CurieBot is a robot friend, so why not modify your bot to serve candy from a dispenser? That would be totally sweet!
The MotorShield on your CurieBot can be used to control not just DC motors, but also steppers and servos. We can run a small hobby servo from the shield to open an close the head of a candy dispenser.
It can be difficult to mount actuators (in this case, the servo) right at the joint, so we often use rigid or flexible linkages to actuate them remotely. In our case, we'll mount our servo at the base of the candy dispenser, and use some fishing line to transmit the rotation to the joint.
Prepare the candy dispenser by drilling a small hole in the top of its head so you can tie the filament on for the servo to tug.
Use a couple of pieces of double stick foam tape to mount the micro servo and candy dispenser to the top plate of CurieBot. You can also drill a small hole into the foot of the candy dispenser base and screw it in place on one of the robot's brass standoffs.
Mount the servo, tie the filament to one of the servo horn's holes.
Tie the filament to the dispenser's head so the line is taut when the servo is at its resting position and when rotated downward, as seen in the images.
Mini- or full-sized candy dispensers are a great base for this delivery mechanism, but the theme may leave something to be desired. Let's dress it up in papercraft Adabot styling!
Print out a copy of the Adabot papercraft head .pdf file linked below, and then cut out, fold, and glue or tape it into a nice, boxy robot head.
Affix the Adabot head to the candy dispenser with some blue tack or foam tape.
Plug the servo cable into the Servo 1 port on the MotorShield.
Open the Ada_CurieBot_RC_CandyServo sketch in the Arduino IDE, and then upload it to CurieBot.
Now, when you launch the control pad in Bluefruit LE you can press the "1" button to rotate the servo and serve candy!
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