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Floppy the Robot

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the recycling-old-hardware dept.

Alien54 writes "Build your own Robot for almost Free..... As seen here where there are complete plans [and pictures] to build a robot from a 3 1/2" floppy drive without taking it apart. The floppy drive has all of the motors and electronics you need to get started and compete in a robot contest. With some old 5.25 inch drives, you can really get some power."

11 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Make sure to use broken drive... by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 5, Informative

    Floppy drives these days are of really bad quality... I went through something like a drive every two years at almost no use. Then I rescued a drive from an old 286. It's built like a tank, and still works perfectly.

    My thoughts on the robot as soon as the page loads... ;)

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  2. Pictures by Adam9 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's a project that was adapted from Fran Golden's floppy.

  3. A Few Other Pages by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Informative

    Step by Step Instructions
    Construction Pictures
    5 1/4" FLoppy II Robot
    "Floppy II" Robot Plans
    Yea, no pictures. I think this site was crawling before /. even got to it... or maybe the subscribers killed it. Subscribers: please mirror this!

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    1. Re:A Few Other Pages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Thumbnails of the pictures are here

  4. Sorta kinda like Floppy by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Informative

    A Related Site With Pictures!
    He references the /.'ed site, so at least you'll get some usable pics.

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    o0t!
  5. G-G-G-G-Google's images cache by Viswanath+Gondi · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=+site:ohmslaw.com+Floppy+Robo t+

  6. Bean there, done that... by snatchitup · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well almost. I've definitely used the stepper motors from disk drives. Steppers can be expensive.

    What I'm suprised at is the need for a the
    1 - 7805 Regulator IC

    I'm pretty sure most disk drives already have a voltage regulator already on board. The part number is no doubt OEM, but they're fairly easy to recognize, since they come close to the main Volatge, and usually use a capacitor in conjunction.

    ------

    Oh and by the way.. This page is a year old...

    1. Re:Bean there, done that... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Informative

      What I'm suprised at is the need for a the
      1 - 7805 Regulator IC

      I'm pretty sure most disk drives already have a voltage regulator already on board. The part number is no doubt OEM, but they're fairly easy to recognize, since they come close to the main Volatge, and usually use a capacitor in conjunction.

      ------

      Why? cince you have a ultra regulated 5 volt source going into it already why waste parts by adding a 5 volt regulator to regulate a already regulated 5 volt supply?

      it doesnt suprise me one bit that there isnt a regulator for any of the regulated supplies coming into the device... remember it's a add-on prephrial for a system that has the powersupply already designed in another module of the system.

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  7. Careful! by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Informative
    Does this work for 2x CD-ROM drives, too?

    Are you sure you want to build a robot armed with a laser? :^P

    Actually I did take apart an old 1.5x drive. The motors work nicely off of a small solar panel. The laser module is cute, I wish I had specs. It has a laser diode & drivers, detector for the bounced beam, and coils to steer the beam/detector with a small lens. Cool.

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  8. Mirror by SirTwitchALot · · Score: 3, Informative

    here's archive.org's mirror:

    http://web.archive.org/web/20020914113646/http://o hmslaw.com/robot.htm

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  9. Yet another mirror not /.ed yet.... by erth · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.tvdsb.on.ca/banting/ICE3M/unit6/floppy/ floppy.html Has not been /.ed yet

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