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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."

39 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Wonderful. by HobbitGod42 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Atleast now we can recycle these drives... Anyone up for a /. BattleBots Team?

  2. I bet... by DCowern · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you used an old CD or DVD drive you could build a robot with a "la-zer". You could then hold the world ransom for one million...errr...biiiillllion dollars. Muuuuah ha ha ha... muuuuuah ha ha ha...

    1. Re:I bet... by B3ryllium · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yay for frickin laser beams! Woo! Robots that can burn holes in the "ozone" layer!

    2. Re:I bet... by DCowern · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dr. Evil: or perhaps we can make robots that interfere with the loading of web pages. They disallow access so we can all it a "denial of service" attack.. we will bring the world to its knees...

      Scott: Uhhh... dad... that's already been done... they're called "slashbots" and its called the "slashdot effect"...

      Me: I can't get to the site... can ya tell? :-D

    3. Re:I bet... by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nah. They're obviously Weapons of Mass Storage.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  3. Your own airplane by dimss · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can build your own airplane from 52x CDROM.

    1. Re:Your own airplane by DrMrLordX · · Score: 5, Funny

      They make better projectile launchers. Amaze your friends as you fling high-velocity cds into their skulls! Marvel at the hospital bills!

    2. Re:Your own airplane by Poeir · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can build 500 airplanes from what I've got in the printer.

      --
      Sigs are like bumper stickers.
  4. 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... ;)

    --
    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
    1. Re:Make sure to use broken drive... by Ripplet · · Score: 5, Funny

      >It's built like a tank

      Why would anyone build a floppy drive with a revolving turret on top?
      Still, it gives you an advantage in those robot contests I suppose, especially if you use DU ammo.

      --

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

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

  6. I knew I should have saved that spam by GrodinTierce · · Score: 5, Funny
    With some old 5.25 inch drives, you can really get some power.
    Finally that spam about "Enlarge your 3.5 inch floppy" would have come in handy.

    Tierce
    --


    Tierce
    Who sponsors your feelings?
  7. More news by Zayin · · Score: 4, Funny

    What the description doesn't mention is that the web pages seem to be hosted by... [drum roll] FLOPPY THE ROBOT! Just two disk swaps per page view!

    --
    "I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy"
  8. I'd build a giant robot by mharris007 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd build a giant robot to crush your little 3.5" floppy bots. I'd build a bot out of one of those old Iomega Bernoulli drives.

    I will crush all your tiny bots!!

    --


    ---
    Mike
    I'm going to kick the next person that I see with their karma rating in their sig.
  9. 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!

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:A Few Other Pages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Thumbnails of the pictures are here

  10. And people wonder why ... by burgburgburg · · Score: 4, Funny
    robots attack? After being called "Floppy the Robot"? 8 out of the last 10 serious instances of robots rampaging have been traced back to humiliating naming and/or attire. Do we really want another "Snugglebuggle the Robot Has A Flamethrower" incident?

    Of course, if the federal government had instituted mandatory Asimov controls in robots instead of deciding that that was "anticompetitive and restrictive", we wouldn't be in this mess.

  11. 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.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  12. Great! Now you've made it mad! by teamhasnoi · · Score: 3, Funny
    Don't hammer the poor server, or the robot will start shooting little tin Enterprises, Birds of Prey, Tie Fighters and X-Wings at you.

    They really sting, and could put your eye out.

  13. 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+

  14. reboot, roboot, robot, ribbit by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't tell me, you boot the robot from a floppy, right?

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  15. Re:FINALLY! by rf0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wonder what would happen with 8"? The extinction of the human race :)

    Rus

    --
    Cheap UK and US VPS
  16. Re:Another interesting project by maetenloch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You can also build your own nuclear weapon using a discarded smoke detector and a cell phone.

    Well actually you could use the thorium from Coleman lantern mantles to make a breeder reactor like this enterprising young man did.

  17. Re:not so Wonderful. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    And in other news,
    Several so-called "slashdot readers" have been
    hospitalized with probable blindness after trying
    to get a close up view of their freakish toys
    in action...

  18. Zip drive robot by jpm242 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I build a cool rover with parts from my IOMega Zip drive, but it started making this wierd clicking sound...

    JPZ3

    --
    --- Worst tagline ever.
  19. Re:FINALLY! by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not the size, its how you use it ;)

    --
    Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
  20. World Domination by birdman666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So that's why Steve Jobs took floppy drives out of Macs, to build an army of loyal robots to take over the world. It seems so obvious now.

    --

    Nothing from nowhere I'm no one at all
  21. Images!!! by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    okay, so they're Google Thumbnails

    Respect to the AC who brought these to my attention

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  22. Re:Super Floppy by Chainsaw · · Score: 4, Funny

    And there was me sitting happily with my 8" floppy hanging off the wall

    One word: ouch.

    --
    War is one of the most horrible things a human can be exposed to. And one of the worlds largest industries.
  23. 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.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  24. 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.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  25. Okay I built one by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Funny
    I used a bunch of some old weird parts kicking around. After I powered it up, it said "I long to serve!" and something about "ire".

    Should I be worried?

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  26. mad max floppy, another crazy robot by DrD8m · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here is another floppy robot

  27. Re:FINALLY! by robslimo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I saw the article title, I immediately thought of some 8" floppy drives I've got. The neat thing about them is that they've got a standard (8051-ish?) microcontroller and socketed EPROM to control them... re-programmable floppy robot!

    Unfortunately, they also weigh as much as my 3 week old baby. I do plan to do some boating this summer... boat anchors maybe?

    -robSlimo

  28. 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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    Go away, or I will replace you with a very small shell script.
  29. Re:not so Wonderful. by Upright+Joe · · Score: 4, Funny

    And in other news,
    Several so-called "slashdot readers" have been
    hospitalized with probable blindness after trying
    to get a close up view of their freakish toys in action...

    I've news for ya. Robots have nothing to do with why slashdot readers go blind.

  30. Re:FINALLY! by Anonymous+DWord · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unfortunately, they also weigh as much as my 3 week old baby. I do plan to do some boating this summer... boat anchors maybe?

    I dunno. Good luck. I tried that last summer, but the babies kept floating to the surface.

    --
    "If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
  31. 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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