Every good simple robot needs a good joystick. Since the balbot has fairly simple controls (front, back, turn left, turn right), I wanted something very chunky/heavy duty but fun. And as usual, Sparkfun comes to the rescue.

The enclosure on the right is something I picked up from Radioshack (did you know these still exist? And that they are still awesome?). The joystick itself is very very chunky and looks like it can take a lot of abuse (kids at Maryland day will possibly get their hands on this, so that’s a good thing). Operation is simple and contains 4 micro-switches. 1-2 switches turn on depending on where the joystick is pointed.

For the handle to go through, I had to cut some holes into the enclosure’s cover. The big center one I made by using incrementally bigger bits – from tiny (for pilot) to BIG. The other two are just for two #4 machine screws that hold the joystick up against the cover.

A few nuts on one side to make up for not having those little screw receivers on the cover.

It fits! Oh wait… what the hell is pushing that side up?

Metal plate on the joystick was sitting on top of the screw receivers on the base. A few adjustments using bit number BIG and we’re all good.

The joystick comes with a little cap to hide the inevitably shitty drilling job you do. However, it just flails around up and down the joystick handle unless you tether it down. A little velcro keeps it tethered but still allows movement from the joystick.

All done! Electronics will have to go in later.

The last of the balbot parts finally came in today! I’ve been putting stuff together to see if everything fits. So far, things look good! There were also more parts that came in for the joystick, but that’ll get it’s own post when I get to it. Below are some shots of the enclosure coming together.

Important to start with a clean table! (well sort of anyway)

Motors with mounts. These things were a lot bigger than I expected, but still not too bad.

Still using the wheels from the first prototype (that didn’t work really). Hubs are for the 6mm shafts on the new (GIANT) motors.

The motor driver arrived in a nice box, semi-un-assembled from Pololu.

After a quick soldering session, the motor controller’s ready to go.

Laser cut panels from Pololu are awesome! Next time, I’m probably going to skip adding the tolerances I added this time.

Partially assembled! The #8-32 x 3/4 machine screws I used here are a bit big. I can probably get away with 1/2″.

Things fit together quite nicely. After screwing stuff in, the edges barely show any gaps. Once I can get hold of a new 12V battery that isn’t dead, I can hook things up and see what these motors can do. So far, the body panels + hardware holding them together weighs ~1 pound. The motors look like they could easily handle that.