Pass The Butter Robot (Rick and Morty robot) – Part 1

 

I was inspired by a Thingiverse model that a friend of myn had asked me to print for him.  I wanted to make my own version, but with a few electronics added.  I had a long list of goals in mind, however I only managed to achieve a few of them.

  • Speak its lines
  • Blink LED, like in its scene
  • Moving Arms
  • To slouch over and sit up straight
  • Microphone to react to noise
  • Moving track system so it could move around
  • Camera to identify things in its view (like turn to a person)
  • Battery powered
  • Search out for its own base station to recharge

I didn’t achieve all of these things, in fact after I figured out what I felt was the bare minimum (bold in the list above) I kind of drew the line there.  Essentially I tried to make my robot as closely as possible to scale.  This is my first time ever doing anything like this, the only experience I had coming into this project is my familiarity with Arduino.

I’ve never tried to replicate something from tv show/movie before so trying to figure this out is first.  I started by googling the average size of a brick of butter as the robot is shown beside a brick of butter.  I never really found a consistent answer, 3x3x8 inches seemed to be the most common answer.  The bricks of butter I buy (Gay Lea) are about 2.7×2.7×5 inches here in Ontario.  In the TV show the brick of butter looked quite elongated so I felt the 3x3x8 was the correct size to scale thing to.  So I printed off a few frames showing the robot and brick of butter to find my scale, then took measurements using my trusty master craft caliper.  Using these measurements I created my model in Fusion 360 (startup license).

Required Tools & Supplies

  • Soldering Iron & Solder
  • Wire Cutters
  • 18 AWG yellow silicone wire (3-4″)
  • 18 AWG red silicone wire (3-4″)
  • 24 AWG wire, not entirely necessary, nut nice it have
  • Wire wrap wire, multiple colours will make it easier to wire
  • Screw drive for your chosen screws
  • 4-40 machine pan/button head 1/4″ screws (3x)
  • 4-40 machine undercut flush head 1/4″ screws (5x), not entirely needed, the pieces these fasteners are used to secure; fit together pretty nicely without them
  • CUI CMS-28588N-L152 Speaker
  • Arduino Pro Mini (5v or 3.3v model, I used a 3.3v model)
  • FTDI USB TTL Converter (for programming an Arduino Pro Mini)
  • 2″x1″ piece of perf board
  • 1K Ohm through hole resistor (3x)
  • 2N2222A Transistor
  • Adafruit 1833 – Micro USB Breakout
  • FT90M Micro Servo (robotshop.com)
  • HS-40 Nano Servo (robotshop.com)
  • 5mm Red LED
  • Tactile Button 1-1825910-4
  • 2×3 (6 Pin) right angle, 2.54mm spacing male connector
  • 3pin JST connector male
  • 3pin JST connector female
  • 2pin JST connector male (2x)
  • 2pin JST connector female (2x)
  • JST female tips for the connectors (7x)
    note: the JST connectors aren’t essential, but are convenient for disconnecting power/push button, speaker and LED
  • Super glue, I prefer Gorilla brand super glue
  • Assort small clamps
  • 3D printer (I used a FlashForge Finder)
  • Black filament
  • White/Grey filament (these pieces will just be spray painted
  • Light Grey Primer in a spray can
  • Dark Grey Primer in a spray can

I think this is everything anyways

The 3D parts that will need printing

 

Part Comment
Paint/Prime light grey, 10 hour print, 64 grams of material. Light Grey
Completed list coming soon

 

Files and Documention

3D Files Complete

Arduino Program v1

Electronic Schematic