![herbie mousebot solarbotics img_7866](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7866-530x353.jpg)
I wanted a quick, easy to build robot kit to get back into electronics and robotics. I ask for a Herbie the Mouse Bot for Christmas and sure enough I got one. It was a fun kit to build and went together in a little over an hour.
You start off with a PC board…
… and a handful of components…
![img_7850 Herbie the Mousebot by Solarbotics](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7850-530x353.jpg)
You break apart the PC board which serves as a PC board and a body for the mouse which, is pretty cool.
![img_7848 Herbie the Mousebot by Solarbotics](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7848-530x353.jpg)
The PC boards join together via several solder joints. Tape is used to keep everything together until you are done soldering. A smaller board that holds the 9 volt battery connector helps keep the three main sides together. By the time you are done soldering all the joints it is a pretty sturdy little robot.
![Herbie the Mousebot by Solarbotics Herbie the Mousebot by Solarbotics](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7853-530x353.jpg)
![Herbie the Mousebot by Solarbotics Herbie the Mousebot by Solarbotics](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7854-530x353.jpg)
![img_7855 img_7855](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7855-530x353.jpg)
The whiskers and tail activate a relay when bumped so the mouse will backup to avoid getting stuck. I taped the relay down while I soldered it in.
![img_7859 img_7859](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7859-530x353.jpg)
Herbie with the photo diode “eyes” installed….
![img_7861 img_7861](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7861-530x353.jpg)
Herbie just about finished…
![img_7862 img_7862](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7862-530x353.jpg)
![img_7866 img_7866](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7866-530x353.jpg)
Herbie is an interesting robot because it uses a simple analog IC, the LM386, to do something you might think requires a much more complicated digital circuit or micro-controller/processor:
http://downloads.solarbotics.net/PDF/Solarbotics_Herbie_the_Mousebot_Instruction.pdf
![img_7868 img_7868](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7868-530x353.jpg)
![Herbie the Mousebot by Solarbotics Herbie the Mousebot by Solarbotics](http://www.markfosteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/img_7873-530x353.jpg)
We don’t have much open bare floor in the house and it moves quite fast so it was a bit of a challenge to keep it under control without hitting too much:
The Herbie Kit is well engineered and fun to assemble. I give it five stars and recommend it as a good first robot kit.
2 Comments
Add Yours →I was going to order a number of these for my grandsons. Are they still available Can’t find them
Gail
It looks like Solarbotics still has them here:
http://www.solarbotics.com/product/k_hm/