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Zobbie: Cute Hackable Pi Zero W Hexapod

By on March 3, 2019
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David Pride has taken a Tobbie robot toy and hacked it using some 3D-printed extra parts and a Raspberry Pi Zero. He’s used a ZeroBorg from PiBorg as the motor controller and then 3D-printed a replacement head to house the Raspberry Pi Zero, the ZeroBorg, a Pi camera and a Pimoroni Blinkt for eyes. Predictably now called “Zobbie”, it is a Raspberry Pi Zero W hexapod robot equipped with a Raspberry Pi for controller.

If you want to do it yourself, search for Tobbie on eBay or Amazon and be sure to have at home the following components:

– PiBorg ZeroBorg Motor Controller
– Raspberry Pi Zero W
– Pimoroni Blinkt – for moody eyes
– DC/DC converter
– PS3 Controller for manual control
– Pi Camera Module / OpenCV for autonomous control

David says about his project:

It took about 0.5 seconds of playing with the original to realise I was, of course going to have to see how we could improve on its abilities. It became really apparent that a Pi Zero, power, DC/DC regulator etc. weren’t going to fit inside that head… so it was going to have to go….

You have to ‘unbuild’ the kit almost all the way back to the start, this then allows for removal of the head which conveniently then just leaves the wires for the two motors exposed.

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About Luca Ruggeri

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