The video below shows the Wi-Fi Warthogs in action at PDC09!

InventGeek.com has painstakingly detailed all of their most excellent work that went into building this beauty, and while we have seen a paintball turret pop up over the years, none have even come close to such an elegant execution. Complete parts lists and even the ability to purchase the acrylic parts are available, so you too can build your very own “Zombie Repellent Paintball Turret” to fortify your “Post-Zombie Armageddon Costco Fortress” (dibs on the one by my office!).

I decided that my plain old white Bioloid was boring, so I started looking around for the best way to change his color scheme. The Bioloid brackets are pretty sturdy, and thus resistant to paint and markers. I found mixed results searching through on various experimenters success in dying their brackets, but I figured I would give it a shot.  After playing around with individual brackets I figured out the correct dye-water mixture, length of time, and heat, and it turned out even better than expected!

Here is a step by step tutorial detailing what it takes to get your Bioloid dyed a different color. I used black, but since the brackets are white I would assume that just about any color would work.

Note: Dye your brackets at your own risk! While I’m quite detailed in my instructions, I nor Trossen Robotics hold any responsibility if your brackets end up pink, or otherwise destroyed.

Here is my quick review here on the forums of this camera:

Image quality is mediocre, but good enough to view things at a max of 8-10 feet. Frame rate is 30+ and response time is in the 50ms range running the camera at 320×240.

Main board is 10cm x 5.5cm. Camera board is 5.5cm x 3cm and attaches to the main board at a right angle. It appears to be a 1mm spaced header pin port, so it could easily be extended for custom mounting solutions. Entire camera unit stripped down and including antenna weighs 91 grams. The antenna is a u.FL connection, so this could be replaced with a custom solution if needed.

Overall a solid little camera for the price. If you’re on a budget, this is about as good as it gets. Keep in mind for ‘competition’ performance, you’ll need to run it at 320×240, but that can be stretched. Image quality is enough to pilot and aim I would say, but I wouldn’t expect to read text with it. Definitely usable for Mech Warfare within 10-15 feet though. Oh and the IP web interface uses Java and/or Active X, so you could pull the control from it and add it into a custom form easily.

Here are some pictures! (click to enlarge)

Since we don’t care about the bulky exterior casing, here’s what it looks like stripped down:

And this is with the camera board removed:

He bought one of the cheap little toy Wall-E’s you find in toy stores now, but obviously was not impressed by its capabilities. He set out to make it his own, replacing the single motor with a handful of servos, hacking the voice chip, adding a custom PIC and sonar for autonomous navigation, and overall doing a fantastic job bringing this robot to life.

Here’s a video of the little guy in action. Make sure to check out his thread for some great photos of all of his work.