Shelf Robot

Created: 2023-04-18

A robot with LED matrix eyes, that blinks and makes faces. The face is inspired by vintage Horikawa "fly-eye" toy robots. I was also inspired by the Elf-On-A-Shelf, with the long limbs that sit on a shelf well.

The body ended up being bigger than originally planned. I started with AAA batteries, but they got too hot and the voltage dropped quickly. I had rechargeable D batteries already, so I redesigned the body around those.

Inside

The front of the body is a piece that slots into the body with tabs on one end, and screws in on the other end. The switch is screwed into it. The switch and the LED matrices in the head plug into the main board with Dupont-style connectors. The battery pack also plugs in with a 2.54mm JST-style connector.

The original AAA design didn't use connectors or perf board. I experimented with the battery and boost circuit multiple different ways, so I decided it should be modular. The bus connections were just held together by the solder, which didn't hold up to any handling. By using perf board, I was able to connect them together more securely.