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Purchase an EggBot kit from Evil Mad Science Laboratories online, follow the instructions at http://wiki.evilmadscientist.com/The_Original_Egg-Bot_Kit to build it. Alternatively, if you're a real hacker, build one from scavenged printer parts.
Purchase a Raspberry Pi computer. In this guide, I used a Raspberry Pi model B with 512MB ram from Element 14 online.
Purchase a dozen large, extra large or jumbo eggs. Alternatively if you live on a farm, just collect them from the henhouse.
Test the Egg-Bot by connecting the USB port to your computer and running the EggBot extensions in Inkscape. The EggBot comes with a microcontroller board you will install on the headstock.
Now, free the EggBot from external computers! Mark out and drill 2 mounting holes for the Raspberry Pi in the tail stock of the EggBot. Be careful not to inhale the fiberglass dust from drilling.
Insert bolts through the 2 holes. I used some spare motherboard standoffs from another computer build.
Mount the Raspberry Pi on the bolts or standoffs you installed on the tailstock. For this build, we use the RCA jack for video out and The HDMI port should be several millimeters above the table surface. If you want to use the HDMI out for video you would need to install the pi rotated 180 degrees (upside down) instead.
Secure the Raspberry Pi to the EggBot by gently tightening nuts onto the bolts or standoffs. The RCA video jack will face up, offset from the spring-loaded egg cup axle. The Pi SD card faces front. The illustrated method uses the RCA video out on the Pi; if one wanted to use HDMI instead just flip the pi over and drill tailstock holes in the appropriate places (with the SD card facing the rear of the chassis). Mounting a Pi on the tailstock only allows one video out port (RCA or HDMI) to be feasibly used since the other will be facing the ground without clearance for a plug.
Connect a TV to the RCA output; connect a keyboard and mouse to one Pi USB port; connect the other Pi USB port to the EggBot's micro USB port; insert the Pi SD card; connect 5VDC Pi power source.
Install Inkscape with the terminal command "sudo apt-get install inkscape" (The Pi will need to be connected to your n twork via Ethernet for downloads). Install the EggBot extensions from EMSL.
With your Pi-powered EggBot connected to keyboard, mouse, and TV (but no external computer), decorate your eggs using the EggBot Inkscape extensions.
Share Your Decorated Eggs.
This video shows the entire process: Starting with an EggBot built from the Evil Mad Science Laboratories kit, we embed a Raspberry Pi Linux board into the EggBot. This required that we installed Inkscape, the eggbot extensions and VNC server software; next we installed VNC client app onto an iPad and an iPhone (only the iPad is shown in this video); We connect the USB from the Pi to the EggBot board and connect power to both boards; now we have an autonomous EggBot which needs no external computer, keyboard, mouse or monitor -- it is all controlled wirelessly from iPad or iPhone.
Step 14This video illustrates using Virtual Network Computing (VNC) to Control a Raspberry Pi with an iPhone. The Pi runs the Raspian Wheezy OS and has a VNC server installed by the terminal command "sudo apt-get install tightvncserver". The VNC server is configured to start automatically on Pi powerup by the following terminal commands:
"wget http://www.penguintutor.com/otherfiles/tightvncserver-init.txt" ;
"sudo mv tightvncserver-init.txt /etc/init.d/tightvncserver" ;
"sudo chown root:root /etc/init.d/tightvncserver" ;
"sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tightvncserver" ; and
"sudo update-rc.d tightvncserver defaults".
The iPhone becomes the VNC client by using the free app "Mocha VNC Lite". In this configuration, the Pi does not need an external monitor, keyboard or mouse -- all these functions are performed by the iPhone.
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