Sphero team hacks together an Android controlled blender
The Orbotix team has a history of
having a good time. These robotics professionals view taking things apart and
messing with them as downtime, which is one of the reasons their Sphero product
is so developer friendly. As the team celebrates 20 apps that interact with the
Sphero directly at CES this year, they felt it was necessary to demonstrate that
the hardware used in their little robots can do just about anything. To
accomplish this the team invited me to come to their booth and help hack a
Sphero onto a blender. Well, I say help, but really I just held tools for
Sphero founder Adam Wilson while he did all the work.
Since Sphero robots are sealed
within their plastic casing, the team used an early unit that had a clear and
removable casing. The important parts for this hack lie within the board that
controls the Sphero, which you can see in greater detail in our look inside the
ball last year.
There are several places on the
robot that generate enough power to activate the switch that will be soldered
on to the blender. The basic idea here is that when a command is given to the
Sphere from the Android phone, the robot would trip the switch, which would in
turn activate the blender. Once the best place was located, a pair of wires
were soldered in place. These wires were, in turn, connected to a switch that
would be used to turn the blender on once power was received. Once the Sphero
had been augmented, it was time for the blender.
It’s unlikely that most people will
attempt this hack using the same techniques, since most who order the $130
robot would rather play with it intact.
Sphero has had a great year, going
from a small company that had a cool product that most people weren’t quite
sure what to do with, to a platform full of apps and games. Despite the growth,
the company is clearly still all about having fun while working.
Photography by Chris Sewell
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