Convention-goers have likely strolled past a number of Daleks: the aliens drive around the event space, spouting threats of extermination and occasionally slapping folks with a rotating eyestalk. [James Bruton] has been hard at work building this Wii-remote-controlled Dalek with his fellow hackers at the SoMakeIt Hackerspace (you may remember our write-up from earlier this year).
Most Dalek builds seat a driver inside the body at the helm of a salvaged electric wheelchair, where they plunk around using a joystick control and simmer in an increasingly potent aroma. This version started like most, with a wooden structure from plans sourced at Project Dalek. Inside, however, [James] and his crew have tapped into the wheelchair’s motor controller to feed it a PWM signal from an Arduino Shrimp, which is linked to a Raspi. The Pi receives a Bluetooth signal from a Wiimote, and, through their custom Python script, directs the Dalek with ease.
They’re still working on finishing the Dalek’s body, but they’re using some clever tactics to push onward: using a 3D-printer to solve some of the nuanced styling choices. They’ve uploaded a gallery with additional photos on Facebook, and you can watch them goofing around with their creation (losing their balance and nearly exterminating themselves) in a video after the break.
almost looks like a badonkadonk (NOT to be confused with the porn term)
http://www.seriouswheels.com/2005/2005-NAO-Design-JL421-Badonkadonk-Rider-1600×1200.htm
a badonkadonk is a single person motorized tank like machine
you may have to copy and paste the url to make it work.
almost on the money. a Dalek is a kind of personal tank / life support for the Kaled Mutant inside..
Why throw a pi at it though?
Arduino is perfectly capable of connecting up with bluetooth directly to whatever you want to use to control it.. no python needed either.
Unless they plan some serious automation/robotics in the future (such as camera)? Seems a waste at the moment.
Exactly that. Its a hackerspace group project so – we plan to make it extremely upgradable for our members so if somebody wants to play around with some Dalek audio effects, add more automation or add a camera they have an easy to use platform to do so on.
Out in the field, there have been suggestions of making it a wifi hospot or have the ability charge your mobile phone/laptop if required so we’re looking forward to not only its completion but some of the future mods people throw at it :)
We do indeed!
Webcams, wireless hotspots, 12V power supply for 3D printers at festivals, wireless audio with voice modulator, all this and more is coming…
well.. you’ve got the eyestalk (movement), the plunger arm (movement and extention), the gunstick (movement), the head rotation and the “ear” lights. they may, if its the 2005 design of the Dalek, have the mid-section rotate tank style…
as much as I like Dr. Who, and think it’s an awesome build concept, if it’s got a Bluetooth remote so you don’t really need to have someone inside it, it looks rather uncomfortable.
Hi Aztraph – yes we were just messing around, the plan is to make it remote controlled only.
They really should try to increase the PWM-frequency to avoid that annoying buzzing sound. It’s a simple mater of using the ATmega’s hardware PWM instead of the software controlled PWM analogwrite-function witch runs at 490hz. But not all motor controllers a made for high frequency PWM.
I always aim for a frequency close to 20Khz when I need to PWM a motor, no human can hear that.
Thanks for the tip Brian, I’m going to look into that.
The most terrifying Dalak was when they could levitate.
No more mooning them from an elevated position.