How to build the Boxy Robot!
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Step 1: Spread out all of the items needed for your Boxy Robot!
You should have an esp8266, a L9110S Motor Driver, two DC Motors/Wheels, two 18650 Batteries, an 18650 Battery Holder, a Custom Power Breakout Board, various wires, and the box itself!
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Step 2: Box in hand, fold the edges to create the start to your robot!
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Step 3: Draw and design your own Boxy Robot.
Color your robot in all manner of designs!
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Step 4: We will now be placing the motors into the robot.
First you will want to line up the motors so that they are pressing against a side of the box.
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Step 5: Now punch holes, that line up with the motor rods, with a screwdriver into the sides of the box so the motor rods can go through the box.
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Step 6: Now that the motor rods are sticking out of the box, glue the motors in place with a hot glue gun.
Add a lot of glue to keep the motors in place!
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Step 7: Press the wheels onto the motor rods sticking out of the box.
Press hard so that the wheels don't come off!
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Step 8: Now is the time to connect the cables of the motors to the motor driver.
The brown wire is positive (+) and the blue wire is negative (-).
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Step 9: Connect the battery pack to the power breakout board by connecting the red wire (+) to the red terminal side of the connector and the black wire (-) to the black terminal side of the connector.
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Step 10: Connect the motor driver and the power breakout board by connecting the red terminal (+) to Vcc and the black terminal (-) to GND on the motor driver.
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Step 11: Connect the esp8266 to the breakout board. Locate the Vin and GND pins on the esp8266. Connect the Vin to the red terminal (+) and the GND to the black terminal (-) on the breakout board.
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Step 12: Connect the esp8266 to the motor driver. Motor 1 will be connected to pins D1 & D2 on the ESP and motor 2 will be connected to pins D5 & D6.
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Step 13: This is where the code begins! Connect the ESP to the computer via its USB connection. We used the Arduino IDE to push the code to the ESP and recommend this option.
Follow the button below to start the coding process for your Boxy Robot!
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Step 14: You will need to install the esp8266 libraries for Arduino.
Follow this guide when installing.
Once installed, for board type, make sure you have the NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module) selected.
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Step 15: The ESP will ping out its own WiFi to connect to and will be named based on the ssid name in the code. The IP created is what must be connected to in order to control the robot via a smart device.
Connect to the given WiFi on your device!
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Step 16: Once you are connected to the WiFi signal your robot is sending out, you will have to figure out what IP address is being used, and connect to that on your smart devices browser.
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Step 17: You are now connected to your very own Boxy Robot! Move the robot with the touchscreen to drive your robot around! Pit yours against other robots in races or battle-bots!
If you want more of a challenge, adjust the speed of your robot in the code, experiment with the code to add different options to the web interface, or add attachments to the robot to improve your robots survival in battles!
Whatever you end up doing, have fun doing it!