contest. You can see the video after the break.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-afnY32RrY&w=470]

25 thoughts on “555 Based Balancing Bot

  1. Could you add another servo/wheel pair on the other side? Would that somehow change the circuit. I would like to build one with two servos.

    Also, why do you have 3-4 wires coming in on the tether? It looks like the circuit only shows the power source as missing. Could the battery pack be mounted with another servo/wheel pair to eliminate the tether?

    Very nice control – can’t believe you got that nice of a fluid response with photo resistors.

    Nice Job

  2. I love your description of derivative. Perhaps you need to decrease your gain if you want that higher derivative as well. The lower gain with the higher derivative would be able to stabilize.

  3. The only think i can think of is making a mini segway out of this thing. and strapping a little white mouse to it and its the next viral youtube video!…lmao thats just so funny..

  4. Could someone explain what the purpose of the 90 degree opposed light sensors is? Is that how you’re sensing the balance? By seeing how the light changes and trying to get it back to the original value? Wouldn’t that mean this hack wouldn’t really work for a robot that moved because the lights/shadows hitting the photoresistors would be constantly changing?

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