background image

Insectbot Hexa – Fun, technology and education

Welcome to the Insectbot Hexa assembling manual. Here you will learn how to put all the parts 
together and how to program the robot.

Note: 
If you got the Insectbot kit with already soldered Beetle/Beetle Shield and the light sensors/sensor 
holder then you can skip chapter 1 and the soldering parts of chapter 5 and 6

NOTE:
The Insectbot Hexa is not a toy but a way to learn how things work together. By assembling the 
Insectbot Hexa you will learn about some mechanical and electronic parts as well the procedures 
how to connect all the parts. 

IMPORTANT:
Please pay attention to the right polarity when connecting cables and the batteries to the robot. 
Wrong connections could lead top permanent damage of parts and may cause a fire.

IMPORTANT:
Work careful when handling the stainless steel wire. Make sure the wire will not bounce to prevent 
injuries of you or any bystanders. Wear protective leather gloves to prevent injuries by puncturing 
your fingers when bending the wires legs, attaching them to the servo arm and putting the rubber 
feet on them.

TIP:
To make the Insectbot Hexa walking properly you need to make sure that the legs are bent in the 
right angles and shapes. There is no example which angle and shape will work best since every 
robot is build by hand and may have a different center of weight. Try and re-try to bend the legs in 
different shapes and angles if the walking pattern does not satisfy you. 

TIP:
By changing the code for the light sensors you can make the robot either chasing light or avoiding 
light.

DISCLAIMER:
This manual is provided as it is. You may face some difficulties by assembling the robot but that's 
part of the plan. That Insectbot Hexa Kit is meant for education, so people learn how to solve minor
problems. However, if you cannot solve your problem then please do not hesitate to contact us for 
help.

December 2014
Author: Lutz Michaelis, Robotic Engineer at DFRobot
All content including pictures are copyright by DFRobot.com

Summary of Contents for Insectbot Hexa

Page 1: ... any bystanders Wear protective leather gloves to prevent injuries by puncturing your fingers when bending the wires legs attaching them to the servo arm and putting the rubber feet on them TIP To make the Insectbot Hexa walking properly you need to make sure that the legs are bent in the right angles and shapes There is no example which angle and shape will work best since every robot is build by...

Page 2: ...hield the side where these two mounting holes are located You need to solder the pins for D9 D10 D11 A0 A1 and A2 as well the two power pins labeled with and 2 Assembling the body Mount all three servos to the center piece in the order as shown in the images using the provided screws Make sure the cables are showing right direction and your servos are aligned and firmly attached so they do not get...

Page 3: ...r small pliers in order to bend them The front and the rear legs are bend in a V shape and the middle leg in an U shape The middle part of the legs needs to be bend again to make sure the legs get not jammed when the servo is moving See the picture for the shape ...

Page 4: ...t Wiki website at DFRobot com include Servo h creating the servo objects for front rear and mid servo Servo frontLeg Servo rearLeg Servo midLeg setting the servo angle to 90 for startup byte frontAngle 90 byte rearAngle 90 byte midAngle 90 Setup function void setup frontLeg attach 9 rearLeg attach 10 midLeg attach 11 move servos to center position 90 frontLeg write frontAngle rearLeg write rearAng...

Page 5: ...picture we put them in the opposite direction than in the other pictures Choose whatever you find more functional or better looking 5 Attaching the battery holders Before you attach the battery holders to the main robot body you will need to solder their power wires in series connection together Connect the red wire of one battery holder with the black wire of the other battery holder Refer to the...

Page 6: ...enter mounting piece Use one of the screws above in section 2 marked as mounting screw from the servos for each battery holder to secure it on the middle mounting piece 6 Attaching the sensor holder and the IR sensor Optional Solder the two LDR s also called photo resistors to the designated place on the sensor holder The two holes on the left and the right side of the sensor holder are labeled wi...

Page 7: ... the cable has a black plug The wire colors are Black Red Blue The Black wire connects to ground The ground pins are the pins on the outer edge of the shield The blue wire connects to the signal pin All signal pins on the shield are the ones which faces directly to the Beetle 8 2 Optional LDR s Connect the sensor cable with the sockets on the sensor holder and the other end with the Beetle shield ...

Page 8: ...of the servos is the following Front servo connects to D9 the rear servo to D10 and the middle servo to D11 Also here is the signal pin on the inside facing to the Beetle and the ground pin on the outside of the Beetle shield 8 4 Battery The last task is to connect the battery wires to the Beetle shield battery terminal Make sure the red wire is connected to and the black wire to ...

Page 9: ... Open the previous downloaded file insectbot_hexa_en ino and upload it to the Beetle Once it s done without errors the InsectBot Hexa is ready to take his first steps Illustration 1 Open the program file Illustration 2 Choose Leonardo as board Illustration 4 Upload the program by clicking on the white arrow button in the top Illustration 3 Choose the port this my be different on your computer ...

Page 10: ...just finished your own little robot You may keep it that way or you may even try to re program the Insectbot Hexa for your own experience and fun by DFRobot com Illustration 5 Once Done uploading is shown you are finished ...

Reviews: